Covestro Makrolon Polycarbonate Sheets offering light weight and break resistance

Polycarbonate plastic products offer a unique balance of useful features including high temperature resistance, impact resistance and optical properties position polycarbonates in between commodity plastics and engineering plastics.
Polycarbonate is definitely a high quality material. Although it features very high impact-resistance, it has minimal scratch-resistance and so a hard coating can be applied to polycarbonate eye wear and polycarbonate exterior auto components. The characteristics associated with polycarbonate are generally like those of common Acrylic materials, and yet polycarbonate is going to be stronger, it is usable in a wider temperature range and is a bit more expensive. This plastic polymer is highly transparent to visible light and it has better light transmission characteristics than several types of glass.
Polycarbonate has a glass transition temperature of about 150 °C (302 °F), consequently it softens gradually above this point and flows above about 300°C (572 °F). Tools ought to be held at warm to high temperatures, generally above 80 °C (176 °F) for making strain- and almost stress free products.
Unlike most other thermoplastics, polycarbonate can undergo large changes in basic shape without breaking or cracking. For this reason, it is sometimes processed and formed   at room temperature using sheet metal techniques, such as forming bends on a brake. For even sharp angle bends having a tight radius, no heating is generally necessary. This makes it useful for prototyping applications where transparent or electrically non-conductive parts are necessary, which cannot be produced from sheet metal. Be aware that PMMA/Plexiglas, which happens to be similar in appearance to polycarbonate, but is brittle and can't be bent at room temperature.
Polycarbonate is often used in eye protection, and also in other projectile-resistant optical type applications that would normally indicate the use of glass, but require higher impact-resistance. Many different types of lenses are produced from polycarbonate, including automotive headlamp lenses, lighting lenses, sunglass/eyeglass lenses, swimming and SCUBA goggles, and safety visors for use in sporting helmets/masks and police riot gear. Windscreens in small motorized vehicles are normally made up of polycarbonate, such as for motorcycles, ATVs, golf carts, and small planes and helicopters.

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