Polycarbonate had earned the tag as the the most suitable material to use within the automotive industry. However, in recent times, Polymethyl Methacrylate, the PMMA polymer or commonly known acrylic plastic, has efficiently risen to the growing demands with the automotive industry in replacing polycarbonate for the best important used in a, namely, automotive glazing.
Long established to use in a number of vehicle applications such as decorative trim, ambient lighting and door entry strips, automotive glazing is one kind of those fields offering the very best growth potential for PMMA.
Related key popular features of acrylic plastic that make it perfect for the entire process of automotive glazing are discussed below.
Light weight
To produce a comparison on a standard level, PMMA is half the load and much more transparent than glass, thereby providing superior visibility even just in the truth of fluctuating and unstable temperatures. Owing to its molecular structure, thermoformed acrylic glass are now used almost exclusively for car window glazing where each of the necessary requirements for light-weight materials which can be safe, very easy to process and perform in every weathers are met.
At the top of Scratch Resistance
Another essential requirement of glazing is scratch resistance. Standard PMMA already gets the highest surface hardness of thermoplastics regardless if uncoated. However, for automotive glazing, you will find stringent conditions being fulfilled to satisfy the perfect state of scratch resistance. The effective use of a coating is therefore mandatory. Since PMMA is intrinsically UV and also weathering-resistant, a single-step coating is useful. As opposed, thermoplastics who have low potential to deal with weathering require a two-step coating system. This brings about relatively expensive for coating.
New design possibilities
PMMA glazing is 40 to 50 percent lighter than conventional glass, which piques a person’s eye of automobile manufacturers. Together with the advantages being immediately obvious, PMMA has become viewed as the right fit for automotive glazing. Weight savings apart, the transparency of acrylic plastic in addition to its quite high weathering resistance, pleasant acoustic properties, and exceptional form ability allow freedom enabling entirely new design possibilities.
Less negative feelings birefringence
PMMA exhibits hardly any stress birefringence and this works as a major benefit over other thermoplastics such as polycarbonate, that has been primarily useful for glazing during the past. In comparison with traditional materials such as polycarbonate, moulded PMMA, provides a distinct possibility of functional integration – reducing recess depth and assembly costs.
Environment-friendly
The modern goal within the automotive companies are to develop clean low fuel consumption vehicles. In the awareness along with the need for eco-friendly initiatives in the current general scheme of things, PMMA works as a perfect option to glass within the automotive glazing segment. As vehicle manufacturers push the bounds of design, so too is automotive glazing evolving.
SUMIPEX® PMMA polymer offers characteristics that meet the latest challenges within the transportation sector. It’s a monumental challenge for car makers that are looking for to sit in recent environmental requirements and so are thinking of alternatives that reduce greenhouse gas and save fuel. It does not take perfect partner with this movement given it tends to make cars lighter.
Like a leading manufacturer of SUMIPEX® PMMA polymer, Sumitomo Chemical is pleased to work with you to understand its properties and how it suitable to automotive glazing.
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