Are you thinking about the materials you need for your next project? Polycarbonate sheeting should be on your list because it is a famous engineering thermoplastic for many projects. Polycarbonates are tough, stiff, durable, lightweight, and moldable thermoplastics loved by many who know their value.
Polycarbonates can maintain toughness till low as 20 degrees Celsius and remain rigid until 140 degrees Celcius, and sometimes even lower. The material has 250 times more impact resistance than glass. It is amorphous, showing great dimensional stability and perfect mechanical properties. Polycarbonates also display unmatched tensile strength.
How many types of polycarbonates are there?
There are countless types of polycarbonates, but we will look into some most popular types, which are outlined below:
- Abrasion-resistant polycarbonate;
- Antistatic polycarbonate;
- Bulletproof polycarbonate;
- Clear polycarbonate;
- Tinted/colored polycarbonate.
What is polycarbonate sheeting, and what are its uses?
It is simply polycarbonate created into a sheet through blow molding, injection molding, foam molding, vacuum forming, or extrusion.
Polycarbonate sheet is very versatile due to its flexible nature, lightweight, and durability.
It can be used in various markets, especially in lighting and appliance, electronic, automotive, business machine, glazing, medical, and optical media markets.
Here are a few out of many ways to apply polycarbonate sheeting:
- Bus shelters
- Canopies
- Conservatories
- Curved and Industrial Roof lights
- Covered walkways
- Displays
- Gym mirrors
- Insulation
- Medical Applications
- Mobile phones
- Power distribution
- Signage
- Sporting Goods
- Swimming Pool covers
- Traffic Lights
- Vehicle Dashboards
- Vertical glazing
Types of polycarbonate sheeting for roofing
When it comes to roofing, polycarbonate sheeting comes in multiwall, twinwall, corrugated, and solid sheets.
Twinwall and multiwall are the most commonly used polycarbonates. They are great for conservatories, vertical glazing, displays, roof lights, insulation, swimming pool covers, etc.
Corrugated polycarbonate sheets can be bent or folded into your design. It can be a layer on top of other sheets making it easy to fit in pieces of your roofing sheets. You can use them for signage, glazing, DIY, greenhouse, swimming pools, etc.
Solid polycarbonate sheets create solid, thick, and unbreakable roofing. It is great for bus shelters, protective screens, vertical glazing, doors and windows, riot shields, etc.
Solid polycarbonate sheets have two-sided UV protection, transparency, and are ideal for helmets, balustrades, skylights, and security glazing.
According to Colorado state university weather forecast, South Florida will face about 17 named storms like hurricanes and tropical storms starting from June. A great way to protect your windows from danger during these storms is to install storm panels or hurricane panels from polycarbonate.
Hurricane panels are affordable, removable, and provide extra security. A storm panel sits in between your interior and outside and protects you from burglary and damage.
Advantages of polycarbonate sheeting
Some advantages of polycarbonate sheeting are chemical protection, impact and strength resistance, abrasion resistance, flammability, and heat resistance. They also have UV protection, transparency, recyclability, and workability.
Because multi-wall polycarbonate sheets have multiple layers, they offer good sound and thermal insulation.