Overview

The staren PC/GF, which is an engineering plastic made by adding glass fiber to polycarbonate(PC), has excellent mechanical properties, heat distortion temperature, and self-extingulshing characteristics. The incorporation of glass fiber into the PC matrix provides various advantages.

Since the type, length, and amount of glass fiber used in the manufacturing procedure produces significant material properties, a careful selection of the proper grade is recommended for the successful use of glass fiber reinforced PC.

Features

1) High Strength at Elevated Temperatures
Since staren PC/GF has a high tensile strength, flexural strength, and elastic modulus in a wide temperature range, it is possible to use this material at temperatures above 90℃.

2) High Impact Strength
The staren PC/GF has a high falling dart impact strength and notched impact strength in comparison with those of other glass fiber reinforced engineering plastics.

3) Improved Dimensional Stability
The staren PC/GF is the best choice for precision part molding because it shows very little molding shrinkage in comparison with other engineering plastics.

4) Improved Paintability
The staren PC/GF is safe to use with widely used paint thinners. In particular the SI-3109G grade of the staren PC/GF has the characteristics of a very strong paint adhesive strength leading to marked improvements in surface appearance.

5) Excellent Flame Retardant
Even without the addition of any flame retardants, the staren PC/GF has achieved flammability ratings of UL 94 V-1, 1/16") and V-0 rating of 1/4" and 1/8" due to the self-extinguishing nature of the base material PC.

Properties

1) Mechanical
a) Mechanical vs Temperature
Staren PC/GF has excellent mechanical properties in a wide range of temperatures, In articular, it can be used on broad applications as one of the representative engineering plastics due to its high tensile strength, flexural strength, impact strength, and good creep characteristics.

b) Mechanical vs glass fiber percentage.
It is important to select the final application purpose. The higher loading of glass fiber tends to provide increased tensile, flexural and Izod impact strength while showing a significant decrease in falling dart impact strength.

2) Thermal
a) Heat distortion temperature
The polycarbonate has glass transition temperature of 145~150℃ and corresponding heat distortion temperature of 130~140℃. The heat distortion temperature of the staren PC/GF is in the range of 144~148℃ depending on the percentage of glass fiber reinforced.

b) Flammability
The staren PC/GF has inflammability even though a flame retardant is not added. This is achieved by the flame retardant nature of the base material PC, which encourages its application on various electrical and electronic part.

c) Dimensional stability
The ypical mold shrinkage of staren PC/GF is in the range of 0.05~0.5% and the difference of 0.2~0.3% occurs between parallel and perpendicular flow directions. This phenomenon is mainly caused by the orientation of glass fibers to meet the flow direction, which should be considered when designing a mold. Additionally, the staren PC/GF is suitable for precision part molding since it has almost the same linear expansion coefficient as dicast aluminium parts.

3) Electrical
staren PC/GF is a reliable material which possesses good electrical insulation properties, it also features high thermal stability and humidity resistance levels. Moreover, a high insulation break voltage and volume resistivity of 1016Ω are major factors regrading electrical properties.

4) Chemical
Care must be taken in handling the staren PC/GF because it may swell or dissolve in alkali, aromatic hydrocarbon or chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbon while it is generally stable in water, alcohol, oil, salt, or weak acid. Caution is also recommended because its chemical resistance may vary depending on the temperature and stress.