Category Archives: Technical

In the last post we discussed how stresses in Polycarbonate can cause the material to become Anisotropic and exhibit Birefringent properties. Light waves parallel to the stress direction will travel through the sheet at a different speed than the light waves perpendicular to the stress direction. It is possible to visualize the stresses in the […]

One question that we are often asked about Polycarbonate is what causes the rainbow effect patterns on coated sheet and how can they be eliminated. The answer is not simple and we will need to answer the question over three posts. There is also a lot of confusion in the industry about what causes the […]

We are often asked about the difference between bullet resistant windows installed in 24hrs stores or banks and the transparent armor used by the military.  The bullet resistant windows in convenience stores and banks are often made of cell cast acrylic sheet or a combination of acrylic and Polycarbonate. They are often about 1.25″ to […]

Polycarbonate sheet is extruded by large production lines. The more specialty lines typically extrude 3,000 lbs/hr, while commodity lines extrude 5,000-10,000 lbs/hr. For some of the large lines, if they take ten minutes to change dimensions, they could easily generate over 1,000 lb of off specification material, which will either need to be recycled or scraped. Non-standard […]

Polycarbonate sheet readily absorbs moisture from the air. Eventually the water content will reach 0.2% by weight.  In most applications this water content is not a problem, however, in applications where you need to process the sheet above a temperature of 250F, this water can vaporize within the sheet during processing and lead to small […]

Electronics systems can cause problems by emitting electromagnetic radiation or they can fail to perform due to electromagnetic radiation in the environment. This electromagnetic radiation is often a combination of noise and information.Leakage of information can be of great concern in applications requiring secure communication. Emissions of electromagnetic radiation can interfere with other systems and may have […]

One statement that we often hear is that Polycarbonate is “bullet-proof”. There are two problems with this statement; the first is that a single Polycarbonate sheet by itself should not be used to stop bullets as it really offers very little protection. The second problem is subtle, materials constructed from Polycarbonate are not bullet-proof but rather bullet-resistant; […]

One question that we are often asked is how can two Polycarbonate sheets be bonded together?  At HighLine Polycarbonate we are mainly involved in producing Polycarbonate sheets with a wide range of high tech properties. We only engage in a limited amount of fabrication which includes routing of the sheets into finished part shapes.  We […]