Thermoplastic Elastomer Polyolefin should be considered for weatherable applications. With the escalating price of ABS, now may be a good time to consider TPO as an alternative material choice.
In the past few years, TPO has been gaining acceptance as a thermoformable plastic for outdoor applications. It was close in price to Centrex / ABS as a weatheralble thermoplastic. With the rising price of ABS, TPO is now a more economical choice for outdoor applications.
TPO has extremely good weatherable properties. TPO has UV resistance inherent throughout the thickness of the sheet. Centrex / ABS has only a UV resistant top cap which is usually about 20% of the sheet thickness in that TPO is a olefin, it has high impact properties. Very important to outdoor applications is the fact that TPO's coefficient for thermal expansion and contraction is comparable to fiberglass. Hill Plastics has found that TPO forms similar to ABS in small to medium size sheets. The sag of the sheet when thermoforming larger size sheets may cause a problem with webbing.
No comments:
Post a Comment