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**GordMay** · 17-04-2008, 02:05

Do not use any alcohol or ammonia-based cleaners on plastics such as either acrylic or polycarbonate.

hellosailor · 17-04-2008, 15:15

Wheels-
"Windex" brand is probably the premium glass cleaner in the US, and while they make a dozen flavors, they are quite specific that using "Windex" on plexi or acrylics in general is specifically not recommened. Apparently there is enough ammonia in the product (at least, in the standard blue flavor) so that there is a potential problem with the plastic, which is never supposed to meet ammonia or petrochemicals.

Personally--I've used "glass" cleaners on all sorts of plastics for years without ever seeing a problem, but the folks who make both products say "no". FWIW.

Maybe I just don't clean things often enough to damage them?[vbg]

15 tons per square yard...1.666 tons per square foot...a paltry 23 pounds per square inch?!

**Alan Wheeler** · 18-04-2008, 03:09

Quote:

.a paltry 23 pounds per square inch?!

21lbs is what brought down the building in the Oklahoma bombing.
I have used glass cleaners for years on acrylic. And i have used solvents to take the glue stuff off from the protective paper when it got stuck on. I have never had a problem either. But OK, if they say no, they are supposed to know about their product.

delmarrey · 18-04-2008, 11:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan Wheeler

21lbs is what brought down the building in the Oklahoma bombing.

It's a good thing that boats have a much higher building code!!!

**GordMay** · 18-04-2008, 12:43

Canada is about to ban Polycarbonate Bay Bottles:
Canada to ban polycarbonate baby bottles: Scientific American

S/V Elusive · 18-04-2008, 16:08

Also, as an FYI/FWIW: Do NOT use Windex on your LCD Screens (computer or chart plotter or instrument / radar display). Use a 50% isopropyl alcohol and distilled water solution. Always use a soft CLOTH to clean and wipe with - do NOT use paper towels or paper products.

I work for a company that repairs LCDs.

**Benjamaphone** · 22-04-2008, 07:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by GordMay

Canada is about to ban Polycarbonate Bay Bottles:
Canada to ban polycarbonate baby bottles: Scientific American

Yea, this has become quite the issue up here, eh Gord? From what I've heard, this is only going to apply to specific food and baby products that put children and babies at risk. Apparently, the concentration that would leach out would be negligible for an adult but could pose a danger to the young. You see places like The Bay removing all of their polycarbonate baby bottles and food containers lined with the substance. For building materials this isn't an issue because rarely do we serve dinner on hatches

Zach · 22-04-2008, 09:49

I spent a few years working in a plastics extrusion factory.

Acrylic and Polycarbonate (lexan) were two of the materials we extruded into tubes.

The notched Izod means that any scratch, scuff or point which the surface has been marred when flexed will yield a stress riser. To say that differently, any imperfection is where all the stress is focused.

A perfect unmarred piece of acrylic will withstand lots of pressure, jump on it, bend it over a table top and nothing happens. Take a box cutter and pass it across the surface once and apply pressure... snap. A scratched piece of acrylic is as good as already cracked. Do the same thing to a piece of polycarbonate and you'll still be pushing and pulling tomorrow.

What we are saying is that acrylic is brittle. It does not give, it cracks. Drop an acrylic tube on a concrete floor and scuff it up, and cut it with a chop saw and it will explode. (Better be wearing some polycarbonate safety glasses.) An unmarred tube right off the line will cut like butter.

Polycarbonate flexes, it is tough... tough... stuff. Grinding polycarbonate scrap is like grinding rocks. A three phase 5 horse power motor spinning a massive foot wide, 10 inch diameter double bladed cutter will spit 2 inch wide chunks back out, and take twice the time of anything else.

Another kink in the plan for incredible materials, is that the molecular structure of extruded sheet is oriented long ways. This means that the plastic is stronger when stretched in one direction than the other. Cast sheet, where the pellets have been heated to a high enough temperature that they "forget" their memory of being pellet, and cross link with each other randomly makes for a stronger average in all directions.

When plastic deformation happens with polycarbonate, it hazes over and turns white at the point that has deformed. Plastic deformation is where a material is stretched far enough that it does not return to the same shape when pressure is released. Polycarbonate cracks, along point loads that have caused plastic deformation.

I'm comfortable that a 1/2 inch piece of polycarbonate is stronger than the 1/4 inch of dry polyester laminate of mat and finishing cloth that is the side of my cabin!

hellosailor · 22-04-2008, 13:10

And the bitch of it is, for Nalgene, that they used to make their bottles and earned their rep with other plastics. Polycarbonate is something fairly recent for them. i was told they originally used nylon but I remember something like a polythene (as the Brits call it) for the stuff I first saw from them.

I don't think there's any polycarbonate in soda bottles, they're sometimes recycled into "fleece" clothing IIRC.

MidLandOne · 23-04-2008, 14:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zach

I spent a few years working in a plastics extrusion factory.

You're not the same guy who spent a few years working as a baggage handler for an airline and so claims he can now fly Boeing 747's are you?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zach

I'm comfortable that a 1/2 inch piece of polycarbonate is stronger than the 1/4 inch of dry polyester laminate of mat and finishing cloth that is the side of my cabin!

In most instances, the allowable thickness of the panes in portlights and hatches, whether glass, acrylic or polycarbonate, is considerably less than the panel thickness of the plating of the boat. That is because while they are not as strong as fibre reinforced plastic, for example, the minimum unsupported dimension of the portlight pane is much less than the minimum unsupported dimension of the hull or topsides plating between longitudinals and frames (it is the minimum dimension that determines the stress to be designed for).

An exception is for steel and aluminium boats where the strength of the hull and topsides plating allows very small plating thicknesses to be used (the minimum driven mainly by construction issues rather than stress).