Main materials currentlyfor housing products cover PC, ABS, and ABS +ＰC, while Japan prefers to use PC+ABS. Korea used PC earlier and GE used PC+ABS earlier, in addition to PC recently. It is a trend that PC becomes popular in the field. Chart 1 indicates general properties of several materials:

Local makers using PC material for housing products faced problems in painting due to adhesion problems of paints before importing prepared paints from Korea. Lately as there is a breakthrough in injection technique and paints development, ratio of Pc housing products keep rising in global markets. Plastics are available in general level, humidity resistant level, impact resistant level, flame retardant level, and electroplating level in terms of usages.

1 PC

PC or scientific name of polycarbonate has the property of:

High strength, tensile strength, 69MPa;

High temperature resistant, durable, good for environment in 130 degrees Centigrade;

Good transparency, nontoxic

Material color matching and surface paing are inferior to ABS.

PC with high fluidity is preferred. Suitable for housing products used in harsh environment.

2 ABS

ABS( propylene — butadiene — styrene copolymer ) material property：

Low strength, tensile strength is 43MPa, and bending strength is 79MPa.

Not temperature resistant, temperature should not be over 60 degrees C.

Fair in fluidity, coloingr, painting and in plating..

3 PC+ABS

The synthetic material of PC+ABS has the property of excellent processing performance, fluidity, and higher strength (tensile strength of 56MPa, bending strength of 96MPa) of the prior two matrials. PC+ABS is mainly used to housing products that are highly required of appearances and colors but environments.

Material Selection as per Structural Features:

PC+ABS is preferred for products of stronger structural force, thicker walls, and complicate shapes. PC is better for products of simple structures, or insufficient in strength.

Material Selection as per Painting Colors of Appearance:

ABS is better for products needing electroplating.

PC is preferred for housing products used in harsh environments (low temperature, shocking, impacting).