Polycarbonate products have a balance of useful features including temp resistance, impact resistance and optical properties position polycarbonates in between commodity plastic materials and engineering plastic materials.
Polycarbonate is definitely a tough material. Although it has outstanding impact-resistance, it’s got lower scratch-resistance and thus a hard coating is often applied to polycarbonate eye protection lenses as well as polycarbonate exterior vehicle equipment. The properties relating to polycarbonate are generally comparable to those of Acrylic PMMA materials, except polycarbonate is undoubtedly stronger, it is usable in a wider temperature range and is a bit more expensive. This plastic polymer is highly transparent to visible light and has better light transmission characteristics than many different types of glass.
Polycarbonate has a glass transition temperature of about 150 °C (302 °F), as a result it softens slowly above this point and flows above about 300°C (572 °F). Tools are required to be held at high temperatures, generally above 80 °C (176 °F) to help make strain- and stress-free products.
Unlike most other thermoplastics, polycarbonate can undergo dramatic shape changes without cracking. Therefore, it could be processed and formed   without needing to be heated using sheet metal techniques, which include forming bends on a brake. For even sharp angle bends having a tight radius, no heating is usually necessary. This makes it useful for prototyping applications where transparent or electrically non-conductive parts are necessary, which can’t be crafted from sheet metal. Understand that PMMA/Plexiglas, that is certainly similar in looks to polycarbonate, but is brittle and can’t be bent with out a heating process.

The light weight of polycarbonate, unlike glass, has led to growth and development of electronic touch screens that replace glass materials with polycarbonate, for use in mobile and portable devices. Such displays include newer e-ink and a few LCD screens, though CRT, plasma screen and other LCD technologies still generally require glass for its higher melting temperature and the ability to be etched in finer detail.
Other miscellaneous items fabricated from Polycarbonate include durable, lightweight luggage, MP3/digital audio player cases, computer cases, police riot shields, instrument panels, and blender jars. Many toys and hobby products are made of polycarbonate parts, e.g. fins, gyro mounts, and flybar locks for use with radio-controlled helicopters.
For use in applications exposed to weathering or UV-radiation, a special surface treatment maybe needed. This either can be a coating (e.g. for improved abrasion resistance), or perhaps the coextrusion for enhanced weathering resistance.
Bayer Makrolon Polycarbonate is a thermoplastic that at the beginning, starts as a solid material in the form of small pellets. In a manufacturing process called injection molding, the pellets are heated until they melt in to a thick liquid. The melted liquid polycarbonate is then rapidly injected into the mold – shaped like the part, compressed under high pressure and cooled to produce a finished product in a matter of minutes.

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