General features of plastic materials

Compared to crystal polystyrene, that belongs to the same family, it’s a more technical material and has a chemical resistance and temperature stability undoubtedly better. Products made of ABS are light and have a good rigidity grade. The most important mechanical properties are the high impact resistance and toughness also at low temperatures, hardness and scratch resistance. ABS is not autoclavable.

It’s a particularly transparent and bright material. It’s rigid and hard but also rather fragile and subject to breakages. It is insensitive to moisture, steady at saline solutions, alkali, non oxidizing acids, aqueous chemical agents, but it has a very limited resistance to solvents. It’s necessary to take into consideration that PS products, at ambient temperature, are particularly rigid and therefore they can crack or break in case they fall down from a laboratory bench or from higher heights. PS is not autoclavable.

It’s a very light resin, transparent (90% of transmittance of visual light) and very hard, with good mechanical properties. PMP resists to concentrated sulfuric acid, acetone, ethanol, mineral acids, strong and weak acids, strong and weak alkaline solutions, inorganic salts, aldehydes, alcohols, detergents, oils, fats and boiling water. It’s, with a limited extent, steady to ketones. It has an optimal resistance to high temperatures (it can be repeatedly autoclaved both at +121 ºC and at +150 ºC). Its excellent transparency, rigidity, chemical and high temperature resistance make this material the most similar one to glass.

It has good insulating properties and it is light, practically unbreakable, with an optimal dimensional and chemical stability. Solvent resistant, at ambient temperature no substance is able to melt PE. PE is not autoclavable.

It’s an extremely versatile polymer, light, translucent, unbreakable, with an optimal mechanical resistance, but at the same time it’s flexible. It has a good heat resistance (it can be repeatedly autoclaved at +121 ºC) and an optimal dimensional stability. Optimal chemical resistance to solvents (at ambient temperature no solvent is able to melt it), to moisture, oils.

PMMA is hard, rigid, quite fragile but extremely abrasion resistant (scratch resistant), it has high flexibility, it is stable to UV rays, but easily inflammable. PMMA has a good impact strength, higher than that of glass, but significantly lower than that of polycarbonate. Thanks to its optical properties, this plastic material is the most similar to glass. PMMA is not autoclavable.

It is as transparent as glass and very bright. In the thermal gap between -150 ºC and +135 ºC it resists to impact and it has high rigidity and solidity. It has a high dimensional stability as well as a remarkable resistance to rupture under stress. It has optimal optical properties and high UV resistance. PC resists to weak acids, mineral acids, halogens, aliphatic hydrocarbons, gasoline, fats, oils, water under +70 ºC and to alcohols except for methilic alcohol. It can be sterilized in autoclave at + 121 ºC for 20 minutes.

It’s the most resistant and rigid thermoplastic material and it has an optimal dimensional stability since it absorbs little moisture. It has a good mechanical resistance and an elevated hardness that gives an excellent abrasion and wear resistance. It has an excellent chemical resistance to organic solvents, weak acids, alkali, carburants, mineral oils, decalcifying solutions and solvents. Raw materials particularly suitable for pathologycal anatomy and histology Devices.

It’s commonly known as Teflon®. It’s smooth, a little rigid and solid, tough and flexible at low temperatures. Its advantages are withstanding wide temperature ranges (it gets weak at temperature lower than -260 °C), universal chemical resistance, insoluble in all solvents below + 300 °C, resistant to atmospheric agents, exceptional heat stability (noninflammable) and anti-adhesive properties.

Normally silicone rubber is very flexible, resists to ageing, chemical attacks and oxidation, is an excellent electrical insulator and has optimal non-stick properties. It resists to very high temperatures, up to +180 °C for long lasting use and up to +250 °C for short lasting use in warm and dry ambient. SI products are not autoclavable because steam attacks rubber starting from a temperature of +100 °C. SI is biocompatible, inert, neither toxic nor inflammable.