ABS Plastic – ABS/PC

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene or ABS plastic is a very impact resistant material (bumps) widely used in automotive and other industrial and domestic uses. It is an amorphous thermoplastic.

SIt is called engineering plastic, because it is a plastic whose processing and processing is more complex than polylefins (Polyethylene, Polypropylene).

The most important feature of ABS plastic is its great tenacity, even at low temperature (it remains tenacious at -40 ° C). It is also hard and rigid; acceptable chemical resistance; low water absorption, therefore good dimensional stability; Abrasion high resistance; It is coated with a metal layer easily.

The ABS and the ABS + PC more commonly known as “blend” are two materials of wide use.

The ABS plastic can, in one of its variants, chromate by electrolysis giving it different metal baths to which it is receptive.

MOST COMMON USES OF PLASTIC ABS

ABS is commonly used in applications such as:

• Automotive: Chromed parts, internal parts in the garments and interiors and external parts painted in body color. For unpainted parts the ASA is used.
• : Blocks of LEGO and Airsoft, plastic pieces of almost all BANDAI action figures.
• Electronics: As housings for televisions, radios, computers, mice, printers.
• Office: In staplers and drills

They can be used in alloys with other plastics. For example, ABS with PVC gives a plastic with high resistance to flame (flame retardant) that allows it to find wide use in the construction of plasma screens and can also be added PTFE to reduce its coefficient of friction, or compounds halides to increase its resistance to fire.

They can be found in natural or additives with fiberglass which allows to give more resistance and / or rigidity. The use of different compounds allows to obtain components with a high resistance to UV and / or flame retardants.