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Clear Plastic Guards

Clear Plastic Guards – Covers – Shrouds – Screens – Windows

When choosing your type of Plastic for your Clear Plastic Guard or similar, careful consideration should be taken. For example; is it for impact safety, splash resistance, display protection only , sneeze guard, corner cover or just a simple viewing window. These are just some of the questions you may have to consider when deciding on the correct plastic for the job.

Transparent, Clear Plastic Guard Materials in Brief

Click the links for in depth descriptions.

PETG offers good impact strength, excellent thermoforming and fabrication characteristics, and excellent resistance to chemicals. Easily cut, sawn, drilled, routed and bent. Not scratch resistant unless coated via a secondary opp. Technical term is Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol.
Polycarbonate, commonly known by the manufacturer’s names of Makrolon GP® and Lexan sheet®. Combining high impact and temperature resistance with optical clarity. Easily cut, sawn, drilled, routed and bent. Polycarbonate is also an excellent candidate for fabricating to use in a wide range of applications. Not scratch resistant unless coated via a secondary opp. Much stronger impact resistance than Acrylic, PVC or PETG.

Lexan Fabrication - Polycarbonate Fabrications - Plastic Fabrication

Experienced Plastic Fabricators – Machined and Assembled Polycarbonate Covers

Acrylic – Data Acrylic is a plastic material with outstanding optical clarity. Acrylic sheet is easy to fabricate, bonds well with adhesives and solvents, and is easy to thermoform. Extremely popular for retail display. Easily cut, sawn, drilled, routed and bent. The better choice for scratch resistance but offering far less impact strength. The technical name is Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and it comes in Extruded or Cast forms. The price of acrylic is cheaper than Polycarbonate and PETG.

PVC has good hardness and mechanical properties, Good electrical insulating properties, Very high chemical & moisture resistance. Equally PVC has excellent forming characteristics, dimensional stability, bondable, self-extinguishing and importantly compared to others fairly inexpensive. Easily cut, sawn, drilled, routed and bent. Not scratch resistant unless coated via a secondary opp. Also loses out against PETG and Polycarbonate on impact resistance. Technically known as Polyvinyl Chloride.

Transparent, Clear Plastic Guard Materials – Some Typical uses.

PETG – Food guarding, its high level of chemical resistance lends it perfectly for use with foodstuffs and in the medical and pharmaceutical sectors.
Polycarbonate – Is highly suited to high protection situations, interior and exterior. Machine guards, vehicle safety screens, Impact guards, Security windows.
Acrylic (Perspex) – Well known for its display preferences. Photo framing, retail display, decorative lighting, lenses, low impact shields, signs and signage, trophies and awards, decorations and jewellery.
PVC Is also commonly used for very similar instances to Acrylic but does not retain the same clarity over time. Signage, fume cabinets, industrial applications, point of sale and finally poster covers.

Sentinel

Machine Guards are most commonly made from Polycarbonate, PETG, Acrylic or Clear PVC.

The close tolerance machinability, transparency and sheer toughness of Polycarbonate make it the ideal material for machine guards. Polycarbonate is available in both general purpose and FDA grades when food contact is a concern. Polycarbonate is also inherently self-extinguishing and can carry a V-0 flame test rating. PETG guards can also be FDA approved and when chemical resistance is a priority.

Clear is the dominant color, but, all of the materials listed above are also available in varying grades of smoke/grey/bronze shades if that is desired.

Plastic Fabricators – Fabricating PETG Guards and Covers.

Plastic Machine Guards

We machine, bend, glue and weld using Polycarbonate, PET-G and Acrylic’s to customer specification, manufacturing robust guards with high visibility that can let you see the product being made and gives you the protection from moving parts.

A high proportion are made from polycarbonate which gives good visibility and strength for protection. Sentinel fabricate in different materials depending on their suitability, polycarbonates, acrylic and PET-G.

PET-G which has a class 1 fire rating has a similar quality to polycarbonate.

We are extremely versatile and are here to help with any requirements you may have. Our team are highly knowledgeable and able to provide valuable assistance and advice appropriate to the manufacture of your Plastic Machine Guards.

Polycarbonate Machining

While watching our CNC Routing Machines today I realised Four of the Five were Cutting Polycarbonate machining ( Makrolon – Lexan ).

CNC Routing Polycarbonate -Lexan -Makrolon

Makrolon – Lexan- Polycarbonate

Polycarbonate Machining -Lexan -Makrolon

With its high transparency and smooth surface, Clear Polycarbonate Machining is an attractive material for a wide range of applications. Offering extreme impact resistance, even at temperatures down to -100°C. Unlike Acrylic, which requires heat to form, Polycarbonate sheets can be CNC Routed and cold-bent.

As a company Sentinel Plastics has become synonymous with Polycarbonate machining and fabrication. Within Industry Polycarbonate is the most popular choice of plastic when it comes to a requirement of strength and ultimately safety. While in its sheet form it is extremely impact resistant. For interior applications up to 6 mm thickness Polycarbonate has a B1 fire protection for classification.

Applications:

Especially relevant parts manufactured by Polycarbonate machining are machine covers, Glazing for schools and factories, Warehouse doors. Consequently a popular material. Widely used for Industrial vehicles and Lamp covers. Where a high level of heat is generated, being highly fire-resistant, versions exist for the use in Switch cubicles, electrical equipment.
Other uses for Polycarbonate are Trade fair structures, Public buildings. Within Industry, the clear plastic of choice is Polycarbonate. Hence the popularity and wide use as safety guards.

A UV coating can be applied to the surface of the smooth or textured polycarbonate sheets. Solid sheets retain their shine with no yellowing, nor change of color. The positive effect in applying a protective coating is that you are increasing the resistance to long-term weathering, which thus provides a long service life.

Polycarbonate Machined Parts Available in:

Transparent clear and white translucent. Also available in bronze, grey, green, blue.

Available grades:

1: Polycarbonate sheet / FG food grade
2: Solid polycarbonate sheet / FR flame retardant
3: polycarbonate sheet / NR non reflective
4: Outstanding through reinforced UV protection.

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Some information gathered from Bayer – Read more here https://www.bayersheeteurope.com/50/Products/Makrolon.htm