Rejuvenated development efforts by producers sets Polycarbonate on the growth track

Polycarbonate (PC), the engineering polymer with excellent clarity and impact, is possibly the second largest engineering polymer, after Polyamides in this group.

Somehow, their growth seemed to taper off after the beginning of this century, possibly due to wider price fluctuations. In fact, expansion plans announced by major producers like GE and Bayer have not yet materialized. However, the material seems to have returned to a healthier growth potential. This growth seems to have been the result of very positive and concerted development efforts made by the two large producers, GE and Bayer.

In fact, both these companies have collaborated with each other to develop the difficult application of windshield for cars in place of glass. While PC has succeeded in application for windows for the sides, rear as well as the sunroof, windshield replacement is likely to take another 4-5 years.

Another interesting newer application is the use of PC film for external surface in automotive sector. This could help in elimination of painting process, thereby preventing pollution due to elimination of solvent emissions. This in-mould decoration technique could be gainfully used in other applications like cell phones, etc.

PC alloys with ABS and other thermoplastics have been very successful. The newer developments of alloying/blending with PP, aiming to seek wider applications in the interior of automobiles, could help in increasing the growth of PC. This type of blend would be quite economic, due to incorporation of PP.
Newer developments of higher storage capacity (going from 800 megabytes to as high as 25 gigabytes) could continue the dominance of PC for optical disks. Higher productivity due to faster cycle time (almost 2.5seconds) on PC CDs would also aid in the growth of PC.

GE, the largest PC producer has decided to spend significant resources to catalyze the growth. In fact, the recent display of Lexan PC at NPE 2003 in Chicago during June 2003 clearly shows that GE is very buoyant about the future of PC.

Will these efforts lead to the projected demand of about 3 million tonnes from less than 2 million in 2000?

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