ABS Plastic Sheet

ABS plastics offer a good balance of tensile strength, impact and abrasion resistance, dimensional stability, surface hardness, rigidity, heat resistance, low-temperature properties, chemical resistance, and electrical characteristics. These materials yield plastically at high stresses, so ultimate elongation is seldom significant in design; a part usually can be bent beyond its elastic limit without breaking, although it does stress-whiten. While not generally considered flexible, ABS parts have enough spring to accommodate snap-fit assembly requirements.

Impact properties of ABS are exceptionally good at room temperature and, with special grades, at temperatures as low as -40°F. Because of its plastic yield at high strain rates, impact failure of ABS is ductile rather than brittle. Also, the skin effect which, in other thermoplastics, accounts for a lower impact resistance in thick sections than in thin ones, is not pronounced in ABS materials. A long-term tensile design stress of 1,000 to 1,500 psi (at 73°F) is recommended for most grades.

General-purpose ABS grades may be adequate for some outdoor applications, but prolonged exposure to sunlight causes color change and reduces surface gloss, impact strength, and ductility. Less affected are tensile strength, flexural strength, hardness, and elastic modulus. Pigmenting the resins black, laminating with opaque acrylic sheet, and applying certain coating systems provide weathering resistance. For maximum color and gloss retention, a compatible coating of opaque, weather-resistant polyurethane can be used on molded parts. For weatherable sheet applications, ABS resins can be coextruded with a compatible weather-resistant polymer on the outside surface.

ABS resins are stable in warm environments and can be decorated with durable coatings that require baking at temperatures to 160°F for 30 to 60 min. Heat-resistant grades can be used for short periods at temperatures to 230°F in light load applications. Low moisture absorption contributes to the dimensional stability of molded ABS parts.

Molded ABS parts are almost completely unaffected by water, salts, most inorganic acids, food acids, and alkalies, but much depends on time, temperature, and especially stress level. FDA acceptance depends to some extent on the pigmentation system used. The resins are soluble in esters and ketones, and they soften or swell in some chlorineted hydrocarbons, aromatics, and aldehydes.

Suzhou Jufeng Plastics Co., Ltd. has every kinds of ABS sheets, such as R-C-Pentene ABS Sheet, R141b ABS Sheet, Antibiosis ABS Sheets, ABS Peel-Texture Sheets, r-UV ABS Sheets, Super-Gloss ABS Composite Sheets, etc.