Processing criteria for choosing your Xantar® grade

Polycarbonates do not flow as easily as crystalline materials such as polyamides and polyesters. Higher flow grades are available but ductility, toughness and stress crack resistance all reduce as flow increases. To find the optimum balance of mechanical and process properties, consult your DSM applications engineer.

Because flow is so dependent on molecular weight, material consistency from lot-to-lot and within lots determines the regularity of production, production run set up times and control checks during runs.
•  Almost all Xantar® batches are post-blended to give the highest possible consistency within a production lot
•  Our production equipment is configured to allow the viscosity of each production run to be fine tuned so that every Xantar grade has unrivalled lot-to-lot consistency
•  Quality and continuous improvement is secured by quality systems like TQM, ISO9001, QS9000
•  Standard Xantar polycarbonates have excellent natural colour and high colour stability and are also easily coloured in-line during processing.

•  Careful selection of the right grade is required to balance processability with part performance needs
•  Thinner walled sections will require higher flow grades to fill the part without using excessive injection pressures. For these types of applications, blends or modified grades may be preferable as flow is improved and especially impact performance is maintained.
•  Stability during processing is not a problem provided the material is properly predried before molding (<0.03% moisture absorbed)  (see drying recommendations in right hand column of this page)
DownloadXantar Processing guide

Xantar C makes injection moulding with PC/ABS blends easier. It is a clean, pure product with low level of impurities compared to other PC/ABS blends. This leads to
• high colour stability for in-line colouring with masterbatches, simplifies logistics and reduces inventory
• significantly lower levels of mould deposit; reduces mould cleaning frequency, raise machine up-time
• improved and smoother surface finish, giving higher quality parts.
DownloadXantar C processing guide

For extrusion processing, high melt strength is required.
High viscosity, high MW grades are most suited. The batch consistency of Xantar leads to better quality more consistent extruded products and fewer interruptions during processing.