High stiffness plastic or composite for glass replacement 2

[FlixFlix]

Hi,

I'm looking for a suitable material, composite or layered sheet for replacing an LCD overlay, currently made of glass, with the ultimate goal of significant weight reduction.

Normally, a hard coated PMMA sheet would do the job in most applications and the weight would be cut in half. However, in this particular product, I need extra stiffness to prevent (or minimize) external factors bending the sheet and reaching the LCD, possibly damaging it.

Glass is about 10-20 times stiffer than any plastic I know of and I'm not expecting to even come close to that. Worst scenario is ending up with the aforementioned PMMA; however, I'd like to know that at least I'm using "the best" there is. Cost is not an issue.

Any suggestions? Thank you!

 

[Demon3]

I have one more idea. What happens if you apply the glass layer to both sides of your PMMA sheet instead of just one as you would normally do?

The reason I ask is that adding thin stiff layers in a sandwich structure like that can give a very high flexural modulus because flex modulus depends a lot on the stiffness of the surface material, in this case glass.

So, my adapting your existing process, PMMA with glass on one side only, you may have a solution that's easy to implement using existing equipment.

Chris DeArmitt PhD FRSC CChem

http://www.phantomplastics.com

Consultant to the plastics industry

 

[loughnane]

If money is no object, maybe donate a few mil to the boys @ oxford to get this transparent aluminum research moving along...

http://www.physorg.com/news167925273.html

not just for trekkies anymore.

Chris Loughnane - Product Design

http://www.pdnotebook.com

http://www.twitter.com/DesignNotebook

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Sure... assuming the LCD puts out far-UV light, and the user can read the info in 40 femtosecond windows of opportunity ;-)

But who can't?

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[loughnane]

I must admit i had to google "femto"

Chris Loughnane - Product Design

http://www.pdnotebook.com

http://www.twitter.com/DesignNotebook