free care guide

for plastic guarding

Receive your FREE CARE GUIDE direct to your inbox by adding your email to the form and let S&D Solutions help you keep your guards lasting longer.

What Material Is Best For You?

Please see below a list of materials that we work with below. With our experience and expertise, we will help you pick out whats best for you.

Machining of plastics can be advantageous for applications requiring low volume production, close tolerance dimensions and/or difficult to mould configurations.

There is an array of plastics to choose from; highly engineered, high performance products to low cost, low performance. Determining which is appropriate for a particular application can be challenging.

Typically, our engineers will require 3 or less characteristics that are critical to the functionality of the component. We will priorities these and look for a material that can supply all three. The below list presents only the most common machined plastics.

Stock shapes are typically clear but once machined they become translucent to opaque. Polishing is required to return the component to clear. Polishing methods are direct machine polish, flame polish, and buffing.

Good Choices: Acrylic, Polycarbonate and PETG,

Tensile strength (plastic in tension) and compression strength (plastic under compression) are important values for structural applications.

Good Choices: Peek, PPS, Nylon, Delrin

Poor Choices: Teflon, UHMW, LDPE, HDPE, Polypropylene

Consider either continuous service temperature in air or heat deflection temperature if under load.

Good Choices: PTFE, PEEK, Torlon, PPS

Poor Choices: Acrylic, UHMW, ABS, PVC

A combination of pressure and velocity that determines whether a plastic material has enough thermal and structural ability to withstand a bearing application in rotational wear.

Good Choices: Peek, Nylatron, Delrin AF, Torlon 4301

Poor Choices: UHMW, PBT, PETG Nylon

Machined plastics do not have the structural stability of metals. This is primarily caused by their tendency to absorb water and a high coefficient of thermal expansion. Stable materials have low water absorption with a low CTFE.

Good Choices:Peek, PPS, PETG

Poor Choices: Nylon, UHMW, HDPE, LDPE

Chemical resistance of plastics is variable. Some materials show an almost universal resistance to chemicals while others are very sensitive and stress crack when exposed. Best practice is to consult a reference guide for a specific chemical/plastic interaction.

Good Choices: Teflon, UHMW, CTFE, PEEK

Poor Choices: Acrylic, ABS, Noryl, Polysulfone

A measurement of a plastics ability to withstand a sudden shock or a blow. Do not confuse this with resistance to steady state stress where failure can occur from chemical attack or configuration stress risers. Polycarbonate can tolerate high impact but stress cracks from steady loading.

Good Choices: Nylon, Polycarbonate, UHMW, Peek

Poor Choices: PETG, Acrylic, Polyphenylene

General measure of cost of the material. Higher performance engineered plastics are more expensive.

Inexpensive Choices: Delrin, UHMW, Polypropylene, HDPE

Expensive Choices: Peek, Vespel, PPS, Radel HDPE

Suitability for use in medical device applications. Plastics carry the USP class VI designation.

Good Choices: Polycarbonate, Peek, UHMW, Radel

The Food and Drug administrations’ classification for plastics which contact food.

Good Choices: Delrin, PETG, Polycarbonate (some grades, S&D are one of the few comapnies that stock food grade polycarbonate), Peek.

Resistance to UV typically seen in outdoor use. Plastics without resistance will age and become brittle. Because of the coloring, most black plastics have at least a small amount of resistance.

Good Choices: Ultem, Polycarbonate (UV stabilized grade only, non FDA), PBT

Poor Choices: Polycarbonate (FDA), Nylon, Acetal

Answers to Your Questions.

What are your opening times?

Monday : 8:30 am – 4:45 pm

Tuesday : 8:30 am – 4:45 pm

Wednesday : 8:30 am – 4:45 pm

Thursday : 8:30 am – 4:45 pm

Friday : 8:30 am – 12:30 pm

Who should I contact?

Tuesday : 8:30 am – 4:45 pm

For all general enquiries please email Design@sndsolutions.co.uk

For urgent enquiries please call 01623 687610 and a member of our team will be glad to help.

What is your lead time?

Our lead time will vary depending on the nature of the work, however lead time are generally around 2-3 days for enquires and 2-4 weeks for manufacturing. If you need an urgent quote or order our production team will be happy to help you achieve the lead time you require.

Is there a minimum order?

There is no minimum order quantity/amount. We can assist you with your requirements no matter how big or how small, if you ever have any questions a member of our team will be ready to assist you.