Materials / Plastics / Chemists experts!

Community
1

Hey!

Are there any materials experts here?

  • metals
  • plastics
  • cleaning substances

This is not electronics related but figured there might be some experts here.

For example - does anyone know what “high grade engineering plastic” might be? Apparently it’s food safe, injection mouldable and resistant to chemical attacks

I’m also looking into the impact evaporation of a phosphoric acid based sanitizer might have on said plastic, polypropylene, stainless steel and polyketone

I’m wondering if anyone might have put the pieces together and worked out what this is referring to :sweat_smile:

I’ve done some research on the topic but I’m not 100% sure on my conclusions and eager to learn a new topic / skill

2

Sounds like PE/HDPE/UHMW PE?

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My initial guess (hope) was HDPE - what would you put your money on? Anyway to tell?

4

If you get a slab of the stuff, you can tell by the density! :slight_smile:

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5

I knew a guy in QC at a well-known toy manufacturer who would pull a lighter from his pocket, torch a corner of a sample, and tell you what it was by sniffing the fumes.

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6

I can’t reply with less than 20 characters but… :exploding_head:

7

I hope the past tense isn’t because the fumes got him…

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8

I feel that. We keep a butane torch, a wire coat hanger, and a PVC pipe next to the CO2 laser at my hackerspace so people can test and verify what PVC yuck looks like before cutting unknown materials.

Personally I wish they wouldn’t cut unknown materials. But I suppose I’m glad they have a somewhat technically sound option for testing it at least?

Hope your fumes friend is okay. That sounds like a fun party trick but an awful daily workplace habit