How can you tell if polycarbonate is the right choice for you? It's simple, really - only polycarbonate can offer the ideal combination of impact strength, cost effectiveness and energy efficiency. No glazing alternative can surpass Makrolon polycarbonate sheet for superior all-around performance. It's the right choice for almost any demanding glazing application.

Makrolon polycarbonate sheet is as clear as glass and 250 times stronger. It's also 30 times stronger than acrylic sheet - offering a margin of safety that no other clear glazing material can beat. With its inherent design flexibility, Makrolon can be cut or cold-formed on site during installation without the pre-forming and fabrication associated with glass or acrylic. It is lightweight and requires less structural support compared to all-glass systems, saving additional time and labor costs. Of course, its durability and energy efficiency add up to long term cost savings, too. From skylights and barrel vaults to educational and institutional glazing, the question is not why, but where polycarbonate?

Built To Perform
* Transportation Glazing
* Institutional Glazing
* Barrel Vaults Skylights
* Covered Walkways
* Storefronts
* Privacy Glazing
* Factory Over-Glazing

Don't let material limitations compromise your design creativity - Makrolon sheet is designed to perform in a wide range of applications and meets all standard architectural specifications and codes.

Unsurpassed by any clear glazing product on the market, Makrolon sheet is hundreds of times stronger than plate glass and many times stronger than acrylic. This tough, long lasting material offers attractive protection in areas subject to high traffic, vandalism or burglary. It even withstands natural forces like severe wind, hail and snow storms. In fact, Makrolon sheet meets stringent state mandates for hurricane resistant glazing materials.

Makrolon sheet is extremely ductile. It can be cut on site from flat sheet or cold-formed into curves that would be impossible to construct with laminated glass or acrylic. Forget about costly factory pre-forming and fabrication. With Makrolon sheet you can create cost effective, yet distinctive structures featuring dramatic expanses of curved glazing.

The unique combinadon of light weight (half of glass) and high strength inherent in Makrolon sheet allows designs that require less structural support. Since Makrolon sheet can be cut and cold-formed on site, you save time and money that would normally be dedicated to pre-installation techniques like oven bending. And as Makrolon polycarbonate sheet is much more durable than other material options, the cost of replacement becomes a less immediate (and less costly) concern.

Makrolon sheet is a superior insulating material when compared to equivalent thicknesses of glass. Double-glazing and over-glazing offer even more energy savings. Over-glazing with a patterned grade of Makrolon sheet adds visual security and enhances the appearance of industrial and commercial sites.

By allowing the transmittance of up to 90 percent of solar energy and 88 percent of visible light, clear Makrolon sheet is an excellent glazing material for a wide range of applications where clarity is essential. Makrolon sheet is also available in gray and bronze tints to help control heat gain, and a variety of privacy patterns for obscure glazing reqirements.

Think of all the places that you wish you could have put glass or acrylic in your designs, but could not due to the environment, building location, or material limitations. Now think of the demanding applications where glass and acrylic have been tried and failed; schools, psychiatric facilities, subways, bus shelters - the list is growing due to increased violence and vandalism. Think of applications where other plastics won't rise to the challenge. Now try Makrolon polycarbonate sheet and make your designs a reality.

The family of Makrolon polycarbonate glazing products offers superior durability, unmatched design flexibility and structural integrity that easily surpasses laminated glass and acrylic alternatives. When considering total life cycle costs, Makrolon sheet comes in several grades to suit your every performance requirement: Makrolon GP for general glazing and industrial applications, Makrolon SL for increased UV protection, Makrolon AR when abrasion resistance, impact strength and graffiti removal are essential, and HYGARD laminates for certified containment glazing and bullet resistant protection.

For general purpose applications that require superior impact protection without additional abrasion and UV resistance, Makrolon GP grade polycarbonate sheet is everything you need. Available in clear, colors and privacy patterns, Makrolon GP is a high performance, all purpose glazing material that is both durable and cost effective. This performance is backed by a five year warranty anainst breakage.

Prolonged exposure to the sun can weather even the most durable of surfaces. In the past, acrylic was often chosen for plastic glazing applications because of its inherent resistance to yellowing over time. But compared to polycarbonate, the relative brittleness of acrylic made its impact strength insufficient for demanding, vandal resistant applications. To meet this need, Sheffield Plastics developed Makrolon SL SunLife polycarbonatesheet. It offers the best of both worlds - the impact protection of Makrolon sheet and the UV resistance of acrylic. Utilizing advanced formulations combined with state-of-the-art extrusion technology, Sheffield Plastics has created a tough, consistent quality product that will exhibit superior performance for years to come.

The performance of Makrolon SL has been well documented through years of laboratory and field testing. In side-by side comparative testing under severe conditions, Makrolon SunLife consistently outperformed competitive materials utilizing older technology. Materials were also tested in forms and bends well beyond recommended guidelines, proving that the integrity of SunLife as well as its UV resistance will not change if the sheet is bent or cold-formed. So conclusive was this testing that Sheffield offers a full five year warranty against excessive yellowing, loss oflight transmission and breakage.

Makrolon AR offers the dual protection you need to ensure consistent appearance and long life in your glazing applications. Makrolon AR features a unique clear hard coat finish that resists all types of harmful agents, from physical attack to chemicals and spray paint. General purpose polycarbonate can't be beat for impact strength - that's why it is so widely used in high traffic areas such as street level windows, bus shelters and security glazing. Add an abrasion and UV resistant surface and the result is Makrolon AR, a polycarbonate glazing material that provides superior clarity when subjected to repeated contact, cyclical cleaning, and even vandalism.

Makrolon AR polycarbonate sheet is manufactured to the most demanding specifications in conformance to ISO 9002 documentation procedures. Designed for superior performance and long life in high traffic, flat glazing applications, it is available in a wide range of gauges, tints and sheet sizes.

Makrolon AR offers all the strength, durability and clarity inherent to the Makrolon brand with the added dimension of a leading technology hard coat for improved surface hardness, ultraviolet resistance and chemical protection. Makrolon AR is warranted for five years against breakage, coating delamination, yellowing and hazing.

In addition to superior abrasion resistance, Makrolon AR sheet offers unsurpassed weatherability - comparable to that of our Makrolon SL SunLife product when subjected to prolonged periods of UV exposure.

Chemical Resistance Makrolon AR sheet features improved chemical resistance to a variety of cleaners, solvents and other corrosive elements that can attack standard polycarbonate sheet.

Care should be taken to install Makrolon AR sheet in a sealed frame to protect uncoated saw-cut edges from chemical attack.

Under normal conditions, Makrolon AR should be washed on a regular basis with a mild solution of soap and warm water, using a soft cloth or sponge. To prevent water spots, thoroughly dry Makrolon sheet with a chamois or sponge. Do not use abrasive cleaners or sharp instruments such as razor blades or scrapers that may gouge the surface. For graffiti removal, organic solvents such as butyl cellosolve, kerosene, naptha (VM&P naptha) or mineral spirits work very well. Methanol, denatured ethanol and isopropyl alcohol are also excellent cleansing agents. It is important to rinse off the surface thoroughly after cleaning.

Increasing violent crime, readily available sophisticated weapons and larger glazed areas in modern detention center design have created a need for higher performing security glazing materials. Sheffield Plastics has developed HYGARD Laminates to meet this need. Consisting of multiple layers of polycarbonate or polycarbonate/ acrylic with bonding interlayers, these tough yet light-weight materials offer proven resistance to physical and ballistic attack.

Sheffield offers HYGARD laminates in six levels of protection ranging from containment rated security glazing, to UL Level III bullet-resistant material capable of withstanding multiple rounds fired from high-powered handguns. All HYGARD laminated products feature hard coated surfaces for exceptional resistance to abrasion and UV degradation, and are warranted for five years against coating failure, excessive yellowing and structural delamination caused by manufacturing defects.

Whatever the application, HYGARD laminates offer unsurpassed performance versus competitive glass and glass clad polycarbonate products.