ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS CRACKING OF A MEDICAL TABLE TOP

摘要

Environmental stress cracking (ESC) resistance of engineering thermoplastics is a critical industrial criterion, as ESC is one of the most common causes of unexpected brittle fracture of ductile amorphous plastics. In the medical field, plastics need to be ESC resistant as they are regularly sanitized with cleaners containing substances such as isopropanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, ammonium chloride, ethylene glycol, ethers, esters and amines. High impact and chemically resistant polycarbonatepoly(acrylonitrile:butadiene:styrene) (PC-ABS) is often utilized for medical and pharmaceutical applications as it offers a good compromise between processibility, cost and mechanical properties. However, being made of amorphous resins, this material is prone to ESC failure.