Advice needed for choosing material

I'd like to get some advice for transparent material, they need to be stiff and tough. I have tried some plastics but they are not stiff enough, and glass is too brittle.

Thanks!

Reply to
Henry
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Did you try pMMA (acrylic) or polycarbonate? If the transparency requirement is not very high you can consider amorphous nylons, and transparent epoxies.

Ernie

Reply to
Ernie

Single-crystal Indian or Australian muscovite book mica. Available in crystal-clear flawless sheets and plates from

10 microns to more than 1 centimetre thickness, more than 1 decimetre diagonal length.
Reply to
Mark Thorson

Reply to
Henry

the Young's mudulus need to be more than 20 GPa, I need to make a small thin plate(3mm deep, 20mm diameter) with some small holes through the plate using the material. and later I will apply some presure(20 MPa) on the plate. so I am afraid some materials are too brittle...

Reply to
Henry

Mica isn't brittle at all. A strip 100 micron thick (normal to the crystal plates) x 1 mm x 100 mm would be easy to tie into a knot. I could probably tie several knots in that, without breaking it. You can drill it, along the axis normal to the plates.

20 MPa is no problem, applied evenly. Is that 20 MPa applied as a liquid or gas? What is its composition? If it penetrates the mica between the plates, and then the pressure is suddenly released, and the pressure medium underwent a liquid-gas transition, the mica could puff up. That's like vermiculite -- which is mica infiltrated with water, then puffed by rapid heating.
Reply to
Mark Thorson

Hi Mark, thanks for your advice. I have found some "Muscovite Mica" Rigid Sheets from Mcmaster. the 10" x 12" x .125" (Part Number 8779K51) for 61.75$. Is this the right mica?

Thanks aga>

Reply to
Henry

Mucovite is without question the right mica. I don't know anything about the McMaster material or your application, so I can't say whether that material would work. You'll have to read their specifications.

Note that mica sold for electrical insulating purposes is often consolidated from smaller pieces This sort of mica is not transparent. For transparency, you must use single-crystal book mica.

Reply to
Mark Thorson

How about some clear casting polyester with glass fiber reinforcement, or basic clear epoxy with good wetting agent and glassfiber.

Deaerate the wet laminate in vacuum, and press between releasing agent treated and polished glass plates in vacuum bag. Needs some practice, but I once made pretty good ones with this technique for control window purposes.

Samu

Reply to
Samu Aalto

Hi, I can only found 100 micron thick mica on Mcmaster, Where could I found thicker one like 0.5 or 1 cm?

Reply to
Henry

I am looking for plastic reinforced by glass fiber. Thanks for your advice!

Reply to
Henry

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