Hard-wearing protective and decorative surfaces

In durable products such as cars, elaborately decorated trims, panels, and operational controls have to retain their appearance over the entire useful life of the vehicle. Touching these surfaces often exposes them to the destructive effects of sweat, skin oil, and cosmetics; even cleaning agents can damage them. Frequent temperatures swings, such as when a vehicle stands under the scorching sun after a cool night, take their toll, too. All of these conditions increase the likelihood of stress cracking and clouding on the surface, which prompt customer complaints and are damaging to a company’s image.

Surfaces made of microcrystalline TROGAMID^® are the solution. With far greater chemical resistance than other transparent plastics, this crystal-clear, transparent polyamide is particularly resistant to suntan lotions and cosmetics. For high-quality top layers, Evonik offers TROGAMID^® CX granules that can be processed by injection molding and TROGAMID^® TCR films for surface lamination. These are available in thicknesses between 50 µm and 750 µm for decoration as well as protection of surfaces.

The crystal-clear, colorless optics of TROGAMID^® films or injection-molded coatings allow maximum freedom in surface design and cause no color shift on back-printed designs. Resistant to weather and UV light, these top layers have good abrasion resistance and impart an attractive relief effect. Their scratch resistance is similar to that of PMMA.

Switches

In addition to coating surfaces, the transparent polyamides can be used to produce switches such as the red switch for hazard warning lights. TROGAMID^® T may also be used here.