ABOUT ELECTRICAL, UV, & OUTGASSING PROPERTIES FOR PLASTIC MANIFOLDS

Whether you're a seasoned engineer or just starting out, this section will walk you through the essential considerations for electrical and outgassing to create efficient and reliable plastic manifolds. We'll focus on the other three main critical aspects: electrical, UV, and outgassing properties. We will define a few terms that are integral to understanding these as a whole. This will also give ground-level knowledge of the various terms used later on when delving further into our materials pages and exploring those in greater detail.

In certain applications requiring some element of electrical compatibility, engineers cannot deny the importance of a few key factors, like volume resistivity with both dielectric constant and strength. They play an essential part in a manifold's overall performance and longevity. Different applications demand certain properties, and choosing the right plastic material that fits the job stands as one of the most important factors for consideration.

Selecting Materials for Electrical Performance

When selecting materials for electrical purposes in plastic manifolds, we strongly urge you to keep these factors in mind. Many types of plastic are inherently insulating, however, some do a better job than others and depends greatly on the purpose of the product. Does it need to resist electrical input or assist in electrical efforts? What other properties does it require to function and perform optimally?

Dielectric Strength

If the products needs to resist electrical conductivity, we highly recommend choosing plastics with superior dielectric strength to prevent electrical breakdown or system failure. Keeping electricity from interfering increases safety for not only anyone working with the product but also any other adjoining assemblies or components. Controlling electrical elements increases predictability and reliability. Many experts name materials like UHMW,  PET, and CPVC as having the highest resistance to electrical conductivity.

In that vein, thermal stability marks itself as crucial for sustained performance. Designers need to ensure that their plastic can withstand temperature variations without compromising those electrical properties, again protecting the operators and their systems.

Many industries utilize UV light for varying purposes or need resistance to it for weather-related purposes (among several others). As we keep saying, some materials have a higher resistance to such forces than others. If you know that your product will need to meet the following criteria, then we suggest a higher-performance material that would suit its purpose.

• Durable performance against prolonged sun exposure
• Fade resistance
• Weatherproof reliability
• Assured longevity

We have detailed some of our most popular plastics used and their associated UV resistance grades in the following table.

Data courtesy of Omnexus

Outgassing means the release of gases trapped within a plastic. Each plastic material will have some number of gases which will release over its lifetime. The release of gases is especially important in vacuum applications and where off gassing can affect the results.

Here is a table of materials and their likelihood of outgassing.