A novel ultra-abrasion resistant coating for enhanced durability in automotive polycarbonate glazing

There is significant pressure within the automotive industry to create lighter cars in order to improve their energy efficiency. Using plastic glazing as a replacement for glass is a potential option for the manufacturing of lighter weight vehicles. Plastic, however, is relatively soft compared to glass and usually, a primer adhesive resin, followed by a hard coat is applied to plastic materials to give near equivalent abrasion and UV resistance to glass. The aim of this work is to improve the durability of polycarbonate (PC). In this research, a dual layer hard coat system that uses two commercial hard coats with a corona treatment in between, has been fabricated and compared to bare polycarbonate, glass and to the commercially available highly robust Makrolon AR. The abrasion resistance, as determined by a variety of abrasion tests has shown performance comparable to glass and significantly superior to that of Makrolon AR. The accelerated weathering results showed that the double hard coat PC lasted 317 days, 64 more days than Makrolon AR. This work demonstrates that glass-like resistance can be achieved in PC by employing multiple hard coats with a corona treatment in between, without the need of an adhesive primer layer; hereby, opening up the possibility of moveable side windows made of plastic for the automotive industry.