New H.I.PS ?

[Bountyhunter Niko]

Hi there guys.

Just looking for a bit of info. Ive been in the game for a long time but starting to slip a little on my knowledge. Real life is very busy now with a family.

Ive seen people selling troopers suits made out of a new HIPS. They claim that it's UV resistant like ABS. Also that it is gloss like ABS.

Anyone got some info on this and what exactly it's called?

Thanx.

 

[exoray]

Hi there guys.

Just looking for a bit of info. Ive been in the game for a long time but starting to slip a little on my knowledge. Real life is very busy now with a family.

Ive seen people selling troopers suits made out of a new HIPS. They claim that it's UV resistant like ABS. Also that it is gloss like ABS.

Anyone got some info on this and what exactly it's called?

Thanx.

The important thing to remember are all styrene...

Every manufacture and every company has there own unique 'formula' they mix, generic styrene (PS) doesn't have many characteristic altering additives but it very well could have UV additives, ABS has acrylonitrile and polybutadiene added to give it more 'rubber' characteristics, and HIPS has just polybutadiene added to give it more impact resistance...

Stuff like UV protection additives and the amount of all the other additives vary from manufacture to manufacture and grade to grade of the plastic, ABS and HIPS don't automatically have better UV resistance then PS just because of their designation, but they generally have distinct properties between the designations... UV protection can be added to any of the designations...

I believe for the most part the move to HIPS is because it lacks the more 'rubber' characteristic of the ABS making it more forming friendly, the same reason many people still prefer generic PS pulls as they are generally tighter and more crisp then ABS... But again that is all relative to the formula of plastic and the machine operator as well...

 

[Bountyhunter Niko]

So in short - find a supplier who can do what you want. ?

 

[CustomCreations]

I can recommend using PETG for vacforming, as it has a great impact resistance, and can even be edge-folded. I have found the tightness of pull is more dependant on sheet thickness and depth of detail on the plug/mold- you wont get 1mm detail on 2mm sheet using 1mm detail on the plug, the detail will be there, just not as deep. The front page picture on
www.themodelmaker.co.uk
was made using PETG vacformed, and back sprayed red. ( shameless plug!)

Check out Stephen Webster Plastics in the uk for some info, and C R Clarke for tech specs.
Styrene has a show face which is high gloss, and personally I feel most plastics will become brittle in prolonged sun exposure regardless of any UV claim.