Transparent, flexible scratch resistant coating/material?

[geneiusxie]

I need something that can protect clear plastic from getting scratched and has to be scratch resistant vs sharp aluminum objects (tensile strength ~ 250MPa) so it should be reasonably hard. The problem is that most transparent scratch resistant materials (like glass) are too brittle - I need this thing to have 1.8% elongation or better.

 

[CoryPad]

How about hardcoating like that used for auto headlamps or eyeglass lenses?

http://corporate.plaskolite.com/products/coating_services/coating_poly_hmrar.html

http://www.exxene.com/core-products/hardcoats/

http://www.tekra.com/tech_resources/general_lit/Hardcoats.pdf

 

[geneiusxie]

It seems that all those coatings have a 2H pencil hardness, so they aren't much harder than plastic.
Something as hard as harder than aluminum would be necessary.

 

[ornerynorsk]

Google "transparent aluminum" and filter out all of the star trek nonsense.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[CoryPad]

Plaskolite ARmadillo rates 6H minimum, works nicely for auto headlamps that must resist abrasion from hard ceramic materials like silica, etc. (rocks).

 

[geneiusxie]

That transparent aluminum stuff is great for stopping bullets, but being that the ceramic layers is still a ceramic, it still wouldn't stretch really far.

 

[IRstuff]

I seriously doubt that what you are specifically asking for really exists. The only things that come to mind that are transparent AND flexible are basically plastics, ala Otter cases. I think it's time to review your CONOPS and decide whether there's some other way to achieve the same goals.

TTFN
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[geneiusxie]

Would the Armadillo stuff be able to stretch 1.8% without cracking?
Sometimes coatings can be less flexible than the substrate itself, which gets really ugly if it's flexed enough to make the coating develop a bunch of little cracks.

 

[geneiusxie]

What if you could make a sheet of glass that's so thin that it doesn't have defects, just like how fiberglass is made? Then glue hundreds of those super thin layers together to make a really strong structure.

 

[cloa]

Wouldn't a composite be able to handle such condition something like ceramic particles e.g. Silicon carbidee with a rubber binder. Going well into the realm of material rather than coating.

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[TomDOT]

Coat it with a graphene monolayer? Flexible and tough.

...application's a bitch, though. Check back in 5 years.