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Inflight catering drawers in aircrafts
have been made from polycarbonate so far. While these drawers have
been successfully used for quite sometime (since 1970), the long
term impact of more aggressive cleaning chemicals and hot water
usage have caused increased breakage of the drawer.
Almost 70% breakage was observed in the late ninetees.
The scarcity of Polycarbonate and its increased costs, led airlines
like Lufthansa to look for alternate materials to make drawers.
These drawers require low weight and optical clarity (see-through).
The development work began in 2000, that looked
into several alternatives. Finally, Metallocene based PP copolymer,
containing Millad 3988 clarifying agent from Millian Chemical was
chosen. This material has 1700 MPA Modulus, lower than 2400 MPA
of PC. The design of drawers was modified to provide reinforcements
on bottom and sidepanels. The wall thickness was increased. Lufthansa
introduced the new PP drawers towards the end of 2000.
After obtaining excellent response in the introductory
phase these drawers have now been used by 40 airlines worldover.
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