What is my windshield made of?

[fastfred]

How can you tell which windshield material I have . It was built in 2010. Lexan or acrylic?

[Dave S]

Fred,

If I understand correctly, you have an S7 - they came with a molded acrylic unit.

The polycarbonate stuff (either Lexan or Macrolon) I believe was used on the pre S5's; and, on the standard side windows of the S7's

Probably the easiest visual to tell apart is the thickness - acrylic thicker - polycarbonate = 1/16".

Probably don't want to do destructive testing, but, a test piece of acrylic will shatter under a light hammer blow while the polycarbonate will not - it will leave a mark but won't shatter

[fastfred]

I wondered when they changed over

Thank you

[rogerh12]

Spill some gas on Lexan, and it will craze like crazy.
Not a good material for high wing planes with fuel fillers above the windshield height.
Plexiglas scratches easier, but is most immune to gas spills
Roger

[Rik]

Acrylic is harder than poly carbonate as poly carbonate will scratch way easier than acrylic. Plexiglass is a brand name of "cheap" acrylic and is thus the bottom of the line as far as plastic's are concerned.

You can have a hard coating applied to the poly carbonate or the acrylic to that makes the surface impervious to chemicals such as windex, acetone, etc. The hard coating also resist scratches, they have a test using 0000 steel wool and it does not phase the coating in the slightest.

[jiott]

My Lexan turtledeck (no special coatings) scratches way easier than my acrylic windshield and bubble doors.

[DesertFox4]

This is what a pre-formed tinted Kitfox acrylic windshield looks like. This is mine propped up on some seat cushions right before trimming to fit the fuselage. Quite a bit heavier although much better optically and a little tricky to install due to being more brittle than the polycarbonate sheet windshield material. Quite a bit more money also.
22220
This photo shows how we trimmed my windshield to fit the fuselage. Got close to finished specs then hand sanded with a fine sandpaper to remove belt sander marks.
22221
Trimmed and installed. The protective film has not yet been removed from the windshield.
22223

[Rik]

My Lexan turtledeck (no special coatings) scratches way easier than my acrylic windshield and bubble doors.


Yup, Lexan (poly carbonate) is soft and that's one of its characteristics.