Brittle Plastic Writeup

[3lectr1c]

Hi all,

I just finished writing a comprehensive article on "brittle plastic disease" for MacDat's knowledge base. Notably, it includes electron microscope photography of a brittle part which shows exactly what's happening at a microscopic level.

A big thanks goes out to polymatt for letting me use the photos, and for Blaise at Cubic Labs for helping him analyze the plastics. You should definitely watch his video here:

Here's a link to the article: https://www.macdat.net/repair/kb/brittle_plastic_disease.html

Let me know if there's anything you think I should add/change.

 

[Mk.558]

Like the simplistic webpage.

I would change the white arrows used to point towards areas being zoomed to a different color, like red or green.

 

[3lectr1c]

Oh, those weren't my photos. They're screen grabs from polymatt's video, so they were already like that. I would have probably made them red if I was marking them myself.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Hi all,

I just finished writing a comprehensive article on "brittle plastic disease" for MacDat's knowledge base. Notably, it includes electron microscope photography of a brittle part which shows exactly what's happening at a microscopic level.

A big thanks goes out to polymatt for letting me use the photos, and for Blaise at Cubic Labs for helping him analyze the plastics. You should definitely watch his video here:

Here's a link to the article: https://www.macdat.net/repair/kb/brittle_plastic_disease.html

Let me know if there's anything you think I should add/change.

Thanks so much for sharing.

 

[JDW]

I watched the video and the summary of the brittleness explanation was that the use of a brominated flame retardant combined with off-gassing caused micro-fissures which led to the case falling apart.

Honestly, I wish we had no flame retardants at all for the sake of not having to de-yellow so much, but this insight into brittleness adds yet another important reason.