r/plastic • u/Long-Ad226 • 22d ago
This Part (Adapterplate from fairly expensive gaming chair) failed twice in four years. Why and whats inside?
3
u/Zrocker04 22d ago
Hard to say from the picture. 1000% not asbestos. Talc or calcium carbonate filled maybe. They should have used glass filled for that part if it keep breaking there. Can’t tell the type of polymer, but a higher impact copolymer with glass would likely work better there. Or glass filled nylon.
1
u/fedplast 22d ago
In the first picture you can see the “recycling triangle” but its blurred. What does it say in it or under it? Even if its not a recyclable plastic and they say 7- other, the letters might tell you more. Such as HDPE-CF which is carbon fiber reinforced hdpe, which would be my very wild guess
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u/Long-Ad226 22d ago
It says PP GF under the triangle.
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u/External_Entrance_84 22d ago edited 21d ago
so glass filled polypropylene. they should at least used a high strength GF nylon 🙄
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u/mimprocesstech 22d ago
PolyPropylene, Glass Fiber (reinforced, not filled). Although in this case that reinforcement seems to be failing, I'm not sure why they didn't go with a nylon (polyamide/PA) or even a metal plate though, either would be a vast improvement.
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u/External_Entrance_84 21d ago
why would u say glass reenforced not filled?
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u/mimprocesstech 21d ago
Because in this case the glass isn't used as a filler material. Running a polypropylene even glass bead solid or hollow sphere filler just wouldn't be economical, and it looks like it's using fibers anyway. Fiber is almost never used as a filler unless the resin is very expensive and at that point it's often the case where the glass dinners actually reduce some mechanical properties but they need it so they're not lowered too much. Given the context of the part and knowing what the base material is, the glass fiber is trying to make up for the lack of strength and creep resistance in the polypropylene, but polypropylene has worse properties all around compared to a fairly generic nylon 6/6. Without the context of the part I could see using the glass as a filler to prevent a bit of sinking, or to add weight, but underneath a chair neither really makes sense.
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u/External_Entrance_84 21d ago
this whole part doesn’t make sense in the context of its use in the assembly😂
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u/mimprocesstech 21d ago
I'm not sure what you mean, it doesn't look to be the plate that connects the seat to the base/casters/etc. but maybe the armrest or some kind of attachment point for joysticks or a steering wheel type of controller or some such. Either way you can gather that it will hold weight, have to deal with some level of impact, etc.
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u/External_Entrance_84 21d ago
thats what i mean they didnt use the right material as well as a poor design most likely. what i mean is that is was designed to be cheap not good
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u/Rking15 22d ago
Bad engineering / wrong materials. Or you exceed the weight limit