ABSTRACT
Most materials either are specialty materials that find usage in small niche areas or commodity materials that have a few huge markets. This is as true for plastics as it is for other material systems. Whether we look at large-volume commodity plastics or low-volume specialty plastics, most tend to fit the 80:20 rule. That means that a relatively small volume of application usage accounts for 80% of the market volume. Whether it be polyolefins in garbage bags, packaging, and film applications; polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in bottle or fiber applications; or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in pipe, siding, and lineals applications, most polymers are associated with a few major applications. Polycarbonate has evolved very differently. Polycarbonate is really an in-betweener. Polycarbonate, co-polycarbonates, and polycarbonate blends are essentially moderatevolume specialty thermoplastics that have filled a broad array of niche markets. No single application accounts for more than 10% of market volume. This unusual situation has evolved in part because of the broad palette of properties offered by polycarbonate and its capability to be extensively modified and tailored to meet demanding market applications in many arenas. Most major manufacturers of polycarbonate offer at least 500 grades of polycarbonate commercially. In essence, polycarbonate is a specialty engineering thermoplastic that has found many fits and niches in a wide variety of commercial markets. Because polycarbonate has a special status of a broadly based specialty polymer, it enjoys a much lower cost and price position than could normally be expected of specialty materials. Yet, as in many properties, it is intermediate
between the large-volume commodity polymers and the low-volume specialty polymers.
