Subject:
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Re: A question of humidity...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 16 Jul 2004 16:20:31 GMT
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Viewed:
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1250 times
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In lugnet.general, David Koudys wrote:
(major snip>
> I didn't think that LEGO bricks could 'absorb' water moisture. Always had it in
> my mind that ABS was 'waterproof'. Eh, live and learn.
>
> Dave K
What an interesting post. It had never crossed my mind before, but the circuit
board assembly places which use infra-red ovens to melt solder on circuit boards
to allow the surface mount parts to float into place go to extreme lengths to
avoid moisture getting into the resins which chips are made of.
They use special climate controlled cabinets to store parts so they don't absorb
moisture. Otherwise the parts are inclined to suffer from "the pop-corn effect"
when they get heated up in the oven and damage themselves.
Quite a lot of materials are "waterproof" while still able to absorb a small
amount of water. I believe plastic molecules are quite large whereas water ones
a quite tiny.
The really interesting thing is the difference in behaviour of the green and
blue baseplates. I wonder, since the blue has been phased out while the green is
still current, if the stock of blue comes from some older technology plastic? I
believe that TLG use many different plastics for different parts dependent upon
application. The baseplate stuff seems different from the run of the mill 2x4
brick ABS. Of course you wouldn't be likely to know that unless you used 48x48
stud baseplates as raw material much like you use 4x8 sheets of plywood ;)
Baseplate cuts very differently from bricks.
JB
sorry, should've put a warning on the title line - this email contains graphic
description of brick mutilation ....
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: A question of humidity...
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| (...) I think you're right, John - the grade of ABS in the baseplate is different than that of the brick. I'd guess that the masterbatch colorant that LEGO uses for blue requires a unique grade of ABS, and we see differences based on humidity (...) (20 years ago, 16-Jul-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: A question of humidity...
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| (...) All organic compounds are, since they all include hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, and many plastics are organic in nature. Many others (like ABS) are also combinations of two or more other plastics, which further complicates things. But that's (...) (20 years ago, 16-Jul-04, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | A question of humidity...
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| A few brief stories-- I've had LEGO displays in fish tanks for the little fishes to swim through. After years of staying in the fish tank, I found that the LEGO pieces were stuck together quite firmly, and some pieces took much effort to pry apart. (...) (20 years ago, 16-Jul-04, to lugnet.general)
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