28/05/2012
Applications and usage
Bakelite radio at Bakelite museum.
In its industrial applications, Bakelite was particularly suitable for the emerging electrical and automobile industries because of its extraordinarily high resistance - not only to electricity, but to heat and chemical action. It was soon used for all nonconducting parts of radios and other electrical devices, such as bases and sockets for light bulbs and vacuum tubes, supports for electrical components, automobile distributor caps, and other insulators. The foremost usage of Bakelite today is in the industrial sector for insulation of wires, construction of brake pads and related automotive components as well as industrial electrical related applications.
In the early 20th Century, it was found in myriad applications including saxophone mouthpieces, whistles, cameras, solid-body electric guitars, telephone housings and handsets, early machine guns, pistol grips, and appliance casings. The thermosetting phenolic resin was at one point considered for the manufacture of coins, due to a shortage of traditional material. In 1943, Bakelite and other non-metal materials were tested for usage as a penny in the US before the Mint settled on zinc coated steel.[6][7]
After WWII, factories were retrofitted to produce Bakelite using a more efficient extrusion process which increased production and enabled the uses of Bakelite to extend into other genres. Jewelry boxes, desk sets, clocks, radios, game pieces like chessmen, poker chips, billiard balls and Mah Jong sets. Kitchenware such as canisters and tableware were also made of Bakelite through the 1950s. Beads, bangles and earrings were produced by the Catalin Company which introduced 15 new colors in 1927. The creation of marbled Bakelite was attributed to the Catalin Company. Translucent Bakelite jewelry, poker chips and other gaming items such as chess sets were also introduced in the 1940s under the Prystal Corporation name; however, its basic chemical composition remained the same.
The primary commercial uses for Bakelite today remain in the area of inexpensive board and tabletop games produced in China, India and Hong Kong. Items such as billiard balls, dominoes and pieces for games like chess, checkers, and backgammon are constructed of Bakelite for its look, durability, fine polish, weight, and sound. Common dice are sometimes made of Bakelite for weight and sound, but the majority are made of a thermoplastic such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) which is not as durable as Bakelite.
Bakelite is used to make the presentation boxes of Breitling watches and sometimes as a substitute for metal firearm magazines. Bakelite is also used in the mounting of metal samples in metallography.[8]
Phenolic resins have been commonly used in ablative heat shields. Soviet heatshields for ICBM warheads and spacecraft reentry consisted of asbestos textolite impregnated with Bakelite.[9]
[edit]Patents
