Choose the right thickness of a polycarbonate sheet

Since 1953, when the polycarbonate was discovered, Polycarbonates have proved to be some of the best materials in domestic and industrial applications. Even if you are buying a 4mm thickness product or a 25mm, polycarbonate sheet have a lightweight. This makes the installation process really easy without requiring reinforcement of the overall structure.

Since the Polycarbonate is not ultraviolet light stable, they can be affected by light turning yellow prematurely. For this reason they come with a one side treated with anti-UV protection that guarantees the sheet up to 10years. When Installing, always consider this side of the sheet to be properly installed on the exterior side.

Multiwall sheets are called so because of their spaces in between the polycarbonate layers. Those create an advantage for the sheets such as:

  • Excellent Thermal insulation
  • Strong structural rigidness and flexibility

Considering the two main advantages, we can have multi wall sheets with different number of walls: 2-3-4-5-6-7 and different structure:

2 Walls

3 Walls

4 Walls

5 Walls RDC

7 Walls 

The U Value and the R Value are the two coefficients that are influenced by the polycarbonate sheet structure. The U-Value is used to determine the effectiveness of the material as insulator; the R-Value as measure of the thermal resistance. The more thick and the more layers there are in the sheets, the higher are those values.

Do you live in high snowload area and you want to realize the glazing for your roof? Do you need the polycarbonate sheet to have an high thermal insulation? Do you need for internal purpose? Those questions, combined to this explanation, should help you decide the right structure and thickness of your panel.