Making the switch. (Inside, Under, Elsewhere & Otherwise).The reliability of driver's side door switches for minivans--the activation of which cause the sliding doors to operate--is said to be improved through the use of an internally lubricated lu·bri·cate v. lu·bri·cat·ed, lu·bri·cat·ing, lu·bri·cates v.tr. 1. To apply a lubricant to. 2. To make slippery or smooth. v.intr. To act as a lubricant. glass-filled nylon 6/6 alloy. The material, Lubriloy from LNP (Local Number Portability) The capability of keeping the same local telephone number when switching carriers. See NP and WLNP. Engineering Plastics (Exton, PA), is being used for recently designed switches that are mounted on the minivan's B-pillar. Among the cited benefits: * The switch's polycarbonate A category of plastic materials used to make a myriad of products, including CDs and CD-ROMs. button won't stick to the injected molded switch base, (Apparently, the material that had been used for the switch bases, glass filled nylon 6/6 [note: not an alloy like the material in question], tended to have its surface layer resin worn away by the polycarbonate button such that the button would stick on the glass reinforcement below.) * The cold-weather embrittlement Embrittlement A general set of phenomena whereby materials suffer a marked decrease in their ability to deform (loss of ductility) or in their ability to absorb energy during fracture (loss of toughness), with little change in other mechanical properties, such problem (e.g., the previous switch base tended to embrittle em·brit·tle tr. & intr.v. em·brit·tled, em·brit·tling, em·brit·tles To make or become brittle. em·brit and fail when snapped into a B-pillar during cold weather) is eliminated due to better elongation properties of the alloy. * Warp potential is minimized through improved dimensional stability and moisture resistance. Approximately 400,000 of these components are molded annually. |
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