China-based polycarbonate PC sheet offerings are concentrated on industrial B2B platforms, with 14 specialised manufacturers and 42 product variants listed on Made-in-China under the "raindrop polycarbonate" category as of 23 June 2025, covering PC board, PC sheet, PC film and coextruded PC/PMMA [S2].
Standard solid PC sheet is commonly stocked in thickness from 1.5 mm up to 20 mm, panel width 1.22 m, and cut lengths of 2.44 m, 5.8 m and 11.8 m with custom cut-to-length available, supplied in clear, green, blue, brown, opal and custom tints, per Okorder's PC solid shading listing dated 3 June 2026 [S1]. For buyers comparing it against adjacent engineering plastics, the polycarbonate engineering guide outlines the polymer's position versus ABS, PMMA and acrylic-PET composites.
PC resin chemistry and what it sets for sheet spec
Polycarbonate is an amorphous thermoplastic whose molecular chain contains the carbonate group –CO3–, and is classed as aliphatic, aromatic or aliphatic-aromatic depending on the ester structure [S4]. The material is colourless-transparent, oil-resistant and acid-resistant, but it is not UV-stable on its own and is not resistant to strong alkalis, which is the chemical baseline that drives the coextruded UV-protective cap layer on almost every outdoor-grade PC sheet [S3].
Mechanically, the same source describes PC as heat-resistant, impact-resistant, flame-retardant across the normal use-temperature band, and it is widely used in automotive, electronics, precision instruments, office equipment, packaging and building materials [S3]. For plant engineers specifying industrial PC enclosures, the heat-distortion and impact limits of neat PC resin are the floor for any further rating; UV-capped and flame-retardant grades simply add headroom on top.
Solid sheet vs embossed vs raindrop vs hollow: a four-way comparison
Solid PC sheet, embossed PC sheet, raindrop-textured PC and multiwall hollow PC are the four product families most often quoted by China suppliers, and they line up against different decision criteria. The table below uses the spec bands visible in the research [S1][S2] to compare them on four levers a spec engineer actually weighs.
Solid sheet dominates on optical clarity and impact strength at 1.5-20 mm thickness, but is the heaviest option per m²; embossed and raindrop sheets sacrifice light transmission for diffusion and privacy; hollow multiwall cuts weight and improves thermal insulation but lowers load and impact ratings. None of these is interchangeable with cast acrylic, and the polycarbonate material reference lists the optical and impact bands that bound each family.
Thickness, width and length bands that show up on a PO
The Okorder PC solid sheet listing fixes the stocked thickness range at 1.5-20 mm, width at 1.22 m, and cut lengths of 2.44 m, 5.8 m and 11.8 m, with custom length available and standard colours clear, green, blue, brown, opal and custom [S1]. That 1.22 m width matches the global "4 ft" corrugation grid used for roofing, which is why 1.22 m panels appear across PC, acrylic and corrugated metal quotations alike.
Buyers should treat 1.5 mm as the practical floor for self-supported glazing and 20 mm as the upper end of commodity stock; above 20 mm the lead time typically jumps from stock to mill order, and many China suppliers will only quote it on a case-by-case basis [S1]. For adjacent polymer sourcing such as OLED module suppliers the same resin tiering logic (stock vs mill order) repeats with PC sheets and coextruded PC/PMMA composites.
Coextrusion and surface finishes available from China makers
Made-in-China's raindrop-polycarbonate supplier page groups PC board, PC sheet, PC film and acrylic (PMMA) under one supplier umbrella, signalling that coextruded PC/PMMA cap-stock and PC film rolls are part of the same maker stack [S2]. That adjacency matters when a buyer is specifying flame-retardant (FR) or UV-capped sheet, because the cap layer is added at the extruder, not at the converter.
Surface options widely offered include smooth/glossy solid, embossed (random texture), raindrop (regular droplet pattern), and frosted; these are produced by changing the die roll and are usually MOQ-driven, not stock-driven [S2]. Where buyers want higher stiffness without going to solid 20 mm PC, the same suppliers tend to stock twin-wall and triple-wall hollow sheet at 4 mm, 6 mm, 8 mm, 10 mm and 16 mm – bands that show up in the same maker catalogues though they were not enumerated in the source listings reviewed here.
Typical applications and the PC property that drives each one
Shading, roofing, skylight and cladding applications are driven by PC's combination of impact resistance and light weight; the Okorder listing is positioned explicitly for "PC solid sheet used for shading" with embossed and sun-sheet variants [S1]. PC's high heat-distortion temperature relative to commodity plastics is the lever behind its use in electronics and precision-instrument housings [S3].
Automotive, office-equipment and packaging uses lean on PC's impact and dimensional stability, while building-material use relies on the FR rating and the UV cap layer [S3]. The single property that disqualifies PC from some chemical-plant builds is its weak resistance to strong alkalis, which rules out standard grades for certain wash-down areas and is the reason suppliers will not certify PC against broad chemical-exposure matrices without a cap stock [S3].
Failure modes, limits and the spec gaps to flag
Uncoated PC yellows and loses impact strength under UV exposure, and standard grades will not pass UV-stabilised warranty clauses for outdoor service life beyond a few years without a coextruded UV cap [S3]. Strong alkaline cleaners attack the polymer chain, which is why PC sheet is not a default choice for CIP areas in food and pharma plants.
Scratch resistance is markedly lower than glass, so PC should be specified with a hard-coat option for high-traffic touch surfaces; without that, mar resistance becomes the practical lifetime limiter. Buyers should also verify FR rating documentation per lot, as the same nominal grade can be supplied with different UL 94 classifications depending on additive package, and the research reviewed here did not surface a uniform FR classification across the 14 China suppliers [S2].
Sourcing channels, lead time and verification points
Two B2B channels dominate the visible China PC supply in the research: Okorder for project-style quotations on stocked 1.5-20 mm solid sheet with stated width and length [S1], and Made-in-China for a multi-supplier catalogue view of 14 manufacturers and 42 SKUs across PC board, sheet, film and acrylic [S2]. For polymer buyers, the second channel is the better tier-mapping tool, while the first is more useful for an immediate price request on a stocked spec.
For adjacent industrial categories where the same tiering logic applies, the pallet rack supplier map and drone supplier tier map both show the same 2026 pattern of dedicated maker pages and broad B2B catalogue listings. A reasonable next verification step is to request the UV-cap thickness (typically 30-50 µm) and the FR test certificate with batch number before issuing a PO on any PC solid, embossed or raindrop sheet quoted above 1.5 mm or with custom length beyond 11.8 m.
For component-level specifications, see pressure transmitter.