That weird electrical engineering plastic

All is now revealed. As the guesses were narrowing down to it’s sorta like Bakelite, just for extra tough military applications.

And as to who uses that in the western world these days who the hell knows?

13 thoughts on “That weird electrical engineering plastic”

  1. These reinforced phenolic materials are quite often used in electronics test rigs for bed-of-nails testing as it’s easy to machine, nice and rigid and a very good insulator. Also won’t soften with heat if stuff is being soldered.

  2. It all depends on price. If its cheap and available, someone will find a use for it. If on the other hand they want top dollar then they’re probably going to struggle.

  3. Frankly I’d rather have a heavy old Bakelite telephone than the 3 Dec phones that the wife leaves out of their cradles hidden under piles of clothes and which lose their charge and become unable to be found. I had to install a fixed line phone to stop us being uncontactable because of her laziness – she’s the only one who uses the phones by the way

  4. So Much For Subtlety

    The magazines for the AK derivatives the Russians still use, use some sort of glass-reinforced phenolic resin I think.

    So perhaps there is a demand in America?

  5. Bloke in North Dorset

    BraveFart,

    “Frankly I’d rather have a heavy old Bakelite telephone than the 3 Dec phones that the wife leaves out of their cradles hidden under piles of clothes and which lose their charge and become unable to be found. I had to install a fixed line phone to stop us being uncontactable because of her laziness – she’s the only one who uses the phones by the way”

    Ofcom strongly recommends a fixed phone for emergencies during electricity blackouts. It was a major sticking point when the telecoms industry was trying to get the DECT and other cordless standards accepted.

    Not such a big deal now with such widespread mobile penetration but still a risk. Most mobile sites have 2-8 hours of battery backup and some have the ability to have generators plugged in for isolated cases.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *