On Wed, 19 Jan 2011 23:15:41 -0800 (PST), "larry moe 'n curly"
wrote:

I got rid of my vintage 1995 Sanyo TV because the plastic case was so
brittle it didn't seem capable of safely supporting the weight of the
CRT, but the plastic of my 1976 TV seems fine. Both cases were made
of fire retardant ABS, but why was it so much more brittle in the
newer TV?
Any plastic is a combination of materials. One of the materials is a
plasticizer, which provides flexibility in the finished product.
Plasticizers tend to be somewhat volatile, evaporating slowly with
time. Depending on the exact compound, it may take months, years, or
decades before the loss of flexibility becomes a problem. Of course,
there are ongoing efforts to find plasticizers which are cheaer to
make and last longer.

Most manufacturers run artificial aging tests to prevent problems like
this, but even those rarely can do better than 10 to 1 (one years test
= ten years of normal use). Few manufacturers are willing to hold a
new product off the market for more than a year of testing.

PlainBill