Catalin

From Plastics Wiki, free encyclopedia

Catalin is a brand name for a thermosetting plastic popular in the 1940s. Chemically, it's a phenol formaldehyde resin almost identical to Bakelite, but because of its different manufacturing process (without using fillers such as sawdust or carbon black), it's transparent or milky white rather than brown, so unlike Bakelite it can be dyed bright colors or even marbled. This made it more popular than Bakelite, which it quickly replaced for consumer goods.