Acrylic Plastic: Uses, Properties, and Benefits

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Acrylic Plastic

Acrylic plastic which is also known as Plexiglas is a wonderful alternative for glass. Acrylic is more resilient, cost-effective, light in weight, shatterproof, flexible, optically clear, and UV resistant when compared to glass. One of the best things about this material is that it can be drilled, molded, sawed and even machined just like wood and soft metal. The end result is droopingly flawless.

The qualities of this material make it extremely ideal to be used in many industries and in different forms. The uses of this material have increased over a period of time and some of its most practical uses are outlined below:
  • Advertisement: Most commonly used for brochure holders, indoor and outdoor signboards.
  • Furniture: These are used to make retails fixtures, varieties of chairs, and shelves.
  • Auto Industry: You can find them being used in display screens on the dashboard, car moldings, small gears, tail lights, interior, and exterior trims, motorcycle windshields, covers for car indicator lights and lots more. 
  • Aquariums: They are applied to make a corner, bow front, and huge aquariums. 
  • Defense Sector: They can be placed in warplanes to make canopies of the cockpit and observers of the submarines. 
Besides these, they are also used for making medical equipment, decoration purpose, lamps, architectural glazing, LED lighting panels, dishware, spa baths, sinks and lots more. You will be able to see them almost every day in every possible place.
Acrylic Plastic

 Properties and Benefits of Acrylic Plastic:

PMMA polymer qualities are more or less similar to glass as they are translucent, transparent and robust, but what makes it more ideal is that it weighs less and is 10 times more resilient to impact. Outlined below are few properties and benefits of using PPMA (Acrylic) polymer: 

1. Transmittance: The refractive index of this material is approximately 1.4905 at 589.3 nm, which therefore allows transmittance of light in a significant way. When compared to glass, the transmittance of light through acrylic is more than that of glass as it allows around 93% of light to pass. The environment stability offered by PMMA polymer has made it the most popular material for outdoor applications when compared to polyethylene and polystyrene. 

2. Hardness: Acrylic plastic is extremely tough, durable, weather-resistant and light in weight. The density of this material is around 1.18 g/cm³ which is way lesser than that of glass. The products made from PMMA polymer are known for its durability because it withstands moisture and exhibits water absorbing capability. The surface of this material is scratch-resistant when compared to other similar polymers but in this case, glass is more efficient. The popularity of this plastic material has gained height because of this durability feature.

3. Chemical Resistance: The ability of acrylic plastic to resist chemicals is extremely great, as it can easily withstand most laboratory chemicals like cleaners, detergents, alkalis, and lots more. In order to enhance the ability of this material to withstand resistance from chemicals, impact, fire. specific applications like co-monomer, plasticizers, dye, and fillers are used. 

4. UV Resistant: The optical and mechanical properties of acrylic plastic don’t vary even when exposed to sunlight for a considerable amount of time, which therefore allows the material to provide great UV-stability. 

Now, when you know that why this material is preferred over the glass, let's understand the benefits offered by PMMA polymer: 
  •  Easy to shape 
  • Easy to bond
  • Easy to thermoform 
  • Easy to fabricate 
  • An ideal choice for glazing application 
  • Good resistance to weather 
The aesthetic qualities, versatility, durability, and other important qualities of the acrylic plastic have clearly made it an efficient substitute for glass. This material is also available in a variety of vivid colors like white, black, red, yellow, golden, blue, green, bronze, amber and lots more based on the type of this material. You can make your purchase depending on the requirement.

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