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The original title: "whether acrylic is plastic or glass has been misunderstood for so many years."

In order to meet the needs of the market, enterprises or researchers will develop materials with different properties such as color, strength and flexibility.

If there are more kinds of materials, it must be a good thing for users to have more choices, but for many ordinary people, it is not clear what is the difference between them and whether they are the same material.

Many people have such questions about acrylic, which is often used. It looks like glass from a distance and plastic from a short distance, and its name is acrylic. Is it glass or plastic after all?

Acrylic is what acrylic is our most common name for this material, also known as plexiglass, English name Polymethyl methacrylate, translated into English as acrylic, abbreviation is PMMA, its full name is polymethyl methacrylate, its raw materials belong to acrylic chemicals.

Usually, in addition to using acrylic board, we can also hear the names of acrylic cotton, acrylic yarn, acrylic nylon and so on. Acrylic plate is composed of acrylic particles and resins, while other acrylic textiles are fibers made of acrylic acid. They don't belong to the same category.

We often feel that acrylic is a new material, but in fact it has been invented for more than 100 years. This chemical polymer was discovered as early as 1872. It was not until 1920 that the first acrylic plate was synthesized in the laboratory, and in 1927, the acrylic plate was completely manufactured in the factory, and the acrylic was only used in airplanes at the beginning. With the improvement and maturity of the production process at the end of the last century, acrylic has been widely used in many industries.

Now, acrylic has become an important material in many industries, such as instrument parts, car lights, optical lenses, transparent pipes, handicrafts and so on.

Acrylic is characterized by high transparency and clear vision, which can achieve more than 92% light transmittance, and the light transmittance of ordinary glass is only about 85%, which can achieve the transparency of optical glass. even after dyeing, acrylic also has good transparency, which increases the display and aesthetic effect of acrylic.

Thanks to the special material performance, the strength of acrylic is more than ten times that of ordinary glass, and it can be described as sturdy compared with glass. Products made of acrylic will be very durable, and transparent products are most afraid of being scratched. Acrylic is also one of the most wear-resistant transparent materials because of its high strength.

Acrylic begins to soften at 113 ℃ and has a melting point of 160 ℃, which makes it highly malleable and easy to make any shape.

Acrylic is highly resistant to changes in temperature and humidity, as well as acidic and alkaline substances, so it is very suitable for outdoor applications.

Although acrylic has many advantages, but also has some disadvantages, first of all, its price is more expensive than glass, it is difficult to completely replace glass; secondly, because of its low ignition point, directly exposed to the flame will melt and eventually burn, combustion will also release toxic smoke, so in the use of power tools plus cutting high temperature, it will be easy to deform and bend.

You think glass is plastic acrylic is a kind of polymerized polymer material, that is, a kind of thermoplastic, yes, you read it right, it is a kind of plastic.

Acrylic is polymerized from monomer methyl methacrylate, so what's the difference between acrylic and other plastics? Why do you call it "glass" when it is plastic?

This is due to many similar characteristics of acrylic and glass, some advantages surpass glass, and some advantages can perfectly make up for the shortcomings of glass.

Transparent materials are one of the most commonly used materials in many industries. When traditional glass is too heavy or too easy to break, designers and manufacturers often choose these transparent polymers as substitutes.

Acrylic also happens to have these properties of glass or transparent material, but it is really not glass, so it is called plexiglass.

Acrylic production process acrylic production process is also similar to other plastics, but in the specific temperature and the added catalyst will be different, there are three main molding methods, casting molding, injection molding and extrusion molding.

Casting molding requires a mold. Pour the melted acrylic acid into the mold and let it sit for several hours until it becomes semi-solid and can be removed from the mold.

After the plate leaves the mold, it is transferred to a high-pressure furnace, which is a special machine that functions like a pressure cooker and an oven. The high-pressure furnace uses heat and pressure to extrude bubbles from the plastic, making it more transparent and stronger. Acrylic acid usually takes several hours in a high-pressure furnace.

After taking out the molded acrylic from the high-pressure furnace, the surface and edges need to be polished several times, first with small particles of sandpaper and then replaced with a soft cloth wheel to ensure that the acrylic surface is smooth and transparent.

In the extrusion process, acrylic particles are added to the extruder, which heats the raw material until about 150 ℃, making it sticky.

Then between the two rollers, the melted plastic is flattened by pressure and turned into a uniform sheet, and then the sheet is cooled to solidify the acrylic sheet.

The sheet is cut into the desired size and can be used after polishing and polishing. extrusion can only produce thinner sheets, but not other shapes and thicker plates.

Injection molding is the same as the injection molding of other plastic products, acrylic is also put acrylic particles into plunger or screw injection molding machine, through high temperature to melt the raw materials into paste.

Then it is injected into the grinding tool cavity to form, dry through the hot air cycle and become a fixed shape, which can be used after grinding and polishing.

Nowadays, the use of acrylic is increasing every year. Although acrylic is one of the oldest plastics in use today, its optical transparency and resistance to outdoor environment make it still the preferred material for application in many industries.

The picture in this article is taken from Youtube "Howto Bend Acrylic and Make Amazing Shapes".

This article is from the official account of Wechat: manufacturing principle (ID:zhizaoyuanli), author: Lao Zheng

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