Is acrylic glass or plastic? What does it do? Why is it so widely used?

Release time：2023-12-20    Click：321

Acrylic, this seemingly mysterious material that resembles both glass and plastic, has aroused the curiosity of many people. So, is acrylic glass or plastic? What does it do? Why can it be widely used?

First, let's discuss whether acrylic is glass or plastic. Acrylic, known as polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), is an organic compound. From the point of view of chemical structure, it belongs to organic materials, similar to plastics.

Therefore, from this point of view, acrylic should be considered plastic. However, in terms of visual effects and partial properties, acrylic behaves more like glass. For example, the transparency of acrylic is very high, close to glass, light penetration is strong, giving people a sense of advanced.

At the same time, in terms of hardness, acrylic also performs well and is closer to glass than many plastics. This is why many people think of acrylic as both glass and plastic.

What are the effects of acrylic? The application of acrylic is very wide and can be seen in almost every field. Here are some of the main uses of acrylic:

Construction field: Because acrylic has good transparency, it can be used as a building material instead of glass. Not only that, acrylic also has good anti-aging properties, in the wind and sun, acrylic can still maintain the original quality.

In addition, the impact resistance of acrylic is much higher than that of ordinary glass, and the safety performance is higher, and it is more and more favored by the construction industry.

Advertising decoration: Acrylic surface smooth, rich color, can be a good display of commercial advertising or decorative design. Transparent acrylic plate can be used as a background plate, translucent and opaque acrylic plate can be used to make signs, text, patterns, etc.

Medical equipment: acrylic is not easy to decompose, easy to clean, in line with the use of medical equipment requirements. In addition, acrylic also has superior corrosion resistance and can cope with various chemical agents.

Transportation: Acrylic has a high degree of wear resistance, impact resistance, can be used as aircraft, cars and other transportation surfaces, lampshades and other components.

Crafts: Acrylic has a certain degree of plasticity, can be processed into a variety of shapes, is the ideal material for making crafts. At the same time, the bright colors of acrylic increase the appreciation of handicrafts.

Why can acrylic be widely used? The reasons are as follows:

High transparency: The transparency of acrylic is very high, which can reach more than 92%, which makes acrylic have a very good visual effect and become the preferred material for various industries.

Good processing performance: acrylic is easy to cut, engraving, thermoforming and other processing, which greatly facilitates production.

Good weather resistance: acrylic has good weather resistance, even if long-term exposure to the sun, there will be no deformation, fading and other phenomena, making acrylic in outdoor applications have a good performance.

High safety: the impact resistance of acrylic is much higher than that of ordinary glass, even if it breaks, it will not produce sharp fragments like glass, bringing security risks to users.

To sum up, acrylic, as a plastic material with special properties, has a wide range of applications in many fields such as construction, advertising decoration, medical equipment, transportation and crafts.

At the same time, it also has the characteristics of high transparency, good processing performance, good weather resistance and high safety, making acrylic has been widely recognized in various fields. Therefore, we can foresee that acrylic as a high-performance material, its application prospects will be broader.