Acrylic Art| What Is Acrylic?

Acrylic is magic, which boasts beautiful colors and eye-dazzling.

-----Jonathan Adler
American soft interior design master

When it comes to PMMA, most people may not have heard of it, but I believe that as long as you mentioned its nickname: "acrylic" or "plexiglass". You will be very familiar with it.

Acrylic, a plastic material that is transparent as glass and colorful, has brought great changes to our lives and opened up imagination doors to the designers.

This material has transparent texture, gorgeous color, decorative pattern, modeling, which is the same as glass. How excellent acrylic is, we will introduce from the following several aspects.

ONE What Is Acrylic?

It is commonly known as specially processed plexiglass (namely ACRYLIC) and chemical name: polymethyl methacrylate, is a kind of important thermoplastic with its transparency and transmittance just like glass.

Acrylic, an important plasticity polymer material developed earlier, has good transparency, chemical stability, and weather resistance, good hardness, easy dyeing, easy processing, strong light transmittance, high printing adhesion, beautiful appearance, recyclable and other characteristics, and has a wide range of applications in various industries.

TWO Acrylic Production Process

The acrylic molding process includes casting, injection molding, extrusion, hot molding, etc.

△ casting acrylic

△injection molding acrylic

THREE The Characteristics of Acrylic

1. Light density, acrylic is a very light material, its density is only 1.17 ~ 1.20g/cm³, about half of ordinary glass, 43% of metal aluminum.

2. High light transmittance, pure acrylic transparent plate light transmittance in more than 90%. Take 6mm as a reference, common glass transmittance is generally 82-83%, 6mm ultra-white glass transmittance is 90%-92% compared with glass.

3. Strong impact resistance, 16 times of ordinary glass, low risk of fracture.

4. Acrylic has excellent electrical insulation, which works in many electronic products, such as some tiny components of insulators in tablet computers, mobile phones, computers, audio, television, and so on.

5. Moisture-proof, waterproof, no mold, no bacteria. Acrylic is very waterproof and moisture-proof, so it is perfect for making fish tanks, bathtubs, even infinity pools, and aquariums.

6. Acrylic has strong plasticity and can be processed into the required shape at will. Acrylic material is lighter than ordinary glass material, cutting, and processing technology is not complex. Therefore acrylic products can meet the needs of all walks of life for customized products.

7. The wear resistance of acrylic plates is close to aluminum, good stability, and good corrosion resistance for multiple chemicals.

8. Acrylic plate has good printability and spraying, and using appropriate printing and spraying process can give ideal surface decoration effect for acrylic products.

9. Flame resistance: not spontaneous combustion but belong to flammable products, do not have self-extinguishing.

10. Recyclable: waste acrylic can be recycled to remove impurities and add raw materials to re-make acrylic plate for resale.

FOUR Acrylic Type

1. Transparent Colorless Acrylic

Colorless transparent acrylic is one of the most common materials, and its thickness has various kinds. Transparent acrylic resembles glass, and its transmittance is even better than ordinary glass. It also can be processed in multiple secondary ways, so it is applied widely in many fields.

2. Transparent Color Acrylic

Transparent Colored acrylic plate, commonly known as color plate, its transparent is better than colorless transparent acrylic, more soft, diverse colors, very suitable for decoration. It is fell into three colors according to different transmittance, namely transparent colored, translucent colored, and opaque colored.

3. Pearlescent Acrylic

Pearlescent acrylic is produced from pearl powder or phosphor mixed with general acrylic. Because it has bright color, high surface finish, so it usually is used for unique modeling, food, etc.

4. Embossed Acrylic

There are several types, such as transparent, translucent, colored, and colorless. You can refer to the texture of the embossed glass. Acrylic can also shape these textures for interior decoration, like doors, and windows, etc., and also can show transparency but not perspective.

FIVE Acrylic Applications

Acrylic is widely applied in (architecture, interior decoration, advertising, transportation, medicine, industry, lighting, daily necessities, and so on).
Range from the windshield, lightbox billboards, to mobile phone bracket, cosmetics bottles

1. Cultural and Creative Product
It produces clever visual effects both acrylic gift box packaging and the products in bright color inside the box, easier to stimulate consumers' curiosity about the product.

2. Furniture
Acrylic becomes widespread in furniture, and furniture with transparent crystal texture is also very welcome in modern home design.

3. Decorative Paintings
Acrylic paints are non-toxic, dry faster than oil paints, and a popular creative media for many artists.

4. Acrylic Home Decor

5. Bathroom Products
Acrylic is the most common use in the bathtub, and have you had your first acrylic bathtub in your home?

6. Partition Wall
It has the same function as glass, so acrylic is often used as a partition wall or screen.

7. Art Installations
Acrylic has an expressive appealing with an extraordinary appearance, and many designers like to use it as an art installation to attract the eye.