Advantages and disadvantages of acrylic/Plexiglass /PMMA material?
PMMA is short for polymethyl methacrylate, also known as acrylic or plexiglass, it is widely used, suitable for injection molding extrusion and other processes, its advantages and disadvantages are as follows:
Advantages:
- High transparency: It is the best polymer transparent material at present, with a light transmittance of 92%, which is higher than that of glass.
- Good optical performance: it can effectively filter ultraviolet light with a wavelength less than 300nm, and some manufacturers can increase the effect of filtering ultraviolet light from 300nm to 400nm after coating its surface; Infrared light with wavelength less than 2800nm is allowed to pass through, and has good stability.
- High mechanical strength: tensile resistance and impact resistance is 7 to 18 times higher than ordinary glass, after heating and stretching treatment, toughness has been significantly improved, can be used as bulletproof glass, aircraft cabin cover and so on.
- Easy to process: it can be used for cutting by lathe, drilling by drilling machine, and can also be used to glue various shapes of appliances such as acetone and chloroform, and can also be processed into various products by plastic molding methods such as casting, injection molding, mechanical processing, and thermoforming.
- Light weight: the density is lower than that of glass, about 1.15-1.19g/cm3, which is half of glass and 43% of aluminum.
- Good insulation performance.
- Good chemical stability: outdoor aging resistance, a certain degree of cold resistance, corrosion resistance, ozone and sulfur dioxide and other gases have good resistance.
- Beautiful appearance.
- Low cost: compared with glass and other materials, the price is relatively low.
Cons:
- Surface hardness is not enough: the quality is brittle, easy to scratch.
- Heat resistance is not high: the glass transition temperature is 104°C, the maximum continuous use temperature is between 65 °C and 95°C, the thermal deformation temperature is about 96°C (1.18MPa), and the softening point of Vica is about 113°C.
- Limited solvent resistance: it can resist dilute inorganic acids, but concentrated inorganic acids can make it erode; Alkali resistant, but warm sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide can make it etched; It is resistant to salts and fats, aliphatic hydrocarbons, insoluble in water, methanol, glycerin, etc., but it can absorb alcohol swelling and produce stress cracking, and is not resistant to ketones, chlorinated hydrocarbons and aromatics.
- Flammable: The limiting oxygen index is only 17.3, and after combustion, carbon dioxide, water, carbon monoxide and some low molecular compounds including formaldehyde are generated.
- Strength is related to stress action time: as the action time increases, the strength decreases.
- With a certain water absorption: the water absorption rate is generally 0.3%-0.4%, and it needs to be dried before forming.