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Today, plexiglass is used for an extremely wide range of applications. By the 1960’s and 70’s, plexiglass was also used in sanitary facilities and greenhouse windows. Following the war, plexiglass began to be used for more architectural applications, including illuminated advertising, glass roofing, and façade design. The Rohm & Haas Company staff, for example, increased tenfold during this time. During World War II, the plexiglass industry grew dramatically due to the use of the material in aircraft cockpits. Manufacturers included not just the Rohm & Haas company but also the U.K.’s Imperial Chemical Industries, which trademarked the name Perspex, and the U.S.’s DuPont Company, which trademarked the name Lucite.
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Save this picture! © dpentinen / ShutterstockĪfter the invention of plexiglass in the early 1900s, the material was quickly used for a myriad of different applications, including for instrument covers, watch glasses, and cutlery.
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Such modifications include adding butyl acrylate to improve impact strength, adding methacrylic acid to allow for higher temperature uses, adding dyes to give color for decorative applications, and many more. However, plexiglass products rarely use pure PMMA, instead modifying the material to optimize its properties even further. These advantages, combined with other properties including high service life, effective light transmission, and simple processing, make plexiglass a highly useful invention. It is also useful for outdoor applications due to a higher environmental stability than most other plastics, such as polystyrene and polyethylene. It is a strong, tough, and lightweight material, with a higher impact strength than glass. Image © Balazs DanyiĪlso known as acrylic, acrylic glass, or more scientifically, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), plexiglass is a transparent petroleum-based thermoplastic typically manufactured in sheets. Save this picture! Plexiglass boxes in sporaarchitects' Ilcsi Beauty Workshop. Sustainability and Performance in Architecture The Future of Architectural Visualization