Acrylic (also known as PMMA) is a material that is frequently asked about and what it is used for.A transparent thermoplastic homopolymer known by the trade name plexiglass, acrylic can be found in a variety of applications.  Acrylic  is a transparent thermoplastic homopolymer that is used in the production of plastic products. Like polycarbonate, this material can be used as an impact-resistant alternative to glass (particularly in situations where the high impact strength of PC is not required). It was introduced to the market by the Rohm and Haas Company in 1928, five years after it was first manufactured and introduced into the market. It is widely regarded as one of the most transparent plastics currently available on the market, if not the most transparent. It was first used during World War II for submarine periscopes, airplane windows, turrets, and canopies, and it has since been used in a wide range of other applications as well. In comparison to those who had their eyes injured by broken glass, airmen who had their eyes injured by broken acrylic fared significantly better than those who had their eyes injured by shattered glass.Today's and general-purpose acrylic is used for a variety of applications, the majority of which benefit from the material's inherent transparency and the impact resistance provided by certain variants. Just a few of the numerous uses include contact lenses, acrylic nails, paint, security barriers, medical devices, LCD screens, and furniture, to name a few examples. For this reason, it is frequently used for windows, tanks, and enclosures around exhibits in addition to a variety of other applications.Acrylic is a material that is both readily available and reasonably priced, making it an excellent choice. Whenever material strength is not crucial, it can serve as an excellent substitute for polycarbonate in a wide range of applications. Acrylic's scratch resistance is sometimes laminated on top of polycarbonate's impact strength (PC) in order to reap the benefits of both materials' characteristics. This procedure results in the production of a type of bullet resistant glass. The PC is in charge of deflecting the bullet, and the Acrylic on the outside is there to provide scratch resistance during normal use of the computer.In what ways does acrylic (also known as PMMA) plastic differ from other plastics?Now that we have a better understanding of what Acrylic is used for, let's take a look at some of its most notable characteristics. As opposed to thermosets, it is classified as a thermoplastic, and the term thermoplastic refers to how the plastic reacts when it is subjected to high temperatures. The temperature at which thermoplastic materials become liquid (in the case of acrylic, 160 degrees Celsius) is known as the melting point. There are numerous advantages to thermoplastics, one of which is the fact that they can be heated to their melting point, cooled, and then heated again without suffering any significant degradation. Plastics that melt instead of burning, such as acrylic, are easily injected molded and then recycled after they have served their purpose.An injection molding process typically involves heating a thermoset plastic only once, which is done during the injection molding process. Temperature-sensitive materials (thermosets) become set (similar to a two-part epoxy) after the initial heating, resulting in a chemical change that is irreversible. A thermoset plastic would simply burn if you attempted to heat it to an extremely high temperature for a second time after it had already burned once. That thermoset materials are poor candidates for recycling is due to this property of their composition.