Acronym and details: PMMA, often called acrylic
Group: thermoplastic
Developed: 1932, in commercial use from 1934, fashionable in 1960s
Trade names: Oroglas, Perspex, Plexiglass, Lucite; Corian
Manufacturing process: initially thermoforming from cast sheet and fabrication; now also casting; extrusion; injection moulding
Cost: medium
Colour: any
Transparency: transparent to opaque; better optical properties than glass
Rigidity: rigid
Feel: hard
Smell: none
Other: takes a high gloss; dull sound when struck
Typical uses: aircraft glazing; containers fabricated from sheet, e.g. handbags; blocks with embedded objects, jewellery, display stands, artists ’paints
Degradation: relatively stable; crazing resulting from stress; physical damage, especially scratches