Hackaday: If anything ends up on the beds of hobbyist-grade laser cutters more often than birch plywood, it’s probably sheets of acrylic. There’s something strangely satisfying about watching a laser beam trace over a sheet of the crystal-clear stuff, vaporizing a hairs-breadth line while it goes, and (hopefully) leaving a flame-polished cut in its wake.
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I know that there are many, many types of plastic, and that plastics is a field unto itself, but this brief article on acrylics has captured my fascination. I have many questions. I did a quick search on the difference between PMMA and polycarbonate, and the molecules are extremely different shapes. PMMA is sort of like a flat chain, while polycarbonate is more of a T shape. PMMA is, for most purposes, the best choice: it does not yellow over time or when laser-cut, it can be many different colors, and it has better light transmission. Polycarbonate, meanwhile, is stronger and more impact-resistant, but yellows under a variety of conditions and has limited coloring capability. I also had no idea that welding acrylic with chemicals was possible; however, the chemicals required to do so are famously hazardous to human health. I can think of a number of situations which acrylic welding would have solved, but it would have not been possible to meet the safety requirements.
I ended up working with a lot of acrylic last semester in the IDEATE course I took of laser cutting and 3D printing, and I did not know it had an interesting history and chemistry behind it. I makes me kind of upset that intention for creating acrylic was motivated by World War II, but I guess it is good that PMMA was able to revolutionize more than equipment for war. It truly is quite a versatile material. PMMA is just another example of how a product created for one use has been commercialized and adapted into the theatre production world. I am also interested in the use of PMMA for 3D printing because if this material releases incredible toxic gases when it is vaporized, then would there not be also some sort of health risk for when it is heated up and extruded from a printer? I guess that might contribute to why ABS and PLA are what is regularly marketed.
As my knowledge of 3D printing and vacuum forming develops, so does my knowledge of different types of plastics. I have to agree with the article that acrylic is truly a magical plastic. The article goes into the versatility that acrylic holds and I have been able to see these uses first hand as this plastic is quickly becoming one of my favorite materials to work with. I really appreciate how the article also focuses on the limitations of acrylic with 3D printing but it really focuses on its application with laser cutting. Something that I was aware of but not quite to the level was the danger of laser cutting acrylic. I was obviously aware that that whenever you burn plastic it releases toxic fumes but it was really interesting to learn the ways that laser cutting tables work to get rid of those fumes and the flammable nature of the dust that is given off during the process.
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