Acrylic suppliers produce acrylic in two forms: extruded or continuous cast acrylic and cell cast acrylic. Extruded acrylic is softer and less expensive than cell cast acrylic. Acrylic provides transparency like glass. Also, acrylic is much lighter than glass. In addition, you can cut an acrylic sheet with a saw, which is not possible in case of a glass.

Acrylic products, especially sheets are useful for manufacturers of furniture and architectural products. For example, acrylic office or home windows, bathroom panels and light enclosures are good alternatives for glass products. You can ask the acrylic product manufacturers to provide products with additional features such as laminated acrylic products or UV resistant acrylic products.

Some important parameters you must consider before buying an acrylic product from commercial acrylic manufacturers are:

1. Application of the acrylic products
2. Physical properties of the acrylic products: form, dimensions, transparency, thermal conductivity and scratch resistance
3. Types of acrylic products supplied by commercial acrylic manufacturers
4. Machinability of the acrylic if you want to use it as raw material
5. Operating conditions

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Buy cell cast acrylics from a reputable manufacturer of acrylics

Cell cast acrylics products are expensive, however their purity and durability justifies the cost. For long term applications, opt for cell cast acrylic products.

I recommend: Port Plastics, a reputable commodity plastic supplier, provides cell cast acrylic sheets to acrylic furniture manufacturers. Acrylics USA is another acrylic plastic sheet manufacturer that supplies cell cast acrylic sheets in different verities such as anti-glare sheets, fluorescent sheets and UV blocking sheets, translucent color sheets and UV absorbing sheets.

Buy extruded acrylics from a reputable manufacturer of acrylics

Extruded acrylics is less expensive than the cell cast acrylics. However, the durability is also lower than the cell cast acrylic products. Extruded acrylic products become brittle and loose transparency after certain use.

I recommend: Polymer Plastics is a reputable manufacturer of plastic products that supplies extruded acrylics round tubes and square tubes. Futurplast Extrusions, a manufacturer of extruded acrylic and polycarbonate products, offers acrylic sheets, rods and tubes.

Check out products offered by reputable acrylic distributors

You can compare different acrylic products based on their features and prices at distributors and retailers' websites. You can search for acrylic distributors that offer acrylic products in particular form. For example, if you want an acrylic sheet as a raw material for your product, search for acrylic sheet suppliers that offer a large variety of acrylic sheets.

I recommend: United States Plastic is a reputable online acrylic store that supplies acrylic sheets, rods and different shapes that you can use for manufacturing doors, windows and partitions. Professional Plastics is a distributor that offers products from reputable plexiglass manufacturers. Acme Plastics, one of the acrylic sheet suppliers, offers different forms of acrylic sheets such as non-glare sheets, UV filtering sheets, mirror sheets and clear sheets. Calsak Plastics is another plastic distributor that offers acrylic products in both categories: extruded acrylics and cell cast acrylics.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Do not apply extreme pressure on an acrylic product, as over pressure may break or rupture it.
• •  If you want to use the acrylic sheet for defense industry applications, consult the acrylic sheet suppliers about required thickness of the acrylic sheets.
• •  If you need very long sheets of acrylic, ask the acrylic sheet suppliers to opt for chemical welding of the sheets that provides a seamless acrylic sheet.