How Do Acrylic Sheets Handle Extreme Temperatures?Three years ago, a contractor in Alaska called me in a panic. The acrylic panels on their new visitor center were making loud popping sounds every morning when the temperature hit -30°F. By noon, when it warmed up to 10°F, the panels would pop again

I still remember the phone call from Dr. Martinez at a biotech lab in San Diego. Three months after installing what they thought were "chemical-resistant" acrylic panels in their new cleanroom, stress cracks started appearing around the edges. Turns out, nobody had checked whether the panels could h

I'll never forget the call I got from Mike, a display designer in Chicago. He was furious because his client rejected a $50,000 museum exhibit, claiming the acrylic cases looked "cheap and cloudy" next to the glass ones in the adjacent gallery. After some back-and-forth, we figured out the problem -

I'll never forget the call I got from Mike, a fabricator in Phoenix, about six months ago. He was practically yelling into the phone: "These acrylic sheets are garbage! Half of them cracked when we tried to bend them, and the other half look like someone breathed on them wrong. The supplier said the

Last week, a display manufacturer called me with an urgent question: "We need curved acrylic panels for a high-end retail installation, but our fabricator says it's impossible without cracking. Is there a way to bend acrylic sheets without destroying them?" This conversation happens more often than