Plexiglas

Imagine when the Boers first discovered diamonds in Africa. They were not only impressed with their beauty, but how they were also the most durable material on the planet. The properties that diamonds exhibited gave them value, and their application jumpstarted an entire industry.

Dr. Otto Röhm had a similar experience when he successfully produced the world’s first solid, durable, and clear acrylic sheet.

Röhm had been studying the polymerization of acrylic acid for over 30 years. He believed that these materials could have value – but each of his creations was flawed. Regardless, he and his assistants continued to experiment by pouring monomers between two glass planes and allowing it to polymerize.

Then, in 1933, he made a discovery. When he used methyl methacrylate, its polymer peeled cleanly away from the two glass planes to reveal a clear, durable sheet. Later – as Röhm was researching applications for what he called “organic glass” – he discovered that it could be shaped when heated. Dr. Röhm immediately set out to put this material on the market and in 1936 announced the launch of his new product: Plexiglas ® acrylic sheet.

Over the last 75 years since its creation, Plexiglas had made a name for itself as a strong, reliable plastic across numerous markets and many applications.

A Reputation Forged on the Battlefront

Röhm may have invented Plexiglas in Germany, but it was his American company that sent acrylic sheet sales flying – literally.

As American and German ties broke down during World War I, Röhm and Haas, a chemical company founded by Röhm and his friend, Otto Haas, became two separate entities. The American company, which was headquartered in Philadelphia, operated under Haas’ direction, but Röhm continued to share new discoveries with his lifelong friend after the Treaty of Versailles was signed.

By 1936, Plexiglas was being produced in America, and it garnered a lot of attention at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Röhm and Haas Co. showcased Plexiglas instruments, lighting fixtures, and eyewear, while General Motors created a Pontiac with a Plexiglas body to demonstrate its interior workings.

Americans were having fun with this interesting mix of rubber and glass, but behind the scenes Röhm and Haas Co. was struggling with its German counterpart.

Throughout the late 1930s, the Nazi government gradually increased restrictions on the amount of information Röhm’s company could share with its American sister. After Dr. Röhm’s death in 1937, ties began diminishing. By 1939, business connections were completely severed. The Nazi regime had been preparing for war – and Röhm’s “organic glass” was seen as a vital war material.

While the rest of the world was celebrating the World’s Fair in New York, Hitler’s armies invaded Poland – their aircrafts protecting its occupants behind acrylic windows.

But Haas knew this would happen, and he sent sales representatives to sign contracts with the U.S. Army and Navy Air Corps. Plexiglas was the ideal material for aircraft: it was lighter and more transparent than glass and could be thermoformed into three-dimensional shapes. Tests had shown that it was not only able to withstand pressure differentials, but would not shatter if struck with a bullet or shrapnel.

The open cockpits of American military aircraft transformed into beautiful aerodynamic canopies, and planar windows morphed into thermoformed shapes that protected gunners and bombardiers from the outside environment. Eighteen months after war was declared in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act, which supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and other Allied nations with military equipment. By December 1941, U.S. military aircraft manufacturers sold almost 19,000 aircraft with Plexiglas parts.

Haas did not expect this number to quadruple.

On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed and isolationist tendencies in the US were destroyed. As a peaceful Sunday morning turned into fiery chaos, Plexiglas production exploded. With American pilots taking to the skies over Western Europe and the Pacific, nearly 48,000 planes rolled off production lines the following year. In 1943, Plexiglas supported the bodies of over 86,000 American-made warplanes.

On August 14, 1945, the Japanese surrender ended World War II. This celebration was bittersweet for Haas, because Aircraft production virtually ceased.

As American veterans returned home, they carried with them an appreciation of the Plexiglas parts that protected their bodies. These veterans, who may have owed their lives to the versatility of Plexiglas®, began using it when starting new businesses.

Plexiglas Signs into a New Market

Plexiglas gained a reputation for being an exceptionally durable and versatile material during the war, but Haas could not capitalize on it because inexpensive, familiar materials – like rubber and metals – were no longer rationed for military needs.

Haas tried to compensate by promoting Plexiglas’ aesthetic properties. Röhm and Haas Co. encouraged the production of Plexiglas cigarette boxes, doll furniture, umbrella handles, and jewelry. Welcoming these applications, Haas ordered the construction of a “Plexiglas Dream Suite” that was exhibited at department stores around the country. The suite demonstrated the use of Plexiglas in many applications, including edge-lit decorative mirrors and revolving acrylic hat racks, and proved that Plexiglas touched peoples’ lives numerous times a day.

But Plexiglas had much competition – new materials like stainless steel and porcelain enamel were becoming popular. Haas had to find a market that was just as reliable as the military aircraft market. Röhm and Haas explored various new applications, such as jukebox covers, taillights in automobiles, and in railroad cars, but Plexiglas began a very profitable enterprise with sign builders.

Prior to the war, there were only two ways to illuminate a sign – shine an external light on it, or outline it with neon tubes. Combining its durability and versatility with aesthetic properties, Plexiglas acrylic sheet could be fabricated into a three-dimensional, colorful sign that could be lit from within. By 1950, outdoor signage became one of the earliest and largest civilian markets for Plexiglas sheet.

Soon, acrylic signs were being manufactured for corporate giants like U.S. Rubber, Coca-Cola, and Shell Oil. Plexiglas salesmen would sell a company on Plexiglas acrylic sheet, then Plexiglas researchers would innovate a way to mimic the customer’s colors on the sign substrate.

Plexiglas suppliers argued that signs manufactured with Plexiglas were more durable and economical to maintain than traditional signage. They were stronger than neon signs, and they did not rust or fade like metal. Plexiglas opened the door to plastic substrates, and competition soon popped up with butyrate, fiberglass, polycarbonate, and other acrylic suppliers.

This competition kept scientists hard at work in developing the next-generation of innovative Plexiglas technologies. New grades of Plexiglas were created to compete with the properties of other materials. Plexiglas G remained the dominate cell-cast acrylic sheet, but in 1971 Plexiglas entered the continuous cast field with Plexiglas K. Plexiglas also paved the way for the rise of impact-resistant acrylic sheet – it was offered directly in cast acrylic form as Plexiglas 70, and it was offered indirectly as an extrusion powder as Plexiglas DR.

Despite these advances, Plexiglas endlessly faced tough competition. The sign industry is only one example, and the industry was changing again in the 1980s.

Cheap imported cell-cast acrylic sheet was competing with stateside suppliers and many major cell-cast plants closed as a result. Plexiglas researchers attempted to combat this by creating a continuous “melt-calendaring” process, leading to the introduction of the economical Plexiglas MC acrylic sheet.

Not only did production matter but the properties of this new grade had to be appropriate. But the industry kept changing and creating challenges. Neon lights were once again popular, and the introduction of fluorescent lighting played on the properties of the material. Regulations were created that limited the size or amount of signage present in various communities, and the industry had to adjust.

Because of these challenges in the sign industry, as well as similar challenges in other markets, Röhm and Haas Company decided to use more resources pursuing other opportunities and, in 1992, formed a global joint venture with Elf Atochem, a French chemical company. By 1998, Röhm and Haas Company divested their entire holdings of the Plexiglas brand to what would eventually become Altuglas International, a business of Arkema.

Back to its Old Tricks

Röhm and Haas Company had always valued Plexiglas as a cash cow; however, now was the time to reinvent it and use it as a growth opportunity. Researchers and marketers at Altuglas International faced a dilemma: how do you reinvent a brand as iconic as Plexiglas®?

By the 21st century, Altuglas International succeeded in reinventing the properties of Plexiglas that, once again, gave the brand value. And, like in 1933, new applications were created that jumpstarted an entire industry.

Between the late 1990s and the present day, Plexiglas augmented its image to not only include the color, clarity, and durability it was known for, but as a highly weatherable and high-gloss opaque finish for non-transparent applications like end-caps, sconces, and refractors.

Innovations like Plexiglas LD acrylic sheet were introduced for enhancing the visibility, brand identity and color consistency of LED signs while hiding pinpoint light sources.

New creations like the brilliant edge-lit technology behind curvable Plexiglas ELiT II eliminated the need for bulky display boxes used for illuminated designs and replaced them with shallower signs with a slimmer and sleeker look. And the latest advancement from Altuglas International’s Polymer Technology Center—Plexiglas Hi-Def™ acrylic sheet for digital signage displays—brought to the market a durable rear projection material with a high contrast ratio and wide viewing angle. Images projected onto this material are still visible at angles approaching 180° without hot spots or dark corners.

Today, Altuglas International offers a full line of innovative Plexiglas products for signs that require outdoor protection, color retention, high-impact resistance, or virtually any other application. They provide sign builders a wide range of performance benefits —from various levels of strength and clarity and weatherability, to UV- and craze-resistance, to color choices and more. Highlights include:

• Plexiglas LD light diffusing acrylic sheet hides pinpoint light emitting diodes as light sources, while maximizing brightness.

• Plexiglas ELiT II edge-lit acrylic sheet allows designers to put light sources at the sheet edges, making possible single- or double-sided displays as slim as 1.5-inch.

• Plexiglas SG acrylic sheet incorporates a proprietary technology that improves impact resistance over standard Plexiglas sheet by a factor of eight.

• Plexiglas SG Plus acrylic sheet, with both craze and impact resistance.

• Plexiglas day/night colors acrylic sheet that appears white when backlit at night and either blue (two shades), black, or green during the day.

• Plexiglas Frosted acrylic sheet offers an integral frosting effect that provides unusually high luminous transmission coupled with excellent hiding power.

• Plexiglas G acrylic sheet provides the best overall balance of properties, including impact resistance, light weight, optical clarity, weatherability, and ease of fabrication.

• Plexiglas MC acrylic sheet, an economical melt-calendared standard acrylic sheet, offers excellent weatherability, clarity, and processing characteristics.

• Plexiglas SQ acrylic sheet offers higher resistance to crazing by solvents, thinners, and paints, along with higher heat resistance and improved machining properties.

• Plexiglas Hi- Def™ acrylic sheet for digital signage displays allows for an acrylic screen that is easily fabricated but remains lightweight and scratch-resistant.

A Rich Heritage

Clearly, it is a different world then when Plexiglas was invented in 1933. Over the years, researchers have partnered with professionals in a wide variety of industries to adapt it to various applications and market demands. Whether it was for the canopies of aircraft, taillights of automobiles, components of medical devices, or displays for hi-definition projectors, Plexiglas acrylic sheet and resin products have been utilized in a variety of applications that helped shape the lifestyles of many Americans.

Today, Plexiglas acrylic is seen wherever its optical qualities, appearance, or durability properties are needed – applications that touch peoples’ lives throughout the day at work, at play, and around the home.

That’s why, when somebody discovers for the first time how Plexiglas was involved with the manufacturing process of many items, they are like a Boer discovering a diamond in South Africa, as Plexiglas is now, once again, valued for its beauty and durability.

For more information on how Plexiglas acrylics have helped shape our lives over the past 75 years, an interactive timeline and comprehensive history can be viewed at www.plexiglas.com/history.