One of the most versatile materials revolutionising design, PLEXIGLAS combines striking visual appeal with durability and function. PLEXIGLAS’ versatility can be seen and experienced in several applications from architectural, commercial, retail and signage to infrastructure and transport among others. Homes to offices, highways to high-rises, indoors to outdoors, PLEXIGLAS offers a brilliant solution to a multitude of applications.
What is PLEXIGLAS?
PLEXIGLAS is an acrylic product that is available in clear, coloured, opaque, translucent or even patterned form in varying thicknesses. It comes as blocks, flats, sheets, corrugated sheets, moulding compounds and rods. Properties such as high light transmission and light diffusion make it an ideal material for design projects.
From a functional perspective, PLEXIGLAS offers impact resistance, weather resistance and noise reduction, and can withstand extreme pressure and heat.
PLEXIGLAS closely resembles glass but has more versatility, strength and workability, making it ideal for the automotive and aviation industries.
Here are six application areas that showcase how PLEXIGLAS’ versatility extends beyond mere functional use to architecture, artwork and interior design.
Residential
PLEXIGLAS is a relatively new entrant in the residential segment with its application scope only beginning to be fully explored. The acrylic material finds use in diverse areas, replacing traditional glass, laminate and stone in a more cost-effective and durable way.
From furniture and splashbacks, benchtops and shower recesses, to skylights and windows, PLEXIGLAS is an extremely popular material in home design and comes in a range of product lines and looks. PLEXIGLAS (Mineral) Hi Gloss is ideal for bathrooms and kitchens while PLEXIGLAS LED adds a new dimension to lighting with speciality products for edge lighting, back lighting and side lighting when used with LEDs.
PLEXIGLAS’ formability makes it suitable for furniture design, feature walls, partitions and ornate lighting fixtures, while its durability and ease of maintenance make it a great option for patio roofing, pool fences, greenhouses and skylights.
Commercial
Display cabinets in cake shops and cafes, point of sale kiosks at high end retailers, vending machines, bus shelter walls, stadium barriers, aquariums and glasshouses, and even machine guards in factories – PLEXIGLAS is the go-to material in a broad range of commercial applications. Some of PLEXIGLAS’ attributes include ability to focus, diffuse and screen light, as well as resistance to scratching, chemicals, weather and noise.
PLEXIGLAS (Alltop) Resist is used in commercial roofing and glazing, while PLEXIGLAS Hi-Gloss and PLEXIGLAS Satin Ice are preferred for product displays, ambient lighting and shop fittings.
Architectural
PLEXIGLAS may look like glass but at half the weight of glass, and with greater mouldability and impact resistance, this material opens up immense design opportunities, especially in architecture. It can be applied to delicate structures and functional areas alike – use it as a facade to let in light, or specify it for overhead glazing, including in fall-proof and weather resistant areas. If spectacular is more your style, go a step further by creating rooftop pool casings on high rise buildings where swimmers can enjoy the view even when underwater.
Specialist finishes such as PLEXIGLAS Mineral, PLEXIGLAS Reflections, PLEXIGLAS Satin Ice, and PLEXIGLAS Textures expand design possibilities for architects and designers by providing access to innovative patterns, designs and textures.
Transport
PLEXIGLAS has been part of the transport industry since its creation. From airplane windows to the pilots’ windscreens, this material continues to prove itself in some of the toughest environmental conditions. Being 11 times more impact resistant than glass, PLEXIGLAS is preferred for applications in helicopters, trains and automobiles too.
Infrastructure
Noise control applications in high traffic areas that once relied on concrete barricades, embankments and trees, now use sound barriers made from the aesthetically pleasing PLEXIGLAS in clear or colourful options.
First developed in 1980, PLEXIGLAS Soundstop has been used extensively around the world along motorways and high traffic areas. This barrier is also effective for wind reduction on structures such as bridges.
In addition to striking visual appeal, PLEXIGLAS noise reduction barriers also provide better safety for drivers due to greater visibility, impact resistance and shatter proofing.
Signage
The aesthetic and functional attributes of PLEXIGLAS have a ready market in the signage industry. While it can be used as a protective cover for printed signs, it also offers itself as an excellent substrate, allowing images to be transferred directly onto its surface to create unlimited design possibilities in signage, lighting and art installations.
Since PLEXIGLAS comes in rods, tubes, blocks and sheets, the formable material allows signage to take on different shapes.
Plastral Pty Ltd is a premier supplier of PLEXIGLAS in Australia and New Zealand.
