Acrylic sheets ?

[Faisal1976us]

Hi ,,,

I have in my country this kind of acrylic sheets , do you think it ok for making reef aquariums ?
http://www.starpolyacrylic.com/home.htm

 

[Logzor]

I would only use it if it is real acrylic.

The address of that place sounds scary lol: "Plot No 8, Sector C5 , Karachi Export Processing Zone"

 

[mfinn]

ask your question in this thread

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13568770#post13568770post13568770

 

[kgross]

it looks like they make cast acrylic which is good, but I have no idea of the quality of the cast. You should send Acrylics a PM and ask him if he is familiar with that company.

Kim

 

[Acrylics]

Need a little more physical data to get a better feel for it. If you can get the molecular chain length (aka molecular weight), it would be helpful to determine solubility of the material. Looking for a number under 2,000,000u, sometimes listed as g/mol. I didn't see it on the physical data page.

Basically, what it means is that the lower the number, the easier it is to break down under solvent and any other stresses. Chain lengths above 2,000,000 units do not break down as easily with commercially available solvents so glue joints may not be very strong. Chain lengths which are too low, break down too easily and tend to craze under stress (like extruded acrylics, typically ~75,000u or 75,000 g/mol)

Not trying to confuse the issue, just that this is kinda critical to know if it is good for our purposes

Other thing you might be able to do is buy a small sheet and play around with it to see how it does.

HTH,
James

 

[smartinez72]

^^^^ YEAH! What he said.

 

[ihavtats29]

Acrylics do you work in the lab at Lucite International? Ive heard the chemists there talking like that a few times , way over my head LOL

 

[Acrylics]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13572520#post13572520 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ihavtats29
Acrylics do you work in the lab at Lucite International? Ive heard the chemists there talking like that a few times , way over my head LOL

Kinda funny, I don't work there but I work with them. I do product development and evaluation for them from time to time. They'll send out pallets of new product material for testing and then I'll train their technical engineers to work with those materials and develop proper applications.

As for the "over my head" thing, no different than when I talk to my brother in law, one of those computer gurus, or an HVAC guy I know that can tell you everything about BTUs, Freon, etc., over my head but a necessity for their jobs. One thing I learned when talking to engineers, it helps to speak their language

James

 

[ihavtats29]

when i was doing the hvac there i had access to all the acrylic i could every use, the maintance director told me i could have all the scrap i needed and i could get full sheets for next to nothing, but since then he retired and im no longer to get that kind of deal from them. my dad is in the plastics industry i can get it at a good deal there but nothing close to what i was able to get it for.