Annealing Acrylic Sheet

When to anneal acrylic sheet annealing minimizes the effects of stress on items fabricated from acrylite sheet.

Annealing acrylic sheet.

Annealing the acrylic allows fabricators to strengthen the acrylic sheet and reduce or eliminate the fabrication stress through a process of controlled heating and then cooling. Internal stresses in the sheet can cause crazing the appearance of numerous tiny cracks in the material when acrylic comes in contact with solvents such as glass cleaners or paints. Annealing the strengthening of acrylic sheet through controlled heating and then cooling minimizes the effects of fabrication stress. Annealing consists of prolonged heating of the acrylic part at temperatures lower than those used for forming followed by slow cooling.

To anneal acrylic sheet heat it to 180 f 80 c just below the deflection temperature and cool slowly. Annealing is recommended by cyro in most cases. Tips for annealing acrylic sheet. Heat one hour per millimeter of thickness for thin sheet at least two hours total.

It alleviates most of the stress induced by line bending thermoforming screen printing cementing machining buffing flame polishing and other fabrication operations. Annealing is the process of relieving stresses in molded or formed plastics by heating to a predetermined temperature maintaining this temperature for a set period and slowly cooling the parts.