Let’s get this out of the way in which to start with. Plexiglass is a model title. Like Kleenex or Band-Aids it’s usually substituted for the title of the product. Kleenex is a model of tissue, Band-Aids are a model of sheer strips, and Plexiglass is a model of acrylic.

When most individuals consider acrylic, the very first thing that involves thoughts is sturdiness. In comparison with glass, acrylic is just about unbreakable. When a framed piece is prone to be moved round quite a bit, acrylic appears the plain alternative, and when the merchandise is to be shipped, it appears a necessity.

It might come as a shock to study that if UPS or FedEx break the glass in a framed piece and spoil the paintings, they could not reimburse the market worth of the paintings. As an alternative, they could provide to reimburse solely the worth of the objects used to create the work; ie, the paint, the paper and the glass, a major lack of potential worth. Acrylic will assist to keep away from this catastrophe.

But, having mentioned that, in a single respect acrylic is extra fragile than glass; it’s simply scratched. Even simply rubbing a crumpled up paper towel throughout the floor of acrylic could cause mild floor abrasions. Because of this, a delicate material is suggested when cleansing it, both a cotton rag or a specifically constituted paper towel like a Scott Wyp-All, which has the feel and really feel of cotton. As well as, plastic cleaner have to be used to wash acrylic, by no means glass cleaner. All of which makes it bit extra concerned to wash than glass.

However there’s some excellent news with regards to cleansing acrylic. Acrylic is usually offered clear. It comes with a protecting plastic or paper masks over it, so when the masks is peeled away, the acrylic is as clear because it’s ever going to be. Glass, then again, is usually soiled when bought. It normally has a coat of mud on it which requires repeated and rigorous cleansing to take away.

All that cleansing has different implications as effectively. Unbeknownst to most framers, wiping a dry paper towel repeatedly throughout the floor of glass builds up static cost. Static cost is the offender that causes mud and lint to cling to the within of your glass. Should you’ve ever had the expertise of inspecting a glazed and framed piece previous to placing it right into a body, discovering it suitably freed from mud and lint, after which loading and securing it into the body solely to find, upon turning it over, that there are mud particles clinging to the within of the glass, static cost is the issue. To eradicate it, both keep away from wiping the glass to dry – go away it moist and let it dry the remainder of the way in which by itself – or, higher but, spend money on an anti-static brush. Brush the glass as soon as with the anti-static brush to eradicate the static cost earlier than loading the glass into the body.

Acrylic is even worse than glass with regards to static cost. In reality, static cost is the only greatest disadvantage to acrylic. Luckily, nevertheless, the issue is well solved by utilizing an anti-static brush proper after eradicating the protecting masks. This takes out the static cost with out requiring the acrylic to be cleaned with an anti-static plastic cleaner, a course of that appears pointless given the truth that the acrylic is already clear once you purchase it.

Now that we have addressed the only greatest disadvantage to acrylic, we must always tackle its single greatest profit. In comparison with glass acrylic is remarkably light-weight. With bigger items, say 24″x36″ and bigger, glass will be dangerously heavy, inflicting the body to bow beneath the burden. Not solely that, however glass will be harmful to deal with in these bigger sizes, threatening to flex and snap. Acrylic is most popular when framing bigger sizes.

However the troublesome fragility of glass offers it no less than one benefit over acrylic. Glass is comparatively simple to chop. Decreasing glass to measurement is an easy matter of scoring it with a Logan glass cutter and snapping it cleanly on the rating.

Image framing grade acrylic, then again, is near the 1/8″ thick. At that thickness it’s indistinguishable from glass in a body, however its thickness makes it a battle to attain and snap. Thinner acrylics can be found which will be scored and snapped, however they’re undesirable for image framing as a result of they give the impression of being plasticky within the body. The best solution to lower image framing grade acrylic is with a desk noticed. Go away the masks on and run it by means of the noticed. It cuts high-quality with a normal desk noticed blade.

Oh, and one final thing. Acrylic is dearer than glass. Since acrylic is a petroleum primarily based product, it’s prone to grease worth spikes. As with fuel, when the price of a barrel of oil goes up so does the value of acrylic, however when the price of a barrel goes down, the value would not fall commensurately, which implies you’ll at all times pay extra for acrylic.

With regards to worth and ease of slicing, glass beats acrylic. However with regards to sturdiness, cleanliness and light-weight weight acrylic wins each time. There are professionals and cons to glass and acrylic. Relying on the state of affairs one could also be most popular over the opposite.

Logan Graphic Merchandise is the world’s largest producer of mat cutters and film framing instruments. Their weblog affords sensible recommendation on a wide range of matters associated to image framing. Go to the weblog at  acrylic solid surface sheet factory