ACRYLIC DISPLAYS

Plastic Displays Plastic displays – what are they?

Plastic is a common name for Polymers: materials made of long strings of carbon and other elements. Each unit in a string is called a monomer, and is a chemical usually derived from oil. The monomer is made into polymer by chain-linking reactions. This is like making a daisy chain. Instead of flowers, carbon atoms are joined together. The appearance of the daisy chain will be different if you use different colored flowers, and so will polymers. There are many different types of plastic, depending on the starting monomer selected, the length of polymer chains, and the type of modifying compounds added.

Each plastic has been developed for a special purpose. All of the following are widely used in point of purchase displays for trade shows, exhibits, promotional events, hotels, institutions, museums, and the food industry: boxes, bins, shelves, pedestals, fixtures, vitrines, drawers, covers, brackets, frames, components, accessories, podiums, partitions, lenses, diffusers, shades, dividers, literature holders, graphic retainers, models, prototypes, handles, custom fabrications, hemispheres, oven formed, decorative, promotional, advertising objects, signs, trays, guards, dispensers, panels, windshields, tabletops, cabinets, doors, inserts.

Fabrication of displays is accomplished by cutting, drilling, bending, thermoforming, and banding acrylic sheets, rods, or tubing. These displays can be in a variety of forms and sizes. The machines used in fabrication include: table saw, radial arm saw, band saw, jig saw, jointer, router, drill press, shaper, computer, belt sander, strip heater, vertical mill, horizontal mill, engine lathe, disc sander, fixtures, buffer, hydrogen torch, syringe, solvent, clamps, spring clips, and wax. Plastic displays can be used in a large range of environments. Plastics are practical, effective, durable, attractive and popular. Plastics come in two types, thermoplastics and thermosetting. Thermosetting plastics undergo a chemical change with heat and pressure, and set into a permanent shape. Thermosetting plastics cannot be softened by reheating.

Thermoplastics become soft when heated, and harden when cooled, no matter how often the process is repeated. Heating does not change the chemical composition. The properties of plastics that make them attractive are that they are attractive, hard, slippery, soft, rubbery, tough, flexible, insulation from electricity, insulation from heat, light weight, hygienic, non-rusting, easy to shape, easy to color, inexpensive. Both thermosetting and thermoplastic plastics can degenerate.