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.

Annealing acrylic sheet. Annealing consists of prolonged heating of the acrylic part at temperatures lower than those used for forming followed by slow cooling. Sometimes formed parts are placed in jigs to prevent distortion as internal stresses are relieved during annealing. Cooling times are generally shorter than heating times see the chart below. It alleviates most of the stress induced by line bending thermoforming screen printing cementing machining buffing flame polishing and other fabrication operations.

When to anneal acrylic sheet annealing minimizes the effects of stress on items fabricated from acrylite sheet. 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. Internal stresses set up during fabrication of the article are reduced or eliminated by this treatment all edges should be cut or machined with as little internal stress as possible. 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.

Annealing is recommended by cyro in most cases. Annealing the strengthening of acrylic sheet through controlled heating and then cooling minimizes the effects of fabrication stress.