An inspirational brand for more than 85 years
Had it not been for chance, the wide range of ideas for PLEXIGLAS® may never have existed: In the 1930s, the chemists at Röhm & Haas were researching how to create a type of transparent rubber. One day, they left an experimental compound on the windowsill. The next day, instead of finding rubber, the perplexed scientists discovered a new type of plastic: acrylic glass, or to use the chemically correct term polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). The new material was named “PLEXIGLAS” and registered as a brand on August 9, 1933.
PLEXIGLAS® is the original. We invented it and we see ourselves as the partner of choice for customers who want to develop something new.
From Darmstadt across the whole world
More than 85 years later, we encounter creative applications of PLEXIGLAS® everywhere we go, be it at home, at work, in shops or restaurants, on cars or in buildings. The plastic is not just attractive to manufacturers of a multitude of products, however – it has always been an inspiration for ideas and creativity. The brand was part of many fields of application from the start and has opened up new paths. For instance, PLEXIGLAS® stood for innovative design even in the 1950s with applications such as the legendary radio record player combination Phonosuper SK4, which was dubbed “Snow White’s coffin” due to its PLEXIGLAS® cover and which was a sensation at the time. In the field of architecture, the brand acrylic glass set new standards with the construction of the roof of the Olympic Stadium in Munich in the early 1970s: The famous tent roof is made of PLEXIGLAS® sheets. Today, PLEXIGLAS® is part of the reason why smartphones and other mobile devices are becoming thinner and thinner, and gives windows, doors and even household appliances an elegant appearance.
Durable
PLEXIGLAS® is UV-resistant and extremely durable. It is therefore ideally suited for extraordinary projects such as a greenhouse in the Antarctic.
Transparent
In the Clarion Hotel in Helsinki, the pool protrudes 1.5 meters out of the building – 17 floors up. Whoever dares to look down through the transparent floor made of PLEXIGLAS® when swimming therefore needs to have a good head for heights, as the pool provides a distortion-free view of everything below.
Versatile
PLEXIGLAS® is available in many different colors with different surfaces, making it a popular material for exhibition booth construction, furniture design and shopfitting. PLEXIGLAS® Satinice, for example, has a satin finish. As such, it still lets light through these shelves created by the Dutch designers from RENS without being completely transparent. At the same time, the double-sided velvety surface looks warm and soft, giving it a high-quality and classy appearance.
Durable and bright
The PLEXIGLAS® sheets drape the building housing a branch of the Victoria’s Secret fashion label on Shanghai’s Huaihai Road like a curtain of light. The gleaming impression is created by the translucence of PLEXIGLAS®, and this impression is one which will last: Since it is highly weather-resistant, the degree of translucence of the brand acrylic glass remains the same even when it is subjected to the sun for a long time.
Innovative
There is a growing trend towards ever larger airplane windows. For this reason, Röhm has commissioned the world’s most cutting-edge stretching and polishing line for aviation materials. It opens up new design possibilities for cabin windows and cockpit windshields.
High quality
Vorwerk calls its Thermomix “the unique food processor” and relies on first-rate materials for its products. PLEXIGLAS® gives the housing surface a permanent high-quality appearance and is also robust: Clanking bowls have as little negative effect on the material as food or cleaning products.
PLEXIGLAS® has long been an inspirational material for designers and is firmly established in many areas of application. In others, it contributes to shaping innovations.
An innovative partner
Like the LEDs, many other things exist today which would have been inconceivable some 85 years ago. And the applications of tomorrow are also coming into being thanks to the inspirational power and nearly endless possibilities of PLEXIGLAS®. For example, cabin windows for aviation could become much larger in the future, thus giving all passengers a great view above the clouds. “Although it will still take some time for panorama airplanes to become a reality, we see ourselves as an innovative partner to our customers and as such, we are already preparing for the trend towards larger cabin windows,” says Falk Majert, Head of the Acrylic Products division at Röhm, which produces sheets, tubes and rods made of PLEXIGLAS® and is one of the leading manufacturers of aviation materials. As of this year, the division therefore produces the material needed for cabin windows in the world’s largest formats. “PLEXIGLAS® is ideal for aviation because of its relatively low weight and high break resistance,” says Majert. “The larger sheet sizes open up completely new design possibilities for manufacturers when it comes to cockpit windshields and cabin windows.”
Combining design and functionality
New possibilities for designers also arise in the automotive industry when combustion engines are replaced by electric drives. These require less cooling, which makes large radiator grills superfluous. As a result, there is room for other design elements, such as large panels, at the front of the vehicle. But the materials used for this part of the vehicle need to withstand high mechanical stresses such as rockfall and comply with safety standards.
Röhm has therefore developed a PLEXIGLAS® special molding compound, which boasts high durability as well as an aesthetically pleasing high-gloss, jet-black surface. “This is an example of how PLEXIGLAS® combines design and functionality and thereby contributes to shaping innovations,” says Siamak Djafarian, Head of the Business Unit Molding Compounds at Röhm, which produces the PLEXIGLAS® molding compounds. In the future, we will continue to encounter PLEXIGLAS® all around us in our everyday lives, in even more creative applications for which designers and engineers utilize the inspiring properties of the brand acrylic glass to make their ideas a reality.