Acrylic Mirror Cutting Guideline

With the development of scientific and technological progress, Acrylic，a  synthetic materials that made of PMMA are well received by the population at home and abroad. It has only 1/2 weight of Glass and 17 times harden than that.According to formed method, acrylic can be divided into casting and extrusion.Cast Acrylic:Liquid ingredients mix in glass molds to form Cast Acrylic.Extrusion Acrylic: Extruded acrylic is a type of acrylic made when the heated liquid polymer is fed, or extruded, then forms into a sheet.The transmission of cast acrylic is 98%, and Extruded acrylic is 95%The cast acrylic is harden than extruded acrylic ,but extruded acrylic is more thermoformable than cast acrylic. The productiong process of extruded acrylic is faster than cast acrylic and the dimension is uniform.So cast acrylic is a better option for larger structures, installations, etc.Extruded acrylic is widely used in sign holders, skylights, and glazing applications.

Acrylic Mirror is the acrylic sheet that done the electroplating process. It’s divided into single side mirror(cover coating mirror, cover adhesive tape mirror), double side mirror, two way mirror. In addition, it’s easy cutting into various shape to meet different application.

Then how to cut a acrylic mirror?

Acrylic Mirror Cutting Guideline

Laser Cutting:

Lasers may be used to cut virtually any image on a acrylic mirror with minimal material waste. The laser operates by focusing a large amount of energy on a small defined area and melting and vaporizing the material. Speed and light intensity must match well when cutting so that it produces a clean, polished edge without any saw chips. When cutting thick acrylic mirror, laser cutting will be slower.

Circular Table And Panel Saw Cutting:

It is generally used to realize precise straight-line cutting of one or more acrylic mirror plates. When cutting the material, the mirror surface is facing down, and there should be a protective film between every two sheets to protect the paint back coating during the cutting process. Straight cutting is the fastest method of cutting.

Saber Saw Cutting:

Similar to laser cutting, it can be used according to the input graphics, but the accuracy and effect of cutting are not as good as laser cutting. There are more debris generated during cutting, which is a waste of material.

Manual scribing and cutting:

In the absence of equipment, only a simple straight-line cutting of a single piece of acrylic mirror with a thickness of less than 3mm can be manually scribed. Mark the line to be scribed on the acrylic mirror with a blade, make a few back and forth strokes, then place one end on the table and one end in the air, and break the acrylic mirror by hand along the scratches. If you want the edges to be neat, you can polish the edges.

Above are the usual ways to cut an acrylic and Saber Saw Cutting is the most widely use way. For example, it’s a great option to cut the character and pattern and another irregular shapes by laser machine.