PERSPEX® Announces 90th Anniversary Milestone

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PERSPEX® Announces 90th Anniversary Milestone

PERSPEX® is celebrating its 90th anniversary. PERSPEX®, from the Latin verb to see through, was registered as a trade mark by the British chemical company ICI on 16/11/1934. ICI was at that time looking for a safe, transparent alternative to glass, a material which would also be durable and robust.

Rearmament at the end of the ’30s led to the first orders: ICI produced cockpit canopies for fighter aircraft including the legendary Spitfire cockpit.

Clear, colourless PERSPEX® offers an impressive light transmission of 92% – a level not even matched by glass.

Preparatory work for PERSPEX® processing in the early days of the brand.

At the end of the Second World War, ICI looked for new markets for PERSPEX®. Acrylic sheet material was revealed to be an excellent transparent material for roofing purposes and PERSPEX® skylights allowed natural light into factories, agricultural building and schools.

The first PERSPEX® bath tub was created in 1947. Although the emphasis was on the material’s transparent qualities in the early days, later on, coloured matt finishes were also produced. PERSPEX® soon became popular in more and more everyday contexts. Acrylic sheet material is nearly always used in applications ranging from incubators for premature babies to implosion protection for cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions.

Starting in the 1960s and ’70s, things became really colourful: an increasing number of designers discovered the material with its unique formability and range of colours. Furniture, handbags, buttons, jewellery, glasses, toys and tableware were all made from PERSPEX®.

PERSPEX® lampshades from Finland.

A firm favourite in shop design and shop fitting applications since the 1950s, PERSPEX® is also a key element in signage and corporate design. But over the last 90 years, there has been a massive increase in the number of colour options. Practically every customer request for a particular colour can be fulfilled – the database already includes thousands of colour formulations for acrylic sheet material. Lighting technology has also experienced a great deal of innovation.

Perspex International Ltd. was acquired by Schweiter Technologies in late 2018. The product range has been part of 3A Composites since that time. The most significant application areas for this versatile material currently include architecture, visual communication, shopfitting and furniture construction as well as lighting technology.

© Mynt Design | UK

3A COMPOSITES
+27 82 450 8994
Lynn.Smith@display.3AComposites.com
www.display.3AComposites.com

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