Cast, Extruded, Continuously cast acrylic. READY, Cast means cell cast. It is made in a completely different way than extruded or continuously case material. Thicker materials are almost always cast. It is made from pouring resins between two pieces of glass and the thickness is controlled by the separation between the pieces of glass. The problem in getting cast material in the thinner material is that it can be uneven, that probably won't matter a great deal if you are just using it for glazing but it will matter a great deal if you are trying to fabricate something. Extruded is made from pellets that are melted and sent through some rollers to determine the thickness and width. Continuously CAST is really only made by Lucite. Back when the earth's crust was cooling we used Lucite L for fabrication because it's thickness was totally reliable and the material was great. Then the owners invested their time and energy into making skylights and hot tubs and the clarity of the product became completely unreliable. That's when we changed to using Acrylite by Cyro/Evonik. All of these manufacturers are chemical companies so they change owners on a fairly regular basis. Lucite is indeed back into making product for picture framers! You'll see some of that come out of our shop. Bob loves the material because of it's particular chemical composition. WE bend our frames and Lucite is ideal for that purpose! There was a problem however, not with the material but with the many changes that have taken place in the solvent industry. NO solvent that we had would work on the Lucite L it simply came apart in places. That caused Bob to talk to a chemist and work out his own formula for cementing and it's all under control now. The Lucite L comes with a white masking that is heavier than the usual blue film mask thus protecting the acrylic better but is MUCH easier to remove than paper. Lucite does not yet make a full line of framing acrylic but I think they will in the near future. Now to the material that started this whole comment. The "made anywhere other than the USA" material is import of course. Any material made outside of the US has NO standards of control. It may be good with this sheet and the next will have flaws in the cast process or variance in thickness that isn't acceptable for picture framing. Buyer beware! Most often acrylic for glazing is NOT cell cast. All US manufacturers have a line of extruded material that is of picture framing quality. Cell cast is more expensive, so you may be getting extruded and not be aware. By the way if you think your supplier understands all the materials he is selling you are mistaken. Especially when you're talking about the special products used in picture framing. It is incumbent upon you to understand the various products and manufacturers or the supplier will simply send you whatever they have on hand. IF you place an order for regular clear, that's what you'll get but it may not be framing grade or even domestic product.
