Cast VS Extruded acrylic

Hello! I have been laser cutting with Pololu for a few years, and I just found that you offer now cast and extruded clear acrylic. I have the impression you only offered one before, and I would like to know (if this is correct) which one it was. I need it for scientific research so I need the cuts to be accurate and the thickness to be reliable. I read that one of the acrylics has a less reliable thickness, does that mean that the surface is not really flat? Thank you very much!

Efren

Hi, Efren.

Although we already discussed this over the phone this morning, I’ll still reply here in case it helps others that come across this post.

While we’ve carried both cast and extruded acrylic, we only recently listed both options for clear and black acrylic. Previously, we would use extruded acrylic whenever possible and only use cast acrylic for jobs that require engraving.

For our purposes, we have not seen a difference in the cutting accuracy when comparing cast and extruded acrylic of the same thickness. Extruded acrylic does have a lower melting point, so it’s possible that the kerf width is different, but this would be too small for us to characterize.

Extruded acrylic sheets generally have a better thickness tolerance due to the manufacturing process; however, some acrylic thicknesses are only available in cast form.

You can read more about Cast and extruded acrylic on our Materials for Laser Cutting page.

I hope this helps!