Normalising
Cast acrylic along with other plastics have stresses introduced during the manufacturing process, normally these stresses have little or no effect on the majority of machined and fabricated components.
When components need machining to very close tolerances, it is beneficial to normalise the material and once done the material is fully stress-relieved and fully shrunk.
The normalising process takes place at closely controlled temperatures in an air circulating oven, with cycle times adjusted to suit sheet thickness.
Annealing
Cast acrylic along with other plastics may have stresses introduced during machining and other processes, although we do all we can to reduce these stresses by using sharp tooling, coolants and correct feeds and speeds.
These stresses can be reduced or removed by the annealing process which is a gentle heat process, taking place at closely controlled temperatures in an air circulating oven, with cycle times adjusted to suit sheet thickness.
