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Old 02-16-2005, 10:46 PM   #1 (permalink)
 
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Anyone know where the post is? --A acrylic company posted about 4-5 days ago about low grade acrylic that starts shielding the uva-uvb rays after a short period of bed use(just several hundred hours) They said you could e-mail them and get a list of companies that use the high grade. I need some help--I've looked but cannott find it.

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Old 02-16-2005, 10:51 PM   #2 (permalink)
 
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Ultra Violet Resources sells top quality acrylics at good prices.
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Old 02-16-2005, 10:58 PM   #3 (permalink)
 
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PM Neon...He can always find everything!!! He's great at that.
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Old 02-18-2005, 12:06 PM   #4 (permalink)
 
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I found this post on Tanningprofessionals.com
Thanks to Marty and Carol.





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#1 02-09-2005, 11:59 PM
acrylicsusa
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How to buy better acrylics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There appears to be an increasing number of posts that complain about the quality and performance of acrylic tanning bed shields. Part of the reason for the apparent decline in shield performance is that some manufacturers appear to be substituting lower quality acrylic materials in place of higher quality domestic cell cast materials. This development may be more common because of unprecedented price increases in material prices.

The following discussion should help salon owners understand the differences between acrylic materials, ask the right questions and be more discerning in their purchases of shields. It was compiled by chemical engineers and technicians employed at Acrylics USA, LLC , a Waukesha, Wisconsin acrylic cell cast sheet manufacturer whose key staff have over 100 years of combined experience manufacturing acrylic materials and tanning bed shields. Hopefully you will find it useful to judge the quality, performance and life expectancy of any acrylic shields you buy.

1. Acrylic sheet material (which is the material that is taped, printed, cut, machined, drilled and formed into tanning bed shields) does not naturally transmit UV light. During the manufacturing process, chemicals are introduced into the liquid monomer, which allow the finished sheet to transmit UV light. The chemicals, formulas, ratios, temperatures and the timing of the addition of these chemicals during the reaction -- that must take place to convert the liquid monomer into hard, clear acrylic sheets -- have been developed by each acrylic sheet manufacturer and are proprietary to that manufacturer.

2. These chemicals, along with other additives, are also what keep the sheet from yellowing and becoming brittle under prolonged exposure to UV light.

3. There are three different methods/processes used to make acrylic sheet. They are:
A. Cell Casting
B. Continuous Casting
C. Extruding.

4. Of the three processes there is no question that the cell casting method produces the highest quality sheet. This is primarily because cell casting uses a longer polymerization or curing time vs. the curing time used by the continuous cast or extruded method. The curing cycle is where the monomers (single) are converted into polymers (many). The longer curing time used in cell casting results in a sheet with a higher molecular weight. The higher molecular weight of the cell cast sheet is created because the monomers are more completely polymerized than the monomers in the continuous cast or extruded sheet.


5. More complete polymerization means there are a fewer number of residual monomers left in the sheet (a residual monomer is a monomer that has not been tied to or joined with or become part of a chain, polymers). A high level of residual monomers can cause acrylic to age prematurely as compared to the length of the aging process for a cell cast acrylic sheet. Continuous cast and extruded sheets leave more residual monomers in a sheet than the number of residual monomers left in cell cast sheets. Because of this higher residual monomer level, continuous cast sheets may perform well initially but they degrade much sooner than cell cast sheets ¨C especially when exposed to UV light (i.e. a tanning bed).

Note: The reason the cell cast sheet performs better is that the acrylic produced via cell casting is typically exposed to the curing process at least 8 times longer than acrylic made using the continuous cast or extruded process. The analogy would be like the difference between bread that is baked in an oven for a few minutes vs. bread that is baked for a few hours. In both cases you have bread but one will be like raw dough.

6. The surfaces that mold the continuous cast or extruded acrylic impart flaws to the sheet because of the design and construction of the molds. The mold surfaces are large belts 112¡± x 300 ft. long and contain seams (regardless of how much time, money and effort is put into polishing or feathering them out). The flaws may be virtually hidden and evade visual inspections but they do impact the performance. If seams fall on bends or corners of a fabricated acrylic piece they can be especially problematic. Cell cast molds by contrast are smaller (i.e. 6¡¯ x 8¡¯) and contain no seams. Therefore there are no seams to impart flaws to the sheet because the mold is one seamless surface for each side of the sheet.

This background information is being shared so that buyers of replacement acrylics and new beds may better understand why there appears to be a decline in the performance of acrylic tanning bed shields. Please apply this information to better understand why these factors may affect the life of your acrylic shields:

A. Some manufacturers, distributors and fabricators of tanning bed shields have increased the use of acrylic materials or shields manufactured overseas. Acrylic sheets made overseas many times do not use the best raw materials or cleanest processes. If the liquid monomer is not multi-filtered or handled properly in the pre-reactive step, UV performance will decline and the sheets will have invisible, imbedded flaws. The shields may be cheaper but this is the classic case of ¡°you get what you pay for¡±. These sheets and the tanning bed shields made from them will degrade more quickly and their UV transmission is questionable.



B. Traditionally, continuous cast and extruded acrylic sheets will not transmit a high level of UV light as long as cell cast acrylic sheets. Because of the lower costs of continuous cast sheets, some fabricators are opting to use continuous cast sheets to make replacement and OEM tanning bed shields. These sheets may initially transmit an acceptable amount of UV light but due to the limitations discussed above, shields made from continuous cast material traditionally have prematurely failed, aged and cracked and their UV transmission degraded substantially.


We hope this information is helpful. We strongly suggest that you insist your supplier provide you with acrylic shields that have been fabricated from cell cast acrylic sheets.

There are many other reasons why we feel Acrylics USA manufactures a superior acrylic sheet ¨C especially for tanning bed shield applications. We encourage and ask you to ask for shields made from our sheets. If you would like the names of fabricators who buy our material for tanning bed shields, or a technical discussion why our cell cast material is superior please e-mail, call or write us.

Acrylics USA, LLC .
912 Tesch Ct. ¡ñ Waukesha, WI 53186-1476 ¡ñ 262-650-8889 ¡ñ Fax: 262-650-6777
sales.acrylicsusa@sbcglobal.net

[ This Message was edited by: domi_2 on 2005-02-18 12:08 ]
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