Ultraviolet Filtering Acrylics

UV filtering acrylics help defend precious artwork and documents against harmful light without limiting visitors' ability to view the items.

Light, produced naturally or artificially, is needed to sustain life on this planet...but it can also be very harmful. In fact ultraviolet light is one of the worst enemies of valuable artwork and historical documents.

Polycast offers a full line of UV filtering acrylics to help defend precious items against this harmful light. Our UF-96 represents the evolution UV filtering acrylics, but we also produce UF-3 (yellow edge color), UF-4 (slightly yellow edge color) and amber colored acrylics in a wide variety of thicknesses and sheet sizes to meet your exact specifications. S-A-R (Super Abrasion Resistant) coatings are also available for high traffic exhibits.

Clear Perfection
UF-96 offers the clearest attractive medium for use in displaying and protecting your most important valuables. Its pleasing clear edge enhances the integrity and visual aesthetics of your exhibit and allows you to achieve nearly invisible glue joints that give the impression of a singular protective case. There are certain amber colored acrylics that offer a slightly higher level of UV protection, but they do not provide the "clear" effect of the UF-96.

UF-96 can be cut, drilled, or routed using standard woodworking tools as well as screenprinted and thermoformed. It also has five times the impact resistance and half the weight of glass.

What is harmful light?
The wavelength of light is measured in nanometers (billionths of a meter). Light with short wavelengths causes more structural damage and fading of colors in organic materials than light with longer wavelengths. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is considered to be the range of light between 200nm and 400nm. The atmosphere filters out most of the sun's UV radiation below 300nm, but the remaining (between 300nm and 400nm) can cause significant damage. Artificial light sources can also contribute some amount of UV light in this harmful wavelength range. Polycast UF Acrylics protect precious exhibit items from these harmful UV rays.

Spectral Curve
This graph illustrates the blocking effectiveness of UF-96 as compared to other products, with the Percent Transmission axis signifying the light transmission of the acrylic at a given wavelength. Light below 400nm is considered to be ultraviolet. As you can see, almost all of the ultraviolet rays are blocked by UF-96, giving you the clearest, strongest guardian for your items.

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