Plastics can be significantly softer than aluminum or comparably hard metal alloys. They should not liquefy during milling, that means that they must be machinable. Nor should the milling force them into any chemical reactions.

Among thermoplastics, which quickly become pasty or even liquefy during milling because of their chemical composition, acrylic glass (name: polymethyl methacrylate, often known as Plexiglas®) has, for example, proved to be suitable for processing in our production.

Using "Front Panel Designer" , you can select clear and red acrylic glass as your source material. Please refer to the following two tables for details of the machinable areas and the respective panel thicknesses available.

Machinable areas of acrylic glass panels

Color variations and thicknesses for acrylic glass panels

Polyoxymethylene (POM, also known as polyacetal or polyformaldehyde) is a semi-crystalline thermoplastic. POM has been on the market since 1956 and because of its high rigidity, low coefficient of friction and excellent dimensional stability, is used as an engineering plastic, especially for precision parts.

This material can be processed without test milling.

Bakelite is a duroplastic material based on phenolic resin, which was developed in 1905 by the Belgian chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland and named after him. The heat stable phenoplastic material Bakelite was the first industrially produced plastic. Bakelite molded parts are manufactured by compression molding and hardening a phenolic resin/filler mixture in a heated mold.

Bakelite® and Bakelit® are registered trademarks of Hexion Specialty Chemicals GmbH in Germany - Bakelite is also the everyday name.

We require a test milling for this material.

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, occasionally polytetrafluorethene) is an unbranched, linear, semi-crystalline polymer of fluorine and carbon. Colloquially, this plastic is often referred to by the DuPont brand name Teflon®. Other commonly used brand names of other PTFE manufacturers include Dyneon PTFE (formerly Hostaflon) and Gore-Tex for PTFE membranes.

PTFE belongs to the group of polyhalogenated olefines, which also includes PCTFE (polychlorotrifluoroethylene). It is one of the thermoplastics, although it also exhibits properties which are rather more typical of duroplastics. Teflon® is a nonpolar polymer.

We require a test milling for this material.

Polyvinyl chloride is an amorphous thermoplastic. PVC (symbol) is hard and brittle and it is only the addition of plasticizers and stabilizers that makes it soft, pliable and suitable for technical applications. PVC is known for its use in floor coverings, window profiles, pipes, for cable insulation and sheathing and for records which in Anglo-Saxon are interestingly enough called vinyl.

This material can be processed without test milling.

Pertinax is a fiber composite material made of paper and a phenol-formaldehyde synthetic resin (phenoplast). This so-called bonded paper is used in electrical engineering and electronics as an insulating material and insulating substrate for electronic components and printed circuits, mainly in the form of printed circuit boards (PCBs).

From Pertinax, as well as from the related bakelite and the so-called laminated fabric, small amounts of phenol and formaldehyde always evaporate, which not only produces a strong odor, but also a health risk especially in mechanical processing.

This material can be processed without test milling.

An epoxy resin (EP###) is composed of polymers (polyethers), which according to the reaction yield a duroplastic material of high strength and chemical resistance upon the addition of suitable hardeners. When epoxy resin and hardener are mixed, the initially viscous mixture usually takes between a few minutes and several hours to harden, depending on composition and temperature.

This material can be processed without test milling.

We can also work on the engraving materials "Gravoglas" and "Gravoply supplied by GravoTech GmbH:

Please search on the website of the globally active Gravograph Inc. for details of these engraving materials, which we can procure for you within a few working days.

Please contact us for a test milling of plastics that are not listed here. We would be happy to extend this list of machinable plastics.