To celebrate 90 years of the PLEXIGLAS® brand, we would like to take you on a trip back in time. This journey will take in the first experiments by the chemist and founder Dr. Otto Röhm, the many milestones during the brand’s history and the future potential of PLEXIGLAS® acrylic.
Dr. Otto Röhm would be astonished and delighted if he could experience how an accidental discovery from his laboratory has shaped our everyday lives up to this day. On August 9, 1933, a novel, completely transparent and breakproof plastic was registered as a brand under the PLEXIGLAS® name. It was the beginning of a veritable success story, with the material proving to be a true all-rounder. For 90 years, PLEXIGLAS® acrylic has been used in countless industrial applications including architecture and greenhouse construction, furniture design and shopfitting, automotive and luminaire design, and even noise protection, aircraft glazing, large aquariums and deep-sea submarines. PLEXIGLAS® acrylic has formed or enhanced countless everyday items and has made visionary construction projects possible such as the roof of the Olympic Stadium in Munich.
“PLEXIGLAS® is the original. We invented it, and we see ourselves as the ideal partner for industrial customers who want to develop something new”, comments Dr. Michael Pack, CEO of Röhm GmbH.
The inventive spirit of the plastic pioneers led by Dr. Otto Röhm lives on. Because of this, the world’s first acrylic glass has evolved into a large, diverse family of PLEXIGLAS® products with a wide range of properties. As well as enabling the development of new technologies and a virtually unlimited range of shapes and designs, the brand acrylic glass from Röhm also facilitates sustainable product and project design.
PLEXIGLAS® acrylic offers the ideal basis for a resource-efficient circular economy, as it can be recycled numerous times while retaining virtually all the same properties. Sheets and compounds belonging to the PLEXIGLAS® proTerra range contain a high share of recycled material and have enjoyed a successful market launch. All this means that the original from Röhm is still a cutting-edge material for the future – some 90 years after the PLEXIGLAS® brand was registered.
Take a look at the PLEXIGLAS® anniversary website and our redesigned overview – and be surprised and inspired by the sheer variety offered by this branded product.
