Polymethyl methacrylate, abbreviated to PMMA, is a plastic material formed from polymers of methyl methacrylate, an ester of methacrylic acid.

In common parlance, the term methacrylate generally refers to the polymer of methyl methacrylate and is also known by the trade names of:

Plexiglass, Resartglass, Vitroflex, Trespex, Acrivill, Deglas, Limacryl, Lucite, Oroglas, Perclax, Perspex.

It is very transparent, more so than glass, to the extent that it has characteristics approaching those of optical fibre in terms of transparency quality.

There are two types of methacrylate:

Extruded methacrylate: created through an extrusion process to obtain sheets of very precise thickness, suitable for vacuum thermoforming.

Cast methacrylate: created by pouring the material in liquid form between two sheets of glass. The thickness of the sheet is not perfectly homogeneous.

With cast methacrylate, only very soft figures can be thermoformed. It is extremely suitable for laser cutting and is available in a wide variety of colours, and with fabric, leaves, flowers or other elements incorporated.