acrylic conductive?

[madcat20xac]

so apparently i bought some acrylic and later found out on the website that it's conductive. I don't understand how a piece of plastic could be conductive, but i was wondering if anybody had any problems with the conductivity of acrylic when making a torture rack

 

[Kil4Thril]

Colored or clear acrylic? I do know it can retain a static charge, but I thought it had insulating properties??

 

[Michael Daly]

It's pretty hard to make a plastic conductive. You'd have to include carbon or metallic materials to acrylic to make it so. You can test the acrylic with a simple VOM - just check the resistance.

 

[Arcygenical]

Where did you hear it's conductive?

Plastics are very good insulators.

 

[madcat20xac]

from the maker
http://www.plaskolite.com/faq.htm#acrylic

Q. Is Optix acrylic non-conductive?
A. No. Optix acrylic is a conductive material. A spray coating is available if non-conductivity is needed.

 

[iPearl]

Must be the UV protection or the Mirror Properties that make it Conductive, not as if you can sent voltage through it, but enough where you can feel a slight magnetic charge as if it was on a balloon that you rubed into the carpet.

 

[Michael Daly]

Why not use a plain acrylic sheet rather than that coated Optix stuff? You could also use polycarbonate, which would be tougher than acrylic and non-conducting unless you find one with a similar kind of coating. You could also use Vivak or similar plastics.

 

[Zero82z]

If you're using plain uncoated acrylic, it won't be conductive. However, it could build up a static charge, so you probably shouldn't keep any exposed contact points touching it.

If you're still worried, you could always test it for conductivity with a multimeter. I'd be very surprised if it actually did conduct though, considering plastic is a pretty excellent insulator.