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Hi, I have an idea that perhaps has not been considered before
with respect to acrylic domes / viewports. First off let me say that
there is a good chance that this would generally be a bad idea but since I don't
know that much about the structure of acrylic I will proceed.
I've noticed with acrylic sheets that they can be laminated together
with some type of bonding agent. I've seen this in large pieces of acrylic
art work. They do this to add color in places and for other effects.
I'm wondering if a dome was made using say 2" thick acrylic sheets laminated
together so that you had say 5 sheets of 2" acrylic laminated together that
would make it so you could have a 9" dome radius if you machined the
interior. Or if the 2" sheets were cut into donuts first you would have a
lot less machining to do to make the final dome. So the
finished product would be an acrylic dome 2" thick made up of five layers of
acrylic. The question is how thorough is the bonding between the
layers of acrylic? And if a dome was made like this and then taken
down to depth what would be the destruction characteristics that would
occur? I doubt that the handbook for acrylic for submersibles
addresses this idea but there may be some hint of it if it addresses laminating
acrylic. The chemical that is used to bond the sheets is like an
acetone type, I believe, and the sheets are essentially bonded chemically
in this way but I am not very knowledgeable on the details. If this was a
viable method it could reduce the cost of producing a dome. I'm ready to
be shot down!
Brian Cox
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