Styrene vs Sintra, what's the difference?

[858Graphics]

Ok I am not a complete newbie and don't need people flaming me for asking what might be considered a stupid question.

We have 15 people working at our office, most of them have been in the sign industry for more than five years.

If I give them a thin piece of plastic that isn't shiny like acrylic and ask them what it is I get one of two responses.

It's PVC sintra
It's Styrene

When I call our vendor and place orders they let me use the two terms interchangeably. So what's the difference and how should I describe each product?

 

[Techman]

PVC sintra is a closed cell foam product. It is not as dense and hard surfaced as solid acrylic.

Styrene is the clear sheet stuff as used in CD cases. Or an expanded foam product such as foam beads in coolers.

Two different products.

 

[gabagoo]

White Styrene sucks!!! the stuff always turns yellowish over time. Prefer PVC

 

[ChaseO]

Styrene can also be white, and when thin enough, gets rolled up. You will never get PVC (sintra) to roll up in any thickness. Your supplier allowing you to interchange the terms more than likely knows what you mean rather than correcting you.

 

[gabagoo]

i bought a 16" sheet of pvc last week and it does roll

 

[TimToad]

I hate styrene because of the static it always
seems to generate. We get 1mm Sintra all the time. It prints well, rolls to a certain degree but is kind of too soft to not scratch easily.

 

[858Graphics]

Thank you everyone for the great answers! I promise to never mistake the two again.

 

[gabagoo]

i bought a 16" sheet of pvc last week and it does roll

sorry I meant 1/16" roll...from Grimco

 

[synergy_jim]

styrene is a good choice up to .125. But its never a good choice outside due to yellowing.

I've found that styrene is great for indoor signage and is very cost effective ( cheaper than PVC ) until you hit that 3mm / .125 barrier and then PVC costs less.