The Advanced Acrylics fabrication facility, located at 1287 Jefferson Street, Anaheim, California, has more than 6,000 square feet of fabrication and storage area.

These "Raw" acrylic sheets, are being staged for cutting to size.

After rough cutting, panel edges are trimmed, or angel cut for irregular shaped tanks, or cut to 45º for Museum Grade mitered corners.

Once cutting and trimming are completed, the acrylic sheets are annealed to remove any residual stresses induced into the acrylic during the cutting and trimming process. After annealing, all edges to be bonded together, are dimensionally matched, prepared, and placed on glass topped tables for bonding set-up.

An Advanced Acrylics Technician preparing to bond two tank segments together. As with every other step in the process, it is essential to pay close attention to setup-up details to ensure top quality bonds.

Special corner fixtures, which have been machined to exact angles, are utilized to ensure that the finished tank will be square within +/- 2".

Any acrylic viewing panel will only look as good as the final sanding and polishing job. The finished product should be free of distortions, crazing, and fine sanding lines. The large front and rear panels of this tank each have two Exhibit Grade vertical bond joints in them. Can you spot where they are at?

Two technicians polishing corners during final stages of fabrication. Advanced Acrylics provides three levels of bond joint quality: Standard Grade for attaching tank tops, bottoms, and hidden joints where optics are not considered. Exhibit Grade for all joints which are exposed and where optical quality is of importance. Museum Grade for exposed joints where nothing but the very best is acceptable.