They're called windows to another world. Built of cast acrylic, these huge aquariums, underwater research centers and zoological gardens allow people of all ages the opportunity to view sea life from literally all angles.

Manufacturing the custom aquariums' windows is a speciality of Reynolds Polymer Technology Inc. Inside its 65,000-square-foot facility, the Grand Junction, CO-based company produces monolithically cast acrylic sheets, rods and tubes in a variety of sizes and diameters.

"We're not a compression molder, so we can make products as big as you can dream. We're only limited by the size of autoclaves," said Marc Reynolds, president.

"Every job, every panel is custom -- that's what makes us unique. Our tubes may look the same as our competitions', but we use both monomer and polymer in our acrylic and our competitors only use monomer. We also build our own tools, design, and engineer so we can customize each casting.

It's a combination that has led to success. According to Reynolds, his company is the only U.S.-based firm of its type to manufacture the large aquarium windows, as well as lending its talents to other projects such as architectural art pieces, hyperbaric chambers and submersibles, and tubing and rods for commercial use. Its client list reads like a who's who of worldwide elite aquariums, research centers, zoological gardens, hotels, restaurants, etc. Among the clientele are: Sea World, Rainforest Cafe, Vancouver Public Aquarium, France's L'Ocearium du Croisic and L'Aquarium Geant, Japan's Ring of Fire Aquarium, Italy's Genoa Aquarium, Texas State Aquarium, Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, Disney World's Epcot Center, Reno Hilton MGM Hotel, Maritime Center, etc.

Other special projects include the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, Sudbury, ONT, Canada, a joint government project between the Canadian, American and English governments. Reynolds manufactured and assembled a 40-foot-diameter acrylic sphere which is being used to test neutrinos with regards to heavy water.

"It took three years to make and put together," Reynolds said of the project. More than 130 sections of acrylic were machined, then taken to the site 11/2 miles down into the ground to be bonded and sanded. "We used an acrylic syrup mixture to bond it, so we'd get a very clean, pure bond. All the tools were custom, and everything had to be super clean. We even had to clean the ovens to make sure everything was as clean as we could possibly get," he added.

Developing the acrylic product
R-Cast acrylic is the trade name given for Reynolds' monolithic cast acrylic sheet. The company uses a proprietary mixture of monomer and polymer to manufacture its products.

"When you bond and machine acrylics, you introduce stress to the product: crazing, fracturing... ," Reynolds said. The monolithic casting eliminates the loss of strength, delamination and yellowing which can occur, he added.

Much of the sheet product is used in the manufacture of aquariums. Rods, tubes and cylinders are used for architectural pieces, such as at Disney World's Epcot Center. Reynolds is also represented at the Extra Terrestrial ride at the Florida theme park -- it produced the tube from which alien liquid shoots out at the audience. The company also sells its product to distributors.

Acrylic sphere for neutrino research The world's largest acrylic plastic vessel, 40 feet in diameter, and strong enough to hold 1 million liters of heavy water, was constructed by Reynolds Polymer Technology for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) to measure neutrinos. The SNO project is funded by agencies in Canada, the United States and Great Britain: Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council Canada, Natural Research Council Canada, U.S. Department of Energy, Industry Canada, Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp., and U.K. Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council. The vessel is located 11Ú2 miles underground in an old nickel mine in Sudbury, Canada. The mine is filled with pure regular water, allowing SNO researchers to see neutrinos through three separate reactions as they interact with the heavy water. According to information provided on the project, "A neutrino is detected as a tiny burst of blue-violet light, captured by SNO's 9500 light sensors mounted in the geodesic sphere which surrounds the heavy water. Although trillions of neutrinos from the sun pass through the rock above and the SNO detector each second, only about 20 of them will be seen each day." Manufacturing the sphere took approximately three years, said Marc Reynolds, president of RPT. Company employees worked in the mine to assemble, bond and polish the more than 130 acrylic parts. "It was so big, when we began we had to start bonding from the top down," Reynolds said. To produce clean, virtually invisible bonds, Reynolds used an acrylic syrup mixture. Construction was finished on the acrylic vessel in November 1997. Water filling began in April 1998. The SNO project is expected to take 10 years to complete.

The majority of sheets produced are made using the R-Cast technology; however, the company will use other brands of resin if desired. Sheets are available in flat, curved, cylinders, half spheres, quarter spheres and multi-faceted. Glazing panels, for example, are available in custom sizes up to 26.33 feet long, 10 feet high and approximately 1.166 feet thick.

Seamless tube lengths range from 4 feet and up. Outer diameters can vary from 7 inches to 8 feet. According to Reynolds, the company is the only one in the world to manufacture up to 8-foot-diameter acrylic seamless tubes.

Prior to manufacturing, a monomer is used to clean the tool. Centrifugal force is used to get the material to walls, a process which Reynolds said could take up to 12 hours. After setting to gel consistency, it is moved into autoclave to set; standard autoclave sizes are 8, 10 and 12 feet, although the company has been known to work with larger sizes, Reynolds said.

Reynolds has the capability to dual cast. It uses tools manufactured in-house to produce its products.

"When (the product) comes out of the tool, we rough trim, then send it to the finish area for sanding," Reynolds added.

Machining products
Approximately 60 percent of Reynolds' projects are for clients within the United States; the remaining 40 percent are from customers in diverse areas of the world, such as: United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, China, Belgium, Spain, England. "Most -- 75-80 percent -- are aquariums, some are education centers. We've also done some work in diving balls, hyperbolic (pressure) chambers," Reynolds said.

"It is not unusual to have 50 to 80 jobs going on at once in our shop," he said, "especially as each aquarium can have 50 to 60 pieces."

To accommodate the number of projects, the company works two shifts, with work weeks often extending to seven-day, 50-hour cycles. "When we went international, it leveled out the peaks and valleys," Reynolds said.

Among the services offered at Reynolds is design engineering. The company uses a CAD system to design projects, plus give options for value engineering.

Once a design is approved, the acrylic is cast and ready for machining. In fabricating the panels, the company uses a variety of equipment, including a Centauro bandsaw, C.R. Onsrud inverted router, Delta Unisaw 10-inch tilting arbor saw and a flycutter/mill which is used to flycut the surface of the panel to the required depth. Carbide and high-speed steel cutting tools are typically used on the machines.

After machining, acrylic is sanded and polished. "Water sanding the sheets with portable sanders helps keep the stress down," Reynolds said. Water also keeps plastic from loading up, he added. Tubes and cylinders with 6-foot and 8-foot interior diameters are finished using specially constructed, automated combination sander/polishers.

Final bonding of parts can be done at the shop or on-site. "We've constructed an environmentally-controlled room so we can ship panels and a lab to the site," Reynolds said. The bonds are virtually undetectable because the company uses a form of liquid acrylic as the bonding agent, he added.

Quality control is strictly maintained at Reynolds. In addition to employees doing their own quality control checking, a quality control department checks all products prior to shipping. The company also has a quality control manual which it uses when installing windows on site.

"Our own employees do the installation. We have also become, by default, concrete specialists because we know how to waterproof the concrete around the aquariums. We'll also do window openings," Reynolds said.

RPT and ICM: full service providers
Reynolds Polymer often works in conjunction with its sister company, International Concept Management, becoming full service providers. Roger Reynolds III, Marc's brother, is president of ICM.

"ICM began as a project management operation. It brings in all the elements for a full package," Marc Reynolds said. ICM will assist customers from the beginning of the design concept to the end of the project, providing such things as rockwork and coral, custom exhibitry, aquarium life support systems and even the fish. Projects have included: Taiwan's Fins Sealife Taipei Aquarium and the Dayeh Takashimay Department Store Aquarium, Rainforest Cafes and the Dolphin Pool at the Las Vegas Mirage Hotel.

"My greatest fear is that the world will fall out of love with aquariums," joked Marc Reynolds.

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