Acrylic is a strong, rigid material with high load bearing capacity.

When compared to glass of equal thickness, acrylic offers more than ten times the impact resistance and over 200 times the breaking resistance. As such, acrylic is more resistant to blunt forceful impact and also more resistant to damage from extreme temperatures and repeated vibration.

Acrylic has better resistance to cracking than glass, and will typically fracture rather than shatter. Additionally, acrylic has much higher tensile and compressive strength than many metals.