Acrylics.Ca | Briefcases, Attaches in Clear or Colored Acrylic and Lexan

Acrylics.ca's new briefcase line includes super thin briefcases, security briefcases, contemporary briefcases, business briefcases, mini briefcases, portfolio cases of various sizes all in clear or colored acrylic or lexan (lucite or clear plastic). Transparent colors will include clear (our most popular) yellow, green, blue, red, orange and 3 shades of smoke (from light to dark). Opaque or non-transparent briefcase colors will include yellow, green, blue, red, orange, white and black. Minimum orders may be required for some colors.

There are a total of 10 different sized cases (length x width) and all vary in thickness from just 2" to 6". Thinner, thicker, longer and wider briefcases are available, custom made. Sizes can range from about 2" to 24" thick! Our briefcases' maximum length is 4' (48") for production although extraordinary sizes will be considered for fabrication.

We begin with two custom cut sheets of acrylic (at this point, we can choose any case size) heating and bending the two halves to form the rounded edge body. To form that edge, the heated sheets are allowed to cool in a restrictor and once at the appropriate temperature, we bond the edges to each half. All bonds are given 24 hours to cure. This bond is actually a molecular bond and forms the two halves of the case. The result is a sealed, waterproof, super-strong half-box. The excess material from these edges is shaved using a high speed router table. The resulting cut forms a milky color on every side but once hand flamed with an oxy-acetylene torch, each case edge shines.

Once the two halves of our plastic case are formed, bonded, routed and hand-flamed, we join the two halves using a clear acrylic hinge. Both halves are first placed into a restrictor and then aligned. The hinges are then applied with the same bonding agent to form an ultra-strong join. At this point, all of our square acrylic risers are cut and bonded to the case bottom. These risers allow the case to stand vertically, above the hinge barrel and pins. Each one is flamed for clarity. On top of each riser, we add a clear rubber "bump-on" adding a non-skid grip to the bottom of each case. We also add four more clear rubber bump-ons to the side of the clear acrylic briefcase in all four corners. This allows you to place the lucite case on a table with the side down and open the case without the briefcase touching the table surface. Bump-ons have a super-grip so the case doesn't slide.

Once the hinges are bonded and cured, our next item to add is our clear acrylic, proprietary door-stop. We hand-make each door stop from clear plastic. This acrylic door-stop is strong and aesthetically fits a case of this type perfectly.

With the door-stop fitted, our clear acrylic briefcase is ready for catch hardware. We marry a nickel-plated catch to the case aligning both halves with eight stainless steel screws. The catches match the handles four nickel-plated rounded-over acorn nuts (sometimes called castle nuts).

The last item we add is our own, in-house manufactured clear acrylic case handle. Our briefcase handle is pleasing to hold and exudes quality in the hand. It has a strong feel, smooth edges and in our opinion, a fantastic appearance. No other handle like it exists.

Our briefcase handle starts out as a handle pattern cut from a sheet of cast 3/8" lucite. This sheet thickness offers a very solid handle feel in 3/8". We place the cut handle pattern over our metal oven molds and the handles are then heated to approximately 160 degrees centigrade. Once heated, they fall naturally over the molds. The handles are then allowed to cool in the oven slowly and many hours later, they are removed from the molds. Each handle will then undergo hand-flaming and polishing.

Finally, we center the handle and join it to the briefcase with #10 screws from the bottom up, capping the tops with attractive, nickel-plated acorn nuts. All of the acorn nuts match the nickel-plated hardware of the catches nicely.