Process for producing light-diffusing methacrylic resin article

摘要

A process for producing a light diffusing methacrylic resin article consisting essentially of a substrate polymer and crosslinked polymer beads having an average particle diameter of 1-16 mu m dispersed therein, the difference between the refractive indexes of the crosslinked polymer beads and the substrate polymer being 0.02-0.15, which comprises compounding the crosslinked polymer beads with: (A) methyl methacrylate or a mixture of a major amount thereof with a minor amount of at least one comonomer; (B) at least one monomer which can form a polymer compatible with the polymer obtained from (A); or (C) a polymer-in-monomer solution obtained by partially polymerizing either the (A) monomer or the (B) monomer, to swell the beads until a degree of swelling of from 120% to 1,500% is reached, and subjecting the resulting mixture to polymerization to obtain a light diffusing polymer and molding the polymer alone or in combination with a methacrylic resin, the main monomer unit of which is methyl methacrylate to a desired shape. The article obtained has a good balance between brightness and maximum bend angle, has such an opacity that a light source is not seen through the article and has a good appearance.