plastic. PET is polyester, which has a chemical name of polyethylene terephthalate. PET can be made with the polymers aligned in two primary ways; amorphous or crystalline. Virtually, all you come in contact with is amorphous with one major exception; microwave food trays which, if made from PET, are made from C-PET (crystallized PET). Essentially all clear PET including Mylar and water bottles are made from A-PET (amorphous PET) and in many cases, the "A" is simply left off.

The Mobius loop recycling symbol for polyester is PET with the number 1, so a lot of people refer to polyester as PET. Others prefer to be more specific, by indicating whether the polyester is crystalline C-PET, amorphous APET, recycled RPET, or glycol modified PETG. These are small variations, intended to ease processing of polyester for the intended end product, whether by injection molding, blow molding, thermoforming, or extruding as well as finishing operations like die cutting.



Many point of sale displays are made from PETG, since they are often heavy gauge and tough to die cut. Another reason is that the poly masking can be left on to protect the display during handling and shipping and then removed when the display is being set up. This is a main reason why many designers automatically specify PETG for point of sale displays without understanding whether APET or PETG is the most suitable material for the intended end use or the processing (printing, die cutting, gluing, etc.). APET is generally available up to {{0}}.030″ thickness, whereas PETG usually starts at 0.020″.