How was this made?

[Neville Stewart]

I could replicate it but it would be a multitude of steps. Anybody know how they are made? PS. Looked fine when I loaded, how do you stop the rotation of pics?

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[Tony Lenkic]

Neville,

Here is a system that does just that.........

http://www.novapolymers.com/

[Joe Pelonio]

I have made literally thousands of similar signs, mostly for medical facilities a local new high school, and many offices. In my case it's been painted 1/8" acrylic, sprayed with flat acrylic enamel mixed to match their corporate colors. For the lettering I used Rowmark ADA Alternative, laser cut with 3M 467MP on the back. I also cut the same file in the exact size of the sign in card stock, for a mounting template. Same for the ADA sign, but I use the laser to cut the holes and insert the braille dots.

[Kev Williams]

I'm thinking 3D printer and roller-printed (or whatever it's called) afterward- maybe?

[Steve Morris]

the red one could be done with blow moulding and paint

[Scott Shepherd]

Tony has nailed how that one was made, and Joe's told you how to get around doing it that way. It's Photopolymer. You make a negative, expose it to UV in their system, and the exposed parts harden. Then it goes through a washout process where it scrubs away the material that didn't harden, down to a 1/16" thick core that it's all on. They paint it with something like Matthews paint, which dries hard as a rock, then they use a blank screen in silk screening and kiss the top with white.

It's how higher production jobs are run. The entire process takes a little while, but you can fit a bunch of signs in the machine at one time. When we were close to buying one, I think the cycle time for the Photopolymer machine was about 1 minute each when it was loaded. We stopped because of the paint station required. It began to get too complicated and expensive for what we were doing at the time.

It's how most all of the signs in commercial and retail spaces are done because it's so fast and the paint is so durable.

Of course many of us are called in years after they were installed and no one knows who made them, and we're asked to reproduce them. That's what we used to do a lot of several years ago.

[Ross Moshinsky]

Beware, that ADA sign is not compliant as far as I know. The braille needs to be a full dome.

[Bill Cunningham]

Tony has nailed how that one was made, and Joe's told you how to get around doing it that way. It's Photopolymer. You make a negative, expose it to UV in their system, and the exposed parts harden. Then it goes through a washout process where it scrubs away the material that didn't harden, down to a 1/16" thick core that it's all on. They paint it with something like Matthews paint, which dries hard as a rock, then they use a blank screen in silk screening and kiss the top with white.

It's how higher production jobs are run. The entire process takes a little while, but you can fit a bunch of signs in the machine at one time. When we were close to buying one, I think the cycle time for the Photopolymer machine was about 1 minute each when it was loaded. We stopped because of the paint station required. It began to get too complicated and expensive for what we were doing at the time.

It's how most all of the signs in commercial and retail spaces are done because it's so fast and the paint is so durable.

Of course many of us are called in years after they were installed and no one knows who made them, and we're asked to reproduce them. That's what we used to do a lot of several years ago.

I have also used the same system to make nice plates to be mounted on wooden plaques. The result is nice raised text on a coloured back ground. Most of the polymer (that I used anyway) is Green on a gold coloured plate base, You can spray paint the entire piece, then roll contrasting paint onto the raised surfaces. Even halftone photos can be photoetched into the polymer along with the text for nice raised surface results. The machine can also be used to make photopolymer rubber stamps. I originally bought one for stamps way back before lasers were affordable. It doesn't get much use anymore,
but the built in drying oven is used on occasion to reactivate Molecular Sieves or Silica Gel for the air dryers.

[Keith Downing]

Neville,

Here is a system that does just that.........

http://www.novapolymers.com/

Curious to know what the nova photopolymer machine costs. Can't imagine that's cost effective for making a few hundred signs, or even a small sign making business.

[Scott Shepherd]

Curious to know what the nova photopolymer machine costs. Can't imagine that's cost effective for making a few hundred signs, or even a small sign making business.

It can be. I think they had a demo unit at a show once about 5 years ago and it was about $15,000 for the demo unit. I saw something recently that said some of their machines were in the $40,000 range.

Keep in mind, this machine isn't for doing 1 sign (it can, but it's not a machine you'd buy to make one sign at a time). It's made to crank out high quality signs. The types of jobs you get with these machines are jobs that are easily $50,000 and up. It lets you compete in a market when you can't compete with making them one at a time. It's for hospitals, colleges, large corporate buildings.

We'd own one right now if it wasn't for the painting part of it. You really need a Matthews or Akzo Nobel paint station to do it properly because you need to be able to match pantone colors and the paint needs to dry hard as a rock because they are often in high traffic areas. The paint station alone was about $10,000 per sheen (flat, gloss). There's no doubt in my mind that if we had the setup, along with a paint booth, we could easily pay for it in 12 months.

[Art Mann]

Looks like a CNC router job to me.

[Scott Shepherd]

Looks like a CNC router job to me.

Except that it's about a 1 minute job when running a batch, with the braille and raised letters. You can't compete with Photopolymer when it comes to making signs. It's an amazing process and I've never seen any technology that was faster.

[Ross Moshinsky]

As I've said above, the only issue with polymer setups is that some produce a product that really aren't ADA complaint. To be ADA complaint, the braille must be domed. This is an extra step in the process as far as I know. Professionals will take this extra step but some will skip over it and just hand out flat topped ADA signs.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about: http://www.signssandiego.com/brailledome.html

[Scott Shepherd]

Ross, a couple of comments. First, it's my understanding that Accent lobbied to have the "dome" part put in the law, but it's my understanding that it's not in there. I confess, I haven't looked for it since we use balls, so it doesn't matter. If it is in there, I seem to recall the people at Nova having a solution for it. It's in the way the graphic is done and the coating applied. I can promise you that what comes off those machines is ADA compliant. If not, it wouldn't be the machinery used to make the vast majority of every sign in every large complex in the USA.

[Art Mann]

You have got to be kidding! How can you say the process takes a minute when the guy in the video took 14+ minutes to demonstrate the process and he cut out the 20 minutes or more of wait times. Neither did he account for the time required to produce the negative. This process may be faster than CNC routing but not hugely so. There is another issue. At the end of the process, you have a thin sheet of plastic that will require either framing or laminating to a thicker backing before mounting. If I were carving such a project, I could choose a substrate that could be mounted directly. I do agree it is very impressive technology but I can't see it being a general purpose replacement for either conventional sign engraving or CNC routing. Based on the demo, I am not certain it would be any faster in this case.

Does anyone know what the equipment and raw materials cost? I agree that it has a lot of potential.

Except that it's about a 1 minute job when running a batch, with the braille and raised letters. You can't compete with Photopolymer when it comes to making signs. It's an amazing process and I've never seen any technology that was faster.