White .020 aluminum with polycoat?

[Larry Bratton]

Had an inquiry about a large number of i.d. tags using .020 White aluminum with polycoat. Anybody know a source for this stuff?

[Mike Null]

Larry

Not sure if I know what you mean but white sub. aluminum is available from JDS and Johnson Plastics.

[Larry Bratton]

Mike:
I'm not sure about the "polycoat" requirement. I don't deal in aluminum except to buy the regular painted variety in white. We first thought of using Alumamark, but it doesn't come in white. The requirement is for a black letter also. I could engrave white painted and then use aluminum oxide to turn the lettering black, but I'm still stuck on the polycoat requirement.

[Mike Null]

Larry

Both the suppliers have .020" poly coated sublimation white. I suspect this may be what you need.

That would involve dye sub for the black but should work just fine.

[Craig Hogarth]

Alumajet comes in white and you can you can buy a polycarb laminate for it. I have a sample somewhere and it's pretty nice. There's only a couple distributors for it but there's no info on it on their website.

http://www.horizonsisg.com/distributors.asp

[Angus Hines]

Is this something you could use aluminum coil stock for like Keith posted about ??

[David Lavaneri]

Larry,

Polycoat would (as others have suggested) mean a white aluminum suitable for sublimation, which would be the best method of producing a large number of ID tags.

No need to turn the job down, or to re-invent the wheel by using a more laborious, involved method.

Farm it out and become a well-paid middleman. Food for thought.



David "The Stunt Engraver" Lavaneri

[Larry Bratton]

Ah hah! I see, says the blind man! So is the spec slanted to dye sub? Would CLTT work?

[AL Ursich]

Another option. Sublimation Mates in clear stick on the White Aluminum.....

Or white Sublimation metal and epoxie dome over the aluminum.

AL

[Larry Bratton]

Alumajet comes in white and you can you can buy a polycarb laminate for it. I have a sample somewhere and it's pretty nice. There's only a couple distributors for it but there's no info on it on their website.

http://www.horizonsisg.com/distributors.asp

Craig:
An interesting idea but I don't think they have the right thickness,.020 is the spec.

[David Lavaneri]

Larry,

CLTT would work very well. The difference between sublimation and Color Laser Toner Transfer (CLTT) is with sublimation, the lettering will be virtually undetectable to the touch, where the CLTT will have a slightly raised image, which will feel similar to silkscreen.

Probably won't matter to the customer.

I recently sublimated 300 small tags for Otis Elevator, on .020 Dynasub white alum. from JDS. Evidently, no complaints. The last 100 pcs. were a re-order.

David "The Stunt Engraver" Lavaneri

[Mike Null]

Larry

I agree with David that CLTT will work. But, from a lot of experience, it's a fragile image and will not take any abuse. You can even scratch it with your fingernails.

Dye sub is the way to go on this job. Create the file and have somebody make the transfers for you. $4 to $6 per sheet would be what i would expect to pay. You have the rest of the equipment required.

[Larry Bratton]

Mike, David:
I was thinking since a "poly" coat is required per the spec, that CLTT would be durable. My assumption at this point, until I can get more info, is that the poly could be a polycarbonate laminate. One could simply use CLTT to transfer to plain .020 white painted aluminum and then cover it with the 5mil laminate.

Your probably right on farming it out though. Especially since there may be as many as 5000 tags. How much should these tags sell for?

[Gary Sheriff]

Larry,
Could your requirement be for UID at all? The specs you gave look very suspicious that your customer needs UID or something similar. UID typically requires anodized aluminum tags with "white" marks so that the 2D code can read and verify. Marks made with just about any laser now are acceptable. (For the record - whiter marks can be made using a YAG laser - CO2 is a bit grayer) The aluminum tags are usually .020" thick.

You can try a couple places to get anodized tags including Lustre-cal. http://www.macraesbluebook.com/searc...company=320290

Orange County nameplate http://www.nameplates-ocn.com/

Anodized aluminum will fade in the sunlight and therefore a poly coat is needed to protect the tag from the sun as well as protect the tag from possible corrosion, especially if the tag will be mounted on a ship. This is the worst case for corrosion due to the salt air.

Another possible option - if your customer is OK with it is a new product from Horizons called Alumamark EXT. The first alumamark (as we all know) was supposed to be UV protected, but they found out the hard way, it was not. The EXT is - allegedly. This is a nice option because poly coating can be very laborious and must be done as soon as you mix the two parts of the polyurethane. Once the poly is ready and you start coating the tags, especially 5000 of them, as time goes on the poly liquid will start to bubble and does not go on as smoothly. The longer you wait the harder to apply it becomes. I know a company that had a similar issue doing this and they thought it was not an issue since they do this all the time. Well, they never had such a large order. Most of the tags were rejected and had to be redone! This was done 3 times until they figured out what was happening.

- Gary

[Larry Bratton]

Gary:
No UID. These are simple tags, name and logo, black and white, that are going to be applied to piece of rebuilt mechanical equipment. The customer just said he wanted a coating on them to keep from scratching. I am thinking polycarb laminate over sublimation white tags using CLTT.

These tags are small, like 3/4 x 1-1/2. What would be a going rate for these?