Having Fun while Thermoforming Tactile Signs....
Let's try putting stuff between two sheets of acrylic and see how it looks.
I guess one of the benefits of being an independent R&D guy for so many years is that I can look at something and ask myself, "What would THAT look like if I encapsulate it?"... And after those around me are done rolling their eyes, I'm able to see for myself without someone kicking me in the butt for wasting company time.
So, allow me to indulge the right side of your brain and show some of the results of my spare time gone awry.
It's all in fun, after all.... :)
So, allow me to indulge the right side of your brain and show some of the results of my spare time gone awry.
It's all in fun, after all.... :)
A few years back, I encapsulated some thin, wood finish film that you would find on cheap furniture. So what did I have to lose by making a house number sign and mounting it next to the front door of my old rental house? Today I understand the sign is still there, having been exposed to the elements for close to FIVE years. The raised white numbers and letters were hot foil stamped with no clear coat.
Pond grass... Yes, pond grass. It could have looked a lot better had I taken the time to place it on the mold straight in one direction instead of in a jumbled mess. Which is how it looked next to our pond that morning. Either way, it worked! Next time I'll do a better job. Promise!
How much do you hate packing peanuts? Enough to want to squish the little buggers, right? Go ahead, copy this picture and post it in your shipping area. Tell those dang peanuts that this could happen to THEM if they don't behave!
I also wanted to show this example from a different project. It was made using a high resolution digital print on polypropylene media. Great stuff!!
Fun with fabrics!!! On a recent trip to Walmart, I came across some fabric that I thought might look pretty cool as a sign. I could see this sign being installed inside some fancy, eleven story hotel in the middle of a forest, or not...
There are no graphics on this little number... Just aluminum shavings and who knows what else from the shop floor!
"Just toss whatever is in the bag into the sign"... No shortage of confetti and little fuzzy things.
After a few minutes in the press, we've got some squished confetti and fuzzy things!
I knew the pond grass thing would work. Obviously, I just needed to be a little more motivated.
They are starting to look like real architectual signs!
This was my personal favorite... This was assembled using a craft store butterfly, a strip of aluminum gutter guard and two sheets of Acrylite FF (Clear and Translucent White).
I recently recieved some small samples of LUMICOR, a popular acrylic panel material used in architectural environmental design. Since LUMICOR already contains encapsulated materials, the trick is to simply fuse a raised "face" to the raw material. Fairly easy to do. Oh, the fun we are going to have with LUMICOR! Watch for updates!!
An oldie but goodie. Encapsulating photoluminescent is an easy process with the right material. In areas that require raised graphics on photoluminescent signs, your manufacturing choices are very limited. Either glue the letters onto the material or make it out of photopolymer (which happens to require a UV protective clear coat of paint to keep the polymer from falling off... so with a UV blocker, it's going to glow how exactly?). I would expect as demand grows, we'll see a lot more photoluminescent signs made by thermoforming.
Digital Print on paper. The print was made to look like the same pattern as was in the carpet. OK. Who am I to ask?
Little fabric leaves from the local craft store. I need a better eye for spacing, I think.
Metal can be encapsulated provided it has a grid pattern where the acrylic material can fuse. I would suggest aluminum as your base material because I know how mad my table saw gets when I try to run steel through it. Did I say that I wasn't a manufacturer?
More fabric. Hey, it was on sale!
I've never been big on certain home maintenance items, like replacing the air filter in our home heating unit. Figures that I would go out and buy the cheapest one I could find. Rather than return it and look like I didn't know what I was doing, I decided to make some signs out of it. Very cool.
There hasn't been a call for applying a clear face to Avonite in any project I've ever seen. Especially since you can get the same look by encapsulating a high resolution digital print. A print would look just as good at a fraction of the cost. Anyway, with a little free time, I gave it a shot. I sure hope that the Avonite I used for this was just scrap!
Hope you enjoyed the photos! I'll be updating this project as more opportunities to ruin good useable items present themselves...
THANKS FOR LOOKING!
