Anyone vacuum forming PRINTED plastic into Pan/embossed faces ?

[Andy D]

I know other sign companies are printing their clear acrylic / polycarbonate sheets
and then heating and vacuum forming them.. I finally have an ink that should be flexible enough to
do this, and was hoping someone here could clue me in.

I have heard the mold needs to be female, all our molds are male, not sure why.....
Does the print need to color compensate for the returns?

Thanks for any info,
Andy

 

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

I worked at a company that screen printed sign faces prior to forming, so the principles are the same.

First, the molds are female, because when you heat the prints, and lay them on the wood to form, it will damage the image.

The thing that a lot of people don't realize is the plastic will move, sometimes in odd directions, so you have to adjust the graphics to account for plastic movement. It requires multiple attempts to get it right. If your doing 1 or 2 faces, you will waste 6 or 8 sheets to get a couple of good ones. When we were doing the faces, we did 200 at a time, so in the long run, 5 or 6 bad sheets were not a big deal.

 

[Andy D]

When you say the plastic shifted and caused waste you mean with embossing, right?
A simple pan shouldn't be an issue, would it?