Hi Guys,
We are in a tough spot with some trimless letters we have been producing, we are a fabricator who has been making acrylic letters for a decade, in the last two years we bought into the letter bender system and switched most of our production over to that system, working off the training the supplier gave about how to fabricate etc.
Essentially we were given bad advice and now that advice is wracking up in replacement costs for a decent amount of signs. What was suggested originally was that the B component of the CA glue (the hardener) be applied to all the A glue around the perimeter to quickly set it off, however after a year and a half of doing it this way, we started having a couple of signs fall apart. The supplier quickly changed all their advice and said we were using too much hardener. So we changed to doing tacks of AB 10cm apart to build the structure of the letter, then applied the A component around the perimeter and let that to cure in open air. Supposedly this was a safer way to do it.
Our problem was, we likely had over a hundred sets of letters out in the wild with who knows how many falling into the goldilocks zone of a potential failure.
So far our testing has been pretty extensive, working off the theory that the b component effects the hardness of the glue to a point in where it becomes brittle, but now also realising the solvents in the B also effect the coating of the flat coils that we are supplied with. Combine this with some decent surface temperatures and we have letters as small as 4-500mm high popping apart.
We are hoping the updated advice means the signs we have been making since updating our procedure means we hopefully won't have any further issues, but we are looking at safer ways to construct these signs, ie coil with small returns, channel lume etc.
Has any one experienced similar or do you have a specific method that you would be comfortable to share on how you produce trimless letters ?
Our general construction is 4.5mm faces, with a rebate, 0.8mm coil glued to the rebate with CA Glue, then we apply a thicker glue to the rear which is this suppliers own make up. If the letters are large we add internal acrylic blocks etc.
Curious to hear your thoughts from a larger market, here in Aus there is limited expertice with this new to us style so we rely on knowledge passed on from suppliers and our own testing.
We are in a tough spot with some trimless letters we have been producing, we are a fabricator who has been making acrylic letters for a decade, in the last two years we bought into the letter bender system and switched most of our production over to that system, working off the training the supplier gave about how to fabricate etc.
Essentially we were given bad advice and now that advice is wracking up in replacement costs for a decent amount of signs. What was suggested originally was that the B component of the CA glue (the hardener) be applied to all the A glue around the perimeter to quickly set it off, however after a year and a half of doing it this way, we started having a couple of signs fall apart. The supplier quickly changed all their advice and said we were using too much hardener. So we changed to doing tacks of AB 10cm apart to build the structure of the letter, then applied the A component around the perimeter and let that to cure in open air. Supposedly this was a safer way to do it.
Our problem was, we likely had over a hundred sets of letters out in the wild with who knows how many falling into the goldilocks zone of a potential failure.
So far our testing has been pretty extensive, working off the theory that the b component effects the hardness of the glue to a point in where it becomes brittle, but now also realising the solvents in the B also effect the coating of the flat coils that we are supplied with. Combine this with some decent surface temperatures and we have letters as small as 4-500mm high popping apart.
We are hoping the updated advice means the signs we have been making since updating our procedure means we hopefully won't have any further issues, but we are looking at safer ways to construct these signs, ie coil with small returns, channel lume etc.
Has any one experienced similar or do you have a specific method that you would be comfortable to share on how you produce trimless letters ?
Our general construction is 4.5mm faces, with a rebate, 0.8mm coil glued to the rebate with CA Glue, then we apply a thicker glue to the rear which is this suppliers own make up. If the letters are large we add internal acrylic blocks etc.
Curious to hear your thoughts from a larger market, here in Aus there is limited expertice with this new to us style so we rely on knowledge passed on from suppliers and our own testing.
