Signs and P.O.P Spotlight

Minerals Acrylic Sheet

Acrilex, Inc., producers and distributors of highend custom-colored acrylics, announced its Acriglas® Minerals series line of acrylic sheets. Composed of 20% genuine Muscovite Mica flakes, a naturally occurring mineral, the Minerals series is a greener option ideal for use in cosmetic displays, store fixtures and millwork.

The Minerals series was born from encapsulating Muscovite Mica flakes in an acrylic matrix, transforming the natural raw material into a machineable, formable and weather-resistant product. Offered in an assortment of stunning colors, including Sandstone, Black Galaxy Mica, White Quartz, Indian Amber, Amethyst, Wisteria Mica, Garnet, and Natural Mica, the Minerals series line of acrylic sheets is lighter in weight and easier to fabricate than stone and glass and saves time and money by reducing loss due to breakage.

Available in a variety of sizes and thicknesses ranging from 1/8” to 1/2”, the Minerals series can be drilled, routed, laser cut, glued, formed, hot stamped, and silk-screened like any other acrylic sheet. All sheets can be custom cut or configured to meet the specifications of a wide variety of applications.

For additional information, contact Dan Rustin, Acrilex, Inc., 230 Culver Avenue, Jersey City, NJ 07305, 800- 222-4680, Fax: 201-333-1237, Email: drustin@acrilex.com, Web: www.acrilex.com.

Cast Acrylic Line

Rowmark LLC’s new ColorHues™ cell cast acrylic line adds a pop of brilliant color with the smooth, clean look of glass to any signage project or P.O.P. display. Featuring matte finish on one side and gloss on the other, this lightweight product is well suited for tactile signage applications or can be easily embellished with stand-offs. Offered in any array of 19 popular translucent and opaque tones, ColorHues™ is produced in 24” x 49” sheets in 1/8” gauge and is laser, rotary and Braille engravable. It is scratch resistant with high impact strength.

For additional information, contact Jen Schoenberger, Rowmark LLC, 2040 Industrial Drive, Findlay, OH 45840, 877-769-6275, E-mail samples@rowmark.com, Web: www.rowmark.com.

New Sign and Display Products

Sheffield Plastics’ Makrolon® polycarbonate and Vivak® PETG sheet products portfolio covers a wide range of sign and P.O.P display applications. For exterior thermoformed and flat sign faces, UV resistant Makrolon SL offers exceptional weather resistance plus polycarbonate’s inherently high impact strength.

Available in clear and standard white, the material also carries a UL listing for use in electric signs. Recently, Sheffield introduced Makrolon LD, a white polycarbonate developed specifically for use with LED lighting. It minimizes hot spots from intense LED’s and diffuses light evenly across the sign face.

For interior applications requiring exceptional toughness, Sheffield offers Makrolon AR, a clear, abrasion-resistant material that stands up to use in high traffic areas. Applications include digital electronic display screens and cover panels for signs in damage prone environments.

A major producer of PETG sheet, Sheffield offers this versatile, easy to fabricate product under the Vivak brand. It can be thermoformed and cold formed, and die-cut and punched without edge cracking. Applications include interior signage, P.O.P. displays and store fixtures. The company recently added Vivak Frost to its portfolio to provide a more durable, cold formable alternative to matte acrylic for merchandising applications.

For additional information, contact Cindy Kahlstrom, Sheffield Plastics Inc., 119 Salisbury Road, Sheffield, MA 01257, 800-254-1707, Fax: 800-457-3553, E-mail: cindy.kahlstrom@ bayerbms com, Web: www.sheffieldplastics.com.

Photoluminescent Substrates

Create safety signs, POP eyecatching graphics, labels, decals and much more, using American PERMALIGHT® photoluminescent printable substrates. Choose from PERMALIGHT® photoluminescent flexible films and rigid PVC sheets that are well-suited for screen printing, digital printing with solventbased inks, thermal transfer print, to create ADA signs with raised letters and Braille for the visually impaired, for plotter cutting and 3-dimensional signs (bendt our rigid on a heat former into L- or V-shape protruding wall signs).

Activate PERMALIGHT® glowing substrates with daylight, fluorescent, LED, mercury vapor and metal halide lighting. PERMALIGHT® substrates perform in full darkness (at night, power failure, building fire with dense smoke, natural disasters like earthquakes and tornados). The luminance remains measurable from 8 hours up to 60+ hours with the PERMALIGHT® High-Performance material. Recharge PERMALIGHT® material over and over again indefinitely, simply by exposing it to light again.

For additional information, contact Marina Batzke, American PERMALIGHT, Inc., 2531 W 237th Street #113, Torrance, CA 90505, 310-891-0924, Fax: 310-891-099, E-mail: info@americanpermalight.com, Web: www.americanpermalight.com.

Profiles for P.O.P.

Plastifab Industries, an ISO 9001 certified company, is a leading thermoplastic extruder specializing in both standard stock profiles and custom designed profiles for the P.O.P., Design and Architectural markets.

Plastifab’s Tecacryl™ extruded acrylic product line is the most extensive and varied in the market with standard rod, tube, and profiles available in clear and a vast variety of colors and textures. Combined with capabilities to extrude in co-extrusion and tri-extrusion combinations along with up to 24” widths provides creative and innovative design possibilities.

Along with it’s extensive acrylic capabilities, Plastifab also manufactures standard and custom profiles in many standard materials such as: HIPS, HIPS foam, PVC CAB, ABS, polycarbonate and PETG to name a few.

For the P.O.P. retail market, products such as slatwall, data strips and price tag moldingd offer many choices of both materials and geometries.

With over 35 years of extrusion experience and more than 35 extrusion lines Plastifab provides quick turnaround to meet your needs.

For additional information, contact Sal Sorice, Plastifab Industries, 7777 Transcanadienne, Saint Laurent, Quebec, H4S 1L3, Canada, 800-361-4774/514-325- 9840, Fax: 514-325-5222, E-mail: sales@plastifab.ca, Web: www.plastifab.ca.

Enhanced Machining Capabilities

Owners of high performance CNC routing machines supplied by AXYZ International can now benefit from the new AXYZ Vision System (AVS). It uses a low-cost camera that can be easily mounted on the head of the machine either as an optional new production feature or as an upgrade to existing installations.

The power behind the AVS emanates from the dedicated software that is fully integrated within the recently launched A2MC machine control software. Currently, the primary application for the AVS is in digital print finishing where the camera is able to instantly recognize conventional registration marks and adjust the machine’s cutting path accordingly to achieve exact alignment with printed shapes.

The AVS is compatible with all of the cutting tools (for example, oscillating, tangential and drag knife systems) that can be used on any AXYZ machine. This enables the cutting of virtually any printed material (for example, card, vinyl, rubber, foam, aluminum, wood and acrylic) and thus opens new markets and business opportunities for sign and graphics and digital print producers.

All program adjustments are made by the AVS via the machine controller at the time of cutting and are therefore separated from the initial tool path creation that can be achieved in any machine programming system. This means that a wide range of programming features can be made available to enable the cutting of specific materials or shapes and to achieve the optimum edge finish.

In driving down the cost of the AVS, AXYZ International has enabled customers to increase the flexibility and production capabilities of their machines by further reducing waste and increasing output with an enhanced level of accuracy.

For additional information, contact Greg Jenkins, AXYZ International, 5330 South Service Road, Burlington, ON, L7L 5L1, Canada, 905-634-4940, Fax: 905-634-4966, E-mail: sales@axyz.com, Web: www.axyz.com.

Laser-Cutting Operation

To meet the growing demand for speedy delivery of flat-cut acrylic products along the East Coast, Gemini Incorporated has added a highspeed laser to its Farmville, Virginia facility to cut letters and logos.

Offering the widest variety of acrylic letters and logos in the industry, Gemini extrudes its own sheets of acrylic in gauges ranging from 1/8" to 1" in 32 standard pigmented colors.

Letters can be cut anywhere from 1" to 72" tall. Cutting acrylic with lasers also leaves a superior polished edge that makes the finished product beautiful enough for any application where precision is required.

For additional information, contact David Welch, Gemini Incorporated, 103 Mensing Way, Cannon Falls, MN 55009, 800-548-3356/507-263-3957, Fax: 507-263-4499, E-mail: davew@signletters.com, Web: www.signletters.com.

FASTENation, Inc., a global distributor and converter of fastener solutions from 3M, GLUE DOTS, Adhesive Applications and Velcro USA Inc., and a manufacturer of table-skirting clips and CD/DVD fastening solutions recently released its new catalog. “We used the release of this catalog to be an opportunity to improve the look, feel and layout of our catalog. We have enhanced our product images, product information and glossary of terms”, said David Petak, Executive Vice President of FASTENation, Inc.

The 2010-2011 catalog offers updated information on all the products and services that are available from FASTENation, Inc.

“We are excited about the future and some of the initiatives we have underway and hope to announce to our customer’s in the near future. But, as we continue to grow our business, we feel it critically important to maintain the goal of over achieving in all areas that our customer’s experience. The 2010-2011 catalog is an example of our commitment to this goal,” said Justin Ferdinand, Vice President of FASTENation, Inc.

For additional information, contact Justin Ferdinand, FASTENation, Inc., 120 Brighton Road #2, Clifton, NJ 07012, 800-876-9922/973-591-1277, Fax: 973-591-1443. E-mail: sales@fastenation.com, Web: www.fastenation.com.

Display Parts

popco, inc. is a supplier of display parts for designers, manufacturers and users of point-of-purchase displays. Offering the EZ snap rail®, H-channel, shelf channel sign holder, steel looped end cable and large suction cups (plain, with tack and with hook). popco offers poster, sign hanging and mounting, sign base and sign channel, VELCRO ® hook and loop, fasteners and binding posts, literature boxes and more. The catalog contains essential items for the display, retail, advertising, marketing, public relations, bindery, printing, fulfillment center, corrugated box, industrial, distribution, manufacturing, sign shop and a wide variety of additional industries. popco stocks what it sells for immediate delivery.

New stocked items include black deko springs, clear Viking screws, fold-up boxes, aluminum snap rails, sign channels, flat cap push screws and finned feet and fasteners.

For additional information, contact Stuart Wear, popco inc., 5405 Opportunity Court, Minnetonka, MN 55343, 800-557-6726/952-352-0887, Fax: 952-352-9474, E-mail: sales@popco-usa.com, Web: www.popco-usa.com.

Monocrystalline Diamond Polishing Tool

LMT Onsrud, the leading supplier of CNC router tooling, has introduced two edge polishing tools for acrylic materials.

The 75-000 series consists of 5/16” and 3/8” diameter tools, which incorporate a monocrystalline diamond edge on a solid carbide body. The single crystal structure of the diamond will produce a near optically clear edge and replace buffing or flame polishing. Polishing of curved edges and internal profiles can now be done directly on the CNC router.

LMT Onsrud is the only cutting tool facility in the United States that manufactures high speed steel, carbide tipped, solid carbide, diamond coated and PCD CNC tooling. Onsrud manufactured their first router bit in 1920.

For additional information, contact Leslie Banduch, LMT Onsrud, 800 Liberty Drive, Libertyville, IL 60048, 847-362-1560, Fax: 847-362-5028, E-mail: lbanduch@onsrud.com, Web: www.onsrud.com.

Signs & P.O.P. Website Directory
Acrilex, Inc.	www.acrilex.com
American PERMALIGHT, Inc.	www.americanpermalight.com
AXYZ International	www.axyz.com
FASTENation, Inc.	www.fastenation.com
Gemini Incorporated	www.signletters.com
LMT Onsrud	www.onsrud.com
Plastifab Industries	www.plastifab.ca
popco inc.	www.popco-usa.com
Rowmark LLC	www.rowmark.com
Sheffield Plastics Inc	www.sheffieldplastics.com