You have several choices, depending on how you want it to look and the quantity you're dealing with. A competent sign shop can print out a full-clor layout onto a heavy duty paper and laminate this to the back side of shiny, dull or pebble-finish lexan, whcih is then laminated to your aluminum plate, assuming it is flat. You have to figure out some way of registering it correctly to the dash panel, or else you can finish the panel with holes and shaping after the lexan face is applied depending on your cutting techniques. If the panel is sculpted or formed in any way but flat, you will need to break your design up into smaller pieces to accommodate the shape. If you are doing more than say 50 or 100, you can get a similar job done using offset printing or label printing for a far lower cost per item. Of course if the panel is flat and painted or powdercoated, you can have a legend and some simple graphics screen printed for a very reasonable cost, even if you are making two or three (you'll pay a setup fee of $35 per color, though). The first method described will allow you photographic-type image reproduction like anything that would come out of your color printer, and will be subject to fading if you don't use archival inks. The screen print method will allow any number of colors used in a simpler text-and-line-art design. Hope this helps, write me if you need specifics. There are other options, too, but I'd need to know more about what you are planning to do. Jim On Oct 10, 2005, at 7:05 PM, Jeffrey Schwaia wrote: > Can anyone out there point me to a company that does the printing on > aluminum panels. Basically, I'm looking for someone to put the labels > on an > aluminum dashboard for the switches and warning lights. Any help is > greatly > appreciated. > > Cheers, > > Jeff > |
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