I’m trying to figure out different ways to brand my parts… I will be selling my own designed parts so i want to put my name on it… the most common way i’ve see was just printing a label or something and laying it up underneath the resin…
I was thinking of either making a name plate/badge and riveting them on or raised letters on my plug so every part i infused has my company name/logo on it…
Have any of you done this? any pictures of examples or other ideas? thanks!
The label under would be really cool if the paper was thick (ex cardstock). Then your branding will have a built in embossed feel. It would probably be terrible on sharply curved pieces though.
thats the idea, laser cut plexi, epoxy on to plug, primer, mold viola!
Make sure the edges and ridges are really nice and smooth. There is nothing worse than a logo with a trapped air bubble.
For gel coated parts I’ve printed on rice paper so that the paper actually becomes transparent in the resin and you are left with just the printed logo with the color of the gel coat as a back drop (looks really nice!)
With composites there are a few options (I guess it would also be good for glassed parts as well)…
Metal tag bonded
White backed label under resin (or thin glass cloth and resin as a last ply just in the label area)
Or
When making a silicon bag, engrave your company info into test piece (or wax, which ever you use to get part thickness when making the reusable bag) then every production part you make with that bag will have your company info in the back side of your part… It’s pretty trick!
-Corban
So also when comp. logo is multi-coloured all colours will be noticable in right tone or they will be much darker??
SLADIC,
I would suppose the quality of ink would determine the final outcome of a multi-colored logo along with the color of its backing… given a red gelcoat behind the colored logo may alter the logo differently than if it was a white gelcoat. The logo’s customers have emailed to me to have put into their parts in the past have just been black.
Once you sort out the details of it all, you can really be as creative as your mind is open to. My next use of rice paper branding will be when I start to remake some of my older molds, and any new molds that I make. I’m having a custom color made for the surface coat so that my molds have a color branding and then I’ll rice paper my company logo along with details of the final production piece right into the face of the mold… although branding my own molds is really just a personal choice because I think it would be cool… the instruction is actually a very valuable insight!
You heard it here first! Patent Pending!
This way if I hire new help, there are instructions directly on the mold surface of what materials to use, what product it produces, and other details.
-Corban
We copied a page from Steve Jobs playbook and autograph the interior of our cases prior to installing the liner.
We have also embossed our logo right into the molding process.
MIIC thats exactly what i want to do… what did you do to cut out your logo? I was going to have my logo laser cut out of acrylic but i dont have access to the laser cutter for another few weeks… i was wondering if theres another method i could try… (my logo is pretty curvy)
I was going to try cutting it out of vinyl and layering it a few times to add thickness… will try it later this week.
It will be a trial and error process at first but you are on the right track. Based on how we are molding a specific cf part we usually have to experiment with various decal thickness to get the right look. For me I usually want it to be just enough to see it but not to in your face. We have also done the rice paper method with a decal below the clear coat. I will post a few of those pictures shortly.
Here is a shot where the actual decal is below the clear coat. This metod is much easier then embossing.
Here is another. Decal below clear coat.
I hope that helps.
Kevin
so this is the rice paper decal or…?
Sorry, those are regular ink printed decals printed on a clear film. Then clear coat applied over decal. I am searching my library for the rice paper shots.
yuotube Rice paper decal graphic to vid
[ame=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us0Goynd3oI”]Rice Paper Graphic (Under Fiberglass) Tutorial - YouTube[/ame]
mIIIc thats awesome! for the printing logos exactly what did you print on? im surprised you cant see the edges of the paper (unless they are die cut?)
I did some testing over the weekend, pretty good results! I’ve tried 1, 2, and 3 layers of vinyl cut decal as well as matte/gloss finish decals… the matte finish leaves a pretty sweet finish!
(ps since i was testing i was using scrap pieces so some images are mirrored by accident, some on purpose)
the gloss decal had some air bubbles hence the imperfections…
Matte looks realy nice! Nice clean option if you don’t want to use any colours and still well noticable!
SLADIC,
I have to agree, that matte finish really gave it a great look! Top job!
-Corban