Custom CNC Laser Acrylic & Laminate Wall Plaque
It has been a while since I did a “famous saying” and I’ve yet to make a custom laser engraved and cut wall plaque so I decided to put them together in this blog post to show you a glimpse of what we’ve been doing at CNCROi.com and can do for you!
If you are wondering what is on the plaque, it’s the ruler of UAE who is very much transforming his economy and country from being oil dependent to a worldwide destination that isn’t as reliant on what they pump out of the ground. Keeping politics aside, I wished rulers in the Western world had the guts, vision and determination that HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum regarding flagrant disregard for maintaining the status-quo.
“We, in the UAE, have no such word as “impossible”;
it does not exist in our lexicon. Such a word is used by
the lazy and the weak, who fear challenges and progress.
~HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum
What you don’t see in these pictures is the 6 mm (1/4″) black acrylic under the 1/8th (3 mm) laminate that’s bonded together using double sided tape. Acrylic engraving is nice but short of paint filling, this is a far more efficient method of introducing “gold” to a plaque and in my opinion, looks way better as well.
The laser engraving was done by our speedy 400 flexx, the very first dual-sourced machine of its kind in Canada. In this case, we are using the CO2 laser tube exclusively on this industrial CNC laser, which is engraving a constant and consistent layer of black after the top layer of gold laminate is vaporized away.
As for the amount of DPI resolutions I can achieve, it’s a thousand but generally, I use 500 or 333 dpi as you don’t really notice the difference unless you take out a microscope. This is a custom CNC lasered wall plaque, it will be viewed from a distance so the extra cost of higher resolution you won’t noticed doesn’t make much ROI sense.
Looking at it from another angle, our CNC laser is so fast, all you see is a red ghost and flame underneath. You can see the vaporization happening a few mm high above the material. What isn’t being laser vaporized is what stays gold, what is turns black (the base material).
The lettering on this custom laser wall plaque is sharp, consistent and clearly legible, which is why we bought an Austrian industrial wide-format CNC laser. Not only is CNCROi.com‘s laser accurate, but it’s fast too!
Application wise, what is the value of having a wall plaque? Well, they are great for recognitions of all kinds, from retirement to achieving a sales goal. The advantage that CNCROi.com offers you is the possibility of endless options, if you want the “traditional” rectangular wall plaque, we can custom cut that for you but if you want something something far more unique and memorable, we can do that too!
In these pictures, it’s cutting through both the laminate and underlying acrylic. The laminate gives us the “gold” contrast while the acrylic underneath gives us the strength. We can also cut the acrylic with mounting holes so it’s easily afixed to just about anything.
As both laminate and acrylic are petroleum products, you do get a nice fire when they are cut and the result is a beautiful flame polish.
The advantage to something like this over say, a traditional wooden plaque, is the contrast and longevity you will enjoy. The advantage over sublimation is that it won’t fade over time though you do want to keep laminate away from direct sunlight regardless.
What size and designs can your custom wall plaque have? Anything. Literally. If you want one of these with your face or company logo or staff photo a few meters long, we can do that! The limit isn’t creative or materials, it’s budgets.
Now you can see the beautiful shine that’s achieved using gold laminate when the light hits it “just right”.
If you are wondering what it would be like if we tried engraving this size laminate just as-is without a strong backing, check-out the picture below. Heat does a wonderful job of warping this material at this size (and bigger) which is why having a good backing is important when working with laminates. Laminates are available in an endless variety of textures, thicknesses and color combinations by the way.
The back of the plaque is solid black acrylic in this case, but again, this can be customized to your needs however you see fit.
CNCROi.com has made endless custom wall plaques from materials varying from oak to cement and even metal. What we need from you is volume, budget and timeline then we can work together to produce a nice design (if you don’t have your own graphic designer).
Give us the opportunity to drive our passion for our work by using us for your production needs. We are always eager to help you produce something truly spectacular and look forward to helping you with whatever you require. Like HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum says about his country, we also believe that possibility is a state of mind, not reality.
