Custom Corporate Awards: Polycarbonate & Maple
Making custom corporate awards might seem simple but the machinery and expertise involved with turning an idea to reality may be surprising to you, but that’s how CNCROi.com makes them.
Our approach towards making custom corporate awards is a little different, we offer endless customization across any material which means you have absolute flexibility across the board as to how it’s manufactured and finished.
The polycarbonate we used for these custom corporate awards is quarter-inch or 6 mm thick, this is bulletproof glass, so the durability is exponentially higher than typical acrylic which we can also make at CNCROi.com but this is a better material for this application.
Having an on-demand approach towards custom corporate awards means we can easily machine any shape to any size, so if you want them to be round, square, the shape of a shark or whatever you can imagine, CNCROi.com can make it happen!
It’s fun to see what our customers come-up with when it comes to what they want us to make for them.
Polycarbonate is a very strong and durable plastic, the best tool to create the custom shapes our customers require for custom corporate awards and other applications is to use our full sheet CNC router, it does an amazing job with absolute precision.
Because we make each custom corporate award essentially one at a time, it means that we can produce different shapes and sizes for each one, so if you wanted a different “theme” for each award given to your staff but within an overall branding design, CNCROi.com can make that happen.
CNCROi.com has full 3D capabilities which means we can design and virtual prototype just about anything before we convert the design over to something that can be made in the real world.
Using almost the same design file, we then convert over our materials to product the custom solid Maple backing that will be in the back of the polycarbonate after it’s finished and color changed using our fiber laser source.
Just for fun, I had a small piece of Maple I wanted to try to cut an award out of, the specs were tight to fit within this small form factor but that’s part of the fun, giving challenges to make the day interesting.
Because I wanted to document the production of this custom corporate award start to finish, I decided to do most of it without the dust shroud so that you can see the bit and other processes more clearly.
Let your imagination run wild, this is why I always ask customers what their budget range is and how many corporate awards they want because the options are infinite so ambition needs to match resources.
Unlike using live edge, using dimensional lumber allows for a quicker and more cost-effective production of these custom corporate awards, they are essentially the same material at the end of the day, we just don’t need to thickness plane, sand and cut it to size by buying it already to spec.
Many projects we take on at CNCROi.com have specs that require us to actually start from the kiln dried live edge roots for our customers but it’s fun to be able to fast forward a day of production by just getting what we need for a job too, we are fine working either way.
After all the Maple is cut to size using our ShopBot PRSAlpha, it’s time to cut it all the way through, due to the size of the bit and the specs, it was easier to do this extra step than to cut them all the way through on our CNC router.
Besides, any chance I get to do a little bandsaw work is something I really enjoy to take advantage of, especially when it comes to working with hardwoods.
There are lots of engraving options when it comes to Maple as well, dark or light like what we will be doing for these custom corporate awards.
As you can see, in this case, I used the CNC router to “outline” the cut profile for my bandsaw to follow and then this requires that I need to sand the edges flush, I’ve done this several times before though if time is a constraint, I’d just cut through.
This is Maple, which is a hardwood, so sanding does take a little time but it’s well worth it, when this custom corporate award will be given to the employees, it will have a wonderful feel and weight to it.
Here’s the finished Maple panel after sanding, it looks great and feels as a custom corporate award should, it has a presence of its own.
Want something light weight and cost-effective, CNCROi.com can make them out of plywood just as easily as solid live edge woods.
The next step is to laser engrave the background design onto the Maple hardwood that was CNC routed and finished to shape, we tried a few prototypes and settled with the customer to make it a very light engraving to better contrast against the heavy blackness of the fiber laser color changed polycarbonate in front of it.
What you don’t see are the slight design changes I did so that the mounting bolts go through the polycarbonate and thread into the Maple, this is only possible because we are dealing with solid top quality materials.
It’s a lot of fun to get to this point, all the individual components of these custom corporate awards are finished, it’s just time to add the details then assemble them to spec.
Laser engraving is just as precision position wise as our CNC router so flipping from one machine to another, one material to another, poses no problem once you understand the design quirks related to each machine.
Now that all these custom cut Maple pieces are cut out and laser engraved, the finishing steps of this custom corporate awards production cycle is slowly coming to a close, we just need to make the polycarbonate color changed using the laser next.
Just to give you an idea of design flexibility, here’s a F16 inspired design I made to showcase what CNCROi.com can make happen for your business.
What’s unique about color changing polycarbonate is that it isn’t ink, there is nothing that will peel, crack or fade over time, it’s feels smooth to the touch and is a nice vibrant and deep black.
When it comes to the precision of our work, offloading a lot of the heavy work to the CNC machines allows us to make some amazing work cost effectively and with ultimate repeatability.
The finished results look amazing on the polycarbonate, CNC routed and laser color changes as opposed to the Maple that’s routed and laser engraved at CNCROi.com.
Need a custom corporate award? Contact CNCROi.com right now!
