Graphic Overlays FAQ

Graphic Overlay Properties

Our graphic overlay panels are made of a laminate material that has the look, feel, and durability of traditional silk-screened panels but without some of its limitations. The graphics panels are a minimum of 125 micron( 0.125 millimeters) thick which we have found to be most versatile when laminating Aluminium and FR4 front panels. The material is a wear resistant cadmium free monomeric calendered PVC film that has the look and feel of satin lexan, and even though they are prototypes delivered within days, they are virtually indistinguishable from the production labels that you may see on your telephone, HiFi, or other high volume devices.

How do your Graphic Overlays compare to Screen printing?

Our graphic overlay panels (labels) provide you many advantages over silk screening: for one they are considerably less expensive for prototyping and production, the are also available in virtually any of the 16 million colours in the CMYK Pallete, you are not limited to the color the silk screen printer has on hand. With our digitally printed process there is no smearing or chipping. Your product can have any image or graphic in high definition full colour. Anything you can create in Corel or Photoshop can be digitally printed on your panel!

How durable is the graphic panel?

The  graphic overlay panel material is very durable and in normal use will not scratch, crack, discolor or fade

How do I apply the graphic Overlay

The graphic overlay is adhesive backed. To apply you peel the overlay off the backing paper, align it to the surface of your product, and carefully smooth it down with your fingers or a flat object like a credit card. We manufacture the panels using top quality materials that allow you to carefully lift them back up and move them if you need to re-adjust the alignment. (graphic overlays are NOT cheap vinyl stickers !) If you have a large panel with a number of alignment features, you can also spray our alignment solution on both the panel and the adhesive of the graphic overlay - this allows you to easily slide the label around until its perfectly located, then gently apply pressure to set the adhesive, and firmly squeegee the water to the edges using a paper towel to soak up excess water. After the panel sits for a few minutes and the water evaporates the adhesive material will activate and provide you with a perfectly aligned and rugged panel. - Where large panel are supplied alignment solution is supplied free of charge. - You may also purchase Alignment Solution if required

What colours are available

We can manufacture your graphic overlay from any CMYK color. Unless you specify white, we will normally produce the overlay using a base material that matches the colour of the underlying product. Thus panels with a small amount of printing on them, appear to be made of the same material as the product. See example photographs.

What Shape can the overlay be?

Your graphic overlays can be any shape you desire. The outline of your graphic overlay is cut by our automated cutting system directly from the outlines you indicate in your graphics file.

What about cutouts for connectors?

We can cut any shape you define in your design file. Over sizing your cutouts by .2 - .5 mm larger then the matching faceplate cut out (e.g in the case of a connector) simplifies the installing of connectors etc.

What Graphics file format do you require?

We may need to add information to your graphics design to allow our high speed industrial printing equipment to automatically cut inside holes and shapes, and the outside perimeter to the tolerances that will ensure the overlay fits your enclosure or end panel exactly. To provide the best match we prefer your artwork in vector format: Illustrator ai (version 10 or earlier), Corel Draw cdr (version 13 or earlier), eps or dxf . While not providing the same high accuracy as the vector file formats, we can also process bitmap files created by popular program like Photoshop. In