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Brian Robison
06-01-2009, 8:05 AM
Has anyone tried to take a sublimated aluminum
and engrave it with text?

Mike Null
06-01-2009, 8:28 AM
Brian

I haven't done it but I suspect that when engraved you will get a very dull mill finish rather than the glossy finish you would get on engravers aluminum.

Stephen Beckham
06-02-2009, 12:24 PM
Brian,

You're looking for LaserSub Metal - made by the same people that made the LaserFrost metal.. But there are very few suppliers carrying it - I think Johnson's just added it to their stock but can't verify it, IDPlates in Mesquite TX is where I got my first batch, but they are not selling it right now researching the quality.

It's great for smaller items, but if you get larger than 6X8 to 7X9, you get the off-gassing problems of full color page not having room for the extra gasses causing bubbles or waves in your color. SOooo... They've aparently pulled it to research if it's faulty material - my understanding. I gave them my two cents and said it's not the metal, it's the technology. It does the same thing for me as on regular DynaSub white.

At any rate, if you want to try a piece or two, I've got several scraps (not big) and I can ship you some to play with. It is real brass, so when you etch, it gives you a great look!

BTW - contacted JDS, Plastic Plus and a couple other metal providers and they said they would not pick it up at this time because no-one in the industry would combine two processes to make a single item due to costs and overhead (I'm not sure who I was talking to, seemed like the sales rep making an off-the-cuff excuse more than a marketing exec). My comment was not to tell me what will sell, let me buy what I want and I'll determine what I can sell. I quickly ran low of the 10 sheets I got from ID Plates and haven't been able to get anymore...(only got one sheet left for a return customer that uses it quite often) I'll have to do something soon when that last one is gone... I've stopped advertising it as a capability until I can get a solid supplier...

Brian Robison
06-02-2009, 1:05 PM
Thanks for the feedback Steve. I'm looking at an order of a couple hundred plaques that I wanted to try sublimation for. Each one is different and I didn't really want to send My Transfer Source 200 files, so I thought maybe I could just laser a couple things on the sublimated aluminum to make the plaques show place and class.

Mike Null
06-02-2009, 2:07 PM
Brian

What size are the plaques?

Brian Robison
06-02-2009, 2:11 PM
8x10 ish.....

Mike Null
06-02-2009, 3:40 PM
Could you use smaller plates to distinguish places and categories and have one standard sublimated plate. If so you could laser engrave on another metal.

Martin Boekers
06-02-2009, 5:11 PM
Marco has it in their 2009 catalog.

Called LaserSub, It comes in white and lasers to gold.

Marty

Stephen Beckham
06-02-2009, 9:44 PM
Thanks Martin... I got my first Marco catalog about six weeks ago and still haven't found time to get to every page in it. That's a good thing though, it means I'm too busy to just sit and look at a catalog.