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adam smiz
12-22-2015, 6:29 PM
Hey fellow SMC members,

I am currently in a bit of a scramble and would like anyone who can to give a helping hand to help put out my fire. I am currently cutting a job for solar tags. This is my first job like this and I ordered 9 sheets of rowmark two ply red and white acrylic to be laser etched. I have seen other people use this exact material for other solar jobs. My Custom has now come back to me after all the sheets are pre cut and prepped for etching, that all the tags have to be reflective per code (this was verified that it does state it needs to be reflective material). When I called the manufactures they told me that there is no reflective red and white that can be lasered, only CNC'ed. They also sent pictures of previous jobs that had reflective acrylic.

So my question to you out there...Have any of you come across this type of acrylic that can be lasered? and if any of you have done solar jobs in NY have you used reflective acrylic or just gone with the red and white material like normal? Any help or incite into this issue would be very helpful as this was a very hot order!

Thanks

Brent Franker
12-22-2015, 6:59 PM
Hmm... that's odd. I just installed a 10KW system on my house and do have those plaques/stickers you talk about and they are NOT reflective. I'm in Florida and maybe this varies state to state?

I don't know of anything personally like what you are requesting but what exactly does the code require to be reflective? How much of it has to be reflective? Could you do a 1/8" border with red reflective vinyl on your existing plaque? Does the background have to be reflective or the letters? You might be able to get by with just installing a reflective border? No idea... just throwing some ideas out there for you :)

AL Ursich
12-22-2015, 7:38 PM
I have been after Reflective Red Plastic for a few years. I believe it was IPI that made me some double sided red reflective plastic using the standard red cap plastic and applied red reflective vinyl over it. I did some testing and made some samples with my Star 912 and was very un happy with it. Plus it was not laser like you are requesting.

I did have some luck making Reflective Stickers and Tags by using the Sublimation Clear Mates that is a clear poly film with a sticki on the back. You print it with Sublimation and apply it to white reflective vinyl. It was pretty durable and I even did a epoxy dome over it. The DOWN Side is that all sublimation will fade in direct sun. I have some samples outside now for over 5 years and you can still read them and they are still RED but faded.

I have requested a few times for Unisub the FRP Plastic Maker for the Tags that I make to come out with a Gloss White Reflective but that will never happen....

So as far as I know, you will likely NOT find any Reflective that can be done on a Laser. If you DO I am very interested...

Here are a few samples over the years using the Clear Mates on Reflective White. Some have the epoxy dome.

I have see similar requests in the past and the experienced guys are going to point you to the BIG Sticker Houses like STOUSE to have them done by silk screen or another direct printing method. Then after out gassing they will put a clear overcoat film on top then cut to size. I don't believe the UV LED Guys will be interested as the reflective film causes the INK to UV CURE on the INK JETS... not a cheap fix....

The last picture is from the Stouse site (no links allowed).

Good Luck

AL

Bert Kemp
12-22-2015, 8:05 PM
you could spray it with reflect All after engraving.

AL Ursich
12-22-2015, 8:24 PM
you could spray it with reflect All after engraving.

I just came back to post about the post about the Rust-Oleum Specialty Reflective Finish, "Reflects Light for Night Visibility" a "Semi-transparent clear finish illuminates for nighttime safety". Use on metal, wood, plastic, etc. UPC 0 20066 13322 1 It is just ground up glass in a poly spray base.

I tried it on a few tags and even a few signs where I applied Reflective Blue over PVC and Rotary CNC Engraved and used the Spray on the exposed white letters... It was a fail.. The tags were a fail too.

The Blue Solar LED's were pretty cool.

AL

Bert Kemp
12-22-2015, 9:36 PM
I haven't tried it but Reflect All is suppose to have twice the amount of reflective stuff in it and suppose to adhere to most surfaces .
http://www.amazon.com/Reflect-All-12-oz-oz-can/dp/B006VEEKRI




I just came back to post about the post about the Rust-Oleum Specialty Reflective Finish, "Reflects Light for Night Visibility" a "Semi-transparent clear finish illuminates for nighttime safety". Use on metal, wood, plastic, etc. UPC 0 20066 13322 1 It is just ground up glass in a poly spray base.

I tried it on a few tags and even a few signs where I applied Reflective Blue over PVC and Rotary CNC Engraved and used the Spray on the exposed white letters... It was a fail.. The tags were a fail too.

The Blue Solar LED's were pretty cool.

AL

Braden Todd
12-22-2015, 10:45 PM
What about using red mirror acrylic? Technically it's reflective.

Good luck!

Kev Williams
12-23-2015, 1:25 AM
I have in my hand a 1/4 sheet of IPI blue/white core reflective, I picked up a sheet about a year ago just because, haven't used it yet. It IS designed for tool engraving, but I thought I'd give the laser a shot at it--

100 power (40w), 30 speed, 600x600 dpi, 1/8" high Gentium Basic font (I like Gentium, it's like Times Roman but with much less line width variance)...

First pass put on a dazzling light show! Must be real glass particles in the cap. Not much penetration for that much power either...

Second pass, light show was over, got into the white somewhat, but the blue cap is pretty thick and just isn't laser-friendly.

This is the best I could get in 2 passes, full power, 30 speed and high-dpi. It's actually quite deep, but the blue just won't go away...

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/rfblue1.jpg

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/rfblue2.jpg


conversely, this is normal laserable blue, same job and settings EXCEPT only 20% power and only one pass...

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/regblue.jpg

adam smiz
12-28-2015, 1:37 PM
Thanks all for your responses! I really appreciate the quick help. I was able to read them all the same day as post but it wasn't allowing me to post.

A few things to comment on that have been discovered through this.

It is in the NY code that all solar tags must be made in reflective acrylic. But from what I've gathered the code is more of a guide for the inspectors. So final say is on the inspector to pass or fail the system. We were fortunate enough to contact the inspector and he said we would be ok this time with non reflective. So now we are in a scramble to figure this out for next time.

I've looked into some reflective spray but nothing seem to be legitimately clear. They all seem to leave some shading or color behind, so this is a no go.

I am still looking into this but I don't think a boarder will work either. They want it all reflective.

Still looking into a mirror type solution.

And finally I looked into the material Kev posted in a red and white. The material is laser cut-able but is not engrave-able. So thanks a ton for your pics that saves me some serious time having to mess around with the samples I ordered to come to the conclusion you did.

So this leaves of looking to get these out sourced :( was really hoping it would be able to go on the laser.

Bill George
12-28-2015, 1:48 PM
You might ask the Inspector who said it was ok this time, why they specify reflective tags? The only thing I can think of right off hand, is in case of a fire at night firefighters know its not a roof but a glass panel they can not walk on. Shine a light on it and the tags show up?

Rich Harman
12-28-2015, 2:41 PM
I was wondering the same thing. If it needs to be reflective there are all sorts of reflective tapes available.

Bert Kemp
12-28-2015, 7:02 PM
would this work?

http://www.americanacrylics.com/mirror.htm