Anyone try Dibond Metal yet?

[Stephen Beckham]

Just got an advertisement from Sign Business suggesting to try the new Dibon metal "can be digital, screenprinted, routed, curved, shaped in a variety of ways" - nothing mentioned about laser...

Anyone know of it? My surfing capability here is limited, I plan on looking at the web site when I get home tonight alcancompositesusa.com

TIA

Steve

[Mike Null]

Steve

It seems to me that Joe Pelonio posted something on the sign forum about dibond.

[Scott Shepherd]

I use Dibond to make signs fairly frequently. It's not laserable. Well, you could certainly laser the paint off of it, bot other than that, there's not much you can do with dibond and your laser that I am aware of.

It's two pieces of aluminum sheet about .015"-.020" thick with a core of plastic. So it holds up outside better than plastic, but it's lighter than wood.

[Joe Pelonio]

You shouldn't try to cut it, because it's aluminum with PVC core, but it does Engrave beautifully. What you get is bare aluminum silvery color. Works well on black or other dark colors.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ghlight=dibond

[Stephen Beckham]

Thanks again guys....

[Harlan Kilbourn]

Looking the website, the core of Dibond appears to be polyethylene.

" Dibond is an aluminum composite material (ACM) made of two pre-painted sheets of .012" aluminum with a solid polyethylene core."

Harlan

[Joe Pelonio]

Looking the website, the core of Dibond appears to be polyethylene.

" Dibond is an aluminum composite material (ACM) made of two pre-painted sheets of .012" aluminum with a solid polyethylene core."

Harlan

Yes, actual dibond is polyethelyne core, but there are many other similar products (most less expensive) that use PVC. Probably not an issue for most people with C02 lasers anyway since we can't cut aluminum.

[Bill Cunningham]

I made a rural mailbox sign for my daughter from a piece of this I got from my signmaker neighbor.. I put a layer of transfer tape on it, then lasered the line art image and text.. Sprayed it with Krylon Fusion then peeled of the mask.. Came out great, but forgot to take a picture

[Erik King]

We use it all the time. Can't cut it, but it looks FABULOUS engraved if you use one of the types that have an anodized finish on top (gold, copper, bronze). Works just like anodized aluminum but you get a very attractive brushed metallic silver engraving on the metallic background color - in our neck of the woods copper is by far the most popular. Plus, it's a very outdoor durable material.

[Frank Wick]

Dibond is pretty versatile and laser friendly. A friend has been Shop-Botting the material just through the core and then we break it into the angle needed. Imagine a thick piece of paper. Scored on one side it naturally takes to the opposite direction.

I have been running the flat stock through our 60 watt laser engraver. It does a beautiful job. I recently did a plaque for the Library of Science here on our campus. I set the 4x9 inch piece of black Dibond on a 4x9 sheet or black plex to give it some thickness and it looks stunning. BTW, we use Nitadenko brand tape to double-stick the Dibond to the plex. The shining Aluminum pops out against the black. I have also run a few photographs through and they look just perfect. With out limited 60 watts we aren't running the risk of cutting through anything but the powder coated surface. The edges of the Dibond can seem a bit unpolished. This can be overcome any number of ways.

[Mike Null]

Frank

Welcome to SMC. How about posting some pictures?

[Bill Cunningham]

This stuff is a coated metal you can engrave a photo or text into, and leave it outside in the sun for years.. Probably one of the only products that you can laser and leave in the sun. Black is great for photos. Just process the file as you would for black enamel brass, Just hit it a little harder. You can laser through a mask, and spray paint what ever colour you want..

[Kit Dumph]

Guys I'm going to bring this thread back. Anyone have some photos of this?