Methods: How do we do what we do?

The creation of our products involves three major processes: Printing, cutting and assembly. Each of these processes can use a variety of methods depending on the specifications of the product.

Printing/Decorating

Screen printing is our main method of decorating or printing a product. We can print a simple 1 color job or a more elaborate 4-color Process job. We can handle half-tones, match any PMS number or color match a swatch of another material. We can also handle tight registration, bleeds and floods. Our printing is as good as anyone in the industry.

In addition, we also foil-stamp with standard gold, silver and/or colored foils. We can emboss that image to register or simply Blind emboss your graphics. Lastly, we have the capability to do an appliqué which is essentially two separate pieces of decorated vinyl heat-sealed together.

Cutting

Cutting normally takes place after printing because it is easier to print on full flat sheets of stock. Like printing, cutting can be used as a design element. We can use shaped edges and cut-outs to accentuate a design. Even for the simplest product, cutting is required to make smaller items out of large pieces of raw stock.

More complex pieces, or even a "simple" vinyl binder, can require a lot of precision cutting. We have equipment to handle this type of cutting with accuracy and repeatability.

Assembly

Obviously, our simplest products, such as flat signs and license plates will require no assembly. But, many of our other products do require some assembly, and we have many methods available.

A typical vinyl binder, for example, uses RF sealing to "weld" the seams of the vinyl around its cardboard core and riveting to attach the ring binder mechanism to the spine. For some products, we will also use various types of adhesives to assemble pieces. Since most of our work is fairly high volume, we try to find the most efficient method of assembly for a each product.

We use the assembly methods above to attach different pieces together or install fasteners, such as snaps or Velcro, create boxes and other custom containers, create pockets in vinyl products, and so much more. The Printing department usually gets all the attention, but Assembly is where it's at!