PRODUCT SHOTS
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MSI manufactures a full line of Overlays including:
- Velvet Polycarbonate.
- Hard Coated Polycarbonate and Polyester
- UV Polycarbonate for Outdoor applications.
- Selective texturing for LCD displays and LED windows.
- Metallic Polycarbonate.
- Embossed
- Dead front
- Autotype Polyester.
- 3M Laminating Adhesives and VHB bonding tapes.
- Selective adhesive.
- Custom Color Matching.
Hardcoated Polycarbonate
Hard coated polycarbonate has several excellent benefits for use in Overlay and Nameplate applications:
1. Enhanced scratch and chemical resistance.
2. Wide range of thicknesses from .005 - .060.
3. A wide range of gloss levels including 100, 90, 75, 55, 35 and 20%.
4. Polycarbonate remains clear even in thicknesses above .010 unlike polyesters which become milky white in thicknesses above .010.
5. Polycarbonate is extremely easy to print in all thicknesses and can be steel rule die cut up to .020 for the thicker Overlay applications.
Polycarbonate for Outdoor Use
UV inhibitors can now be added to the Polycarbonate material protecting the material from the harmful UV rays of the sun. Combined with 3M adhesives like 467 and 468 polycarbonate can now last up to and exceeding 5 years in the most demanding outdoor environments.
Lexan Overlays with Selective Texture
Selective texturing allows an Overlay to have "clear" windows for the LCD display while still having a velvet texture over the graphics. This gives the Overlay the durability of a velvet texture while retaining the clear window for readability. MSI uses a special UV cured hard coat clear that is more durable than the velvet texture that comes standard on the polycarbonate. This velvet finish is an excellent non-glare surface. These types of overlays can be printed Digital or Screen print depending on our customers designs. The polycarbonate materials come in many different gloss levels allowing a customer to vary the gloss level of the clear windows. In many cases customers will use a 90% polycarbonate to help reduce the glare on the clear windows.
Metallic Lexan Overlays
Metallic overlays are attractive and durable. The overlay is first sub-surface printed and then laminated from behind with a brushed silver polyester. This brushed silver polyester has a super clear adhesive to eliminate any bubbles or imperfections between the lexan and the brushed silver. These overlays can be used a in variety of overlay applications including small and large applications as well as applications involving LED displays.
Embossed Overlays
Embossing can add additional functionality to a flat overlay graphic panel. MSI can do both cold emboss which allows about a .025 depth and a thermal emboss that can increase the depth of the embossing. A typical polycarbonate embossed overlay can withstand approximately 250,000 actuations. Polyester on the other hand can extend the actuation life of an overlay to approximately 2,000,000 actuations.
Velvet Polyester
While the Velvet Polyester looks similar to the Velvet Polycarbonate there are two distinct advantages to the polyester:
1. Increased chemical resistance.
2. Polyester films have an actuation life of approximately 2,000,000 cycles as compared to polycarbonate that has an actuation life of roughly 250,000.
One disadvantage to the polyester is the smaller range of thicknesses .005 - .010. Polycarbonate on the other hand ranges from .005 - .060 and higher.
Marnot XL Polyesters
Marnot Polyesters come in the same wide array of gloss levels as the Marnot Polycarbonates. The gloss levels are 100,90,75,55,40,35,20%. Polyester materials are used for the most demanding applications requiring additional actuation life and chemical resistance.
3M Laminating Adhesives
Is there any surface that 3M adhesives can not adhere to? If there is we have not found it. 3M is the leading provider of adhesives, bonding tapes and foam tapes. Whether your Overlay needs to adhere to metal, high surface energy plastics or low surface energy plastics 3M has the solution. MSI stock a wide variety of 3M adhesive product such as:
* 467MP and 468MP (Excellent for metals and high surface energy plastics.)
* 9671 and 9672 (Excellent for low surface energy plastics
*VHB bonding tapes (Excellent for water tight seals.)
Above are just a few of the most popular 3M products MSI stocks. Our experts will be happy to help you find the ideal 3M adhesive for your special application.
Color Matching (copy 1)
Color matching is critical in producing the perfect overlay or nameplate. Companies spend thousands of dollars to find the perfect logo and colors. That is why the top flight companies such as Tyco, Abbott Labs and Fujitsu trust MSI to produce their most demanding overlays and nameplates. For over 15 years now MSI has had color matching capability in house. We take color so seriously that we have developed a stand alone department that does nothing but color match new colors and quality check existing colors. Here is how our Color Matching department works:
1. You submit a color matching standard. This can be almost anything that has the color you want on it. A plastic or metal bezel. A paint chip. Even a piece of paper or fabric.
2. Our Color department then use our state of the art DataColor matching system to get the perfect match.
3. Once the color is ready MSI will send you a two part card. There will be two color samples on each card. If approved you sign and return our 1/2 of the card and keep the other 1/2 for your quality records.
4. Our color samples are then kept in a sealed envelope inside the color matching file cabinet so that they do not fade or change in color over time.
5. Once the standard is established it will be used to QC each job that is printed with that color. The matching of each color and the quality check of each color is performed by the DataColor spectrophotometer.
This ensures confidence in our customers that each job will have the same correct colors.