Mass Production

Thank you again for everyone that helped out. I have found out how they do it. It is so simple that I can not believe I did not think of it. Now to find a printer that prints on Lexan.

Thank guy's, I really appreciate your imput and I will remember once I am up and running, you guy's get 1 free body with any design you want. Reggie, I will email you as soon as I can. Thanks again.

Godspeed, TheSaint.

there was an article in a RC car magazine about how exactly they do it. i lost the magazine, but suffice to say that the printing is most certainly done before pulling.

its pretty easy to calculate the distortion cos its all done by machiene, so it comes out the same all the time. the vac forming pulling machine used is pretty basic, but very consistent.

for your purposes, id sugest making a mini rig, with four rods mounted on the four corners of the perforated vac table which has the blank in the middle. this way when u pull down the lexan, it goes on straight and consistent all the time.

do you do R/C cars ? im just wondering.. if you would like to talk more, id be glad to share info with you, my email is reg_the_ruler@hotmail.com

hope this helps !!

As far as I know they do it before the vacuum forming, think it´s kinda difficult to perform it aferwards. But not being an expert with silk typing machines, can´t be 100% sure. I´ve done thousands hours silk printing but only per hand. I did print before vacuum forming for commercial signs, the printed area where all the letters and all were was not to be curved though. Only the sides where only one color appeared. How they calculate the distortion I really have no idea to be honest.

Thank you for the info sir. One more question, do the silk screen before they vacuum form or after? If you could point me to the process I am more than willing to do the research on the subject. Thank you again sir as you are an asset to this board.

Godspeed, The saint.

Maybe I´ll dissapoint you a little bit but as long as I understand it and I think I know too, lexan boddies are NOT airbrushed. I am a graffic artist for more than 15 years and I never heard of airbrush mass production, with the exception maybe of decorative items sprayed with only one or two colors in dots and/or stripes. So how they do it? It´s a silk print produced in machines. If you´ll get close enough yo´ll be able to see the raster although they use very fine graded silk screen. I´ve never seen the process of lexan painting with my eyes to be honest, but if I was to mass produce mass lexan paintings, I would do it this way. I hope I helped somehow.