Rigid Substrates Emerging as a New Star of the Sign Materials

Materials that can be used to make signs are indeed diverse. Despite diversity and variety of sign materials, however, most signs are made out of flexible materials, such as vinyl, sheets and flex. Among the recent trend of multi-dimensional signs incorporating into a variety of materials and components, the most notable are the ones that have been made of rigid plastics materials.

Materials Determination in the Embryonic Stages
Most sign makers decide what materials they would use in the embryonic stages during the completion of signs. Success or failure of end product may depend on materials determined at the moment may, since only ‘certain materials’ can express ‘certain messages’. However, repetitive application of the same materials for a sign has resulted in the clich? of sign messages and reduced its effects. More signs on streets, nowadays, use hard plastics. Rigid plastic substrates are easy to process and best choice to express letters and patterns with dimensions. When used appropriately, the materials produce neat and luxurious effects, differentiating a shop from others. They are recyclable as well. Recently, dimensional signs have become a hot trend among big corporations. City Bank Korea, which completed its phase of replacing the existing signs in last April, produced the newly designed signs for 239 branches across the nation using polycarbonate. City Bank Korea chose the material in order to differentiate its image from the other competitive banks.

Reasons for Increasing Demands on Rigid Plastic Materials
There are several reasons for the recent emergence of hard plastics as the new trend. First is the trend of dimensional signs. The Municipality of Seoul announced in last June that over two stories buildings next to four-lane roads should install dimensional signs. Such regulation has increased the demand for dimensional signs. Another reason may be that retailers have come to defy the corny banal flat-faced signs because dimensional signs are suitable for expressing unique letters and patterns in dimensionality. Rigid materials are great for enhancing this effect. Cases of covering the channel letters with the caps of polycarbonates or acryl, or producing channel letters using acryl, PET, or PVC panels are on a rise, and will be used in even more applications. Another reason for the current demand for rigid materials is wide application of flatbed printers, engraving machines and routers. HaeKwang Laser specializing in production of small-sized P.O.P. advertisements and souvenirs release that engraving machines and routers can deal with a variety of materials but mostly rigid plastic materials are applied to them due to its high capability of processing and producing a refined sign. Flatbed printers have a great function of outputting intended messages directly onto acryl or PVC foams. Thus, users of flatbed printers prefer rigid materials like plastics overall.

The Future of Rigid Materials
These changes that rigid plastic materials have more widely applied in sign industry can be seen easily in the recently increasing total production of manufacturers. Taekwang Utech, a manufacturer of PC materials, used to produce polycarbonates for construction materials only before, but is now introducing it for the application on outdoor advertising as well, reflecting consistent demand for the material. ADEX Corporation, another manufacturer of rigid materials, also reported that its production have increased by 30% compared with last year. Mr. Jeong Bongsu, the representative of Adex, argues: “Rigid plastics are even not new materials in the sign industry, however the materials are getting much more attentions nowadays as shop owners have been interested in dimensional sign systems.” And he adds, “The demand for the materials will continue to increase steadily and consistently in the future.” Many sign makers and material manufacturers agree that the future of rigid plastics depends on what designs will be used, since signs are made out of materials depicting the designed sign’s feature. Mr., Jeong anticipates that the more designs works using the rigid plastics materials are applied, the more diverse the sign designs would become based on the materials. It should also be highly consider how to apply these materials technically and shapely on signs. All of these issues are depending on the sign makers’ originality.