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Acrylic to acrylic – acrylic to aluminium composite
Hi everyone.
I need to laminate 2 pieces of acrylic lettering together to create a larger depth and then I need to attach these to an aluminium composite sign tray. I normally use tensor 12 to laminate the acrylic pieces, and then a double sided tape to attach the the backboard, however I’ve only used this method for interior signs.
Can anyone recommend a good adhesive to do both these jobs for exterior use.
The tape I normally use is the red backed gel type tape, which so far has done me well, however I would prefer to use an adhesive for exterior use.
Thanks again for any help!
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3 Replies
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Hi
3M 467MP is excellent for sticking acrylic to acrylic – comes in sheets or rolls. We often stick 2 sheets of acrylic together together and then laser cut them as one for thicker letters etc. Never had any failures on external items after many years.
For bonding the letters to the tray then the red backed style VHB/UHB tape is about as good as any other method, 3M original of course but the likes NovaBond SignFix LSE 80 from innova is really good and cheaper. (everyone does their own version).
I’ve not come across a single D/S tape that will do both jobs equally well. May be someone else on the boards knows of one.
Cheers
Dave -
Like you say Tensol 12 is for indoor, but Tensol 70 is outdoor rated, so potentially look to use that for your lamination.
For the acrylic to aluminium, is it just going flat against the panel? Primer both surfaces and use hi-strength VHB tape, we use the Novabond stuff, forget the name, certainly isn’t coming off once set though, can then run a 2 part acrylic based adhesive round the edge of the panel to really make sure it’s bullet proof, obviously just be conscious of the tape shadowing through the acrylic but all depends what you’re doing.
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Thanks David and Michael! I think I’m going to go for the 3m 467 sheet to laminate, then laser cut as one piece! And the prime and tape pieces to panel.
Michael- they will be laser cut acrylic letters going flat against an aluminium composite backboard. I’ve struggled with shadowing through acrylic before, however as these pieces will be 10mm thick I’m hoping to avoid this!
Someone suggested tape primer 94 to prepare the ACM for the vhb tape, would I also be able to use this on the acrylic lettering?
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