CHROME DOMED – Car Designs

[Robert Lambie]

are we talking the metal type domed badges or a doming kit for vinyl letters. you can also buy a machine that will dome the vinyl automaticaly, many at a time.
there is a demo in the deom area of this site on doming.

[dannyflint]

The first type: the metal type raised badge.

But we are open to all options…..

cheers

Danny Flint

[Robert Lambie]

i dont know much about how the metal ones are made but would have thought the car giants made their own.. 🙄
the process, i would imagine would mean you have to have huge quantities to make before making any real money.
about 1 year ago i bought a complete set for my jeep and they only cost about £8 and they were good ones 😕
i think this was the reason liquid doming became so appealing. you could make one badge or a hundred without huge overhead costs/setup and still make a good profit. the fact that the only real bit of exspence was the vinyl cutter. and we all have those anyway..

i dont know the end of the market your going for but short run or one offs then ide go for liquid doming. 😉 infact.. misubushi are using liquid doming on their new pick-ups…

[Rodney Gold]

You need to die cast the metal and plate it,

You wll need facilities to make your own dies , facilities to die cast and a plating plant – all of which will cost a lot
A small CnC mill capable of making the dies with decent software can run to 40k , a die casting plant about the same and a plating plant about 1/2 that. You could spin cast the items , but your finishes wont be good. You could also stamp the items or if you want really good quality use a coining press to make them
You will need a dedicated facility to do most of this , plating plants use some pretty nasty stuff too. If you want colours added , you need to use stoving enamel and fire the item so the enamels fuse. As a thumb suck bank on spending GBP 150k
These days lot of the “metal” decals arent metal , they are vacuum plated injection moulded plastic

[dannyflint]

Thanks guys for the help.

It looks like doming is the way to go….

Just one last question….

Has anyone seen a specialty metallic vinyl ( like the multi-fix 1001 ), that has had doming applied?

Will it look like a flat metallic vinyl cutout, with a raised clear dome over it, or will ( my lack of knowledge of physics showing through here ) it all look sort of metallic?

if not is there any way of applying a metallic finish to the doming?

cheers. Thankyou again for your time.

Danny

p.s. I cant seem to access the demo on doming due to lack of privelages. How can I change this?

[dannyflint]

…sorry, and as an afterthought…..

Does the shape being domed have to be regular ( like a square or a circle.), as we require the shapes to be designs / lettering / smiley faces etc…all cut out of relatively small areas of vinyl.

D

[Robert Lambie]

quote :

p.s. I cant seem to access the demo on doming due to lack of privelages. How can I change this?

http://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.php?p=4411#4411

liquid doming can be applied to any shape…

[Andy Gorman]

I once saw a product that could be applied on top of a resin domed badge to make it look like a moulded badge, hence a car style as described in the original post.

Don’t ask me where they are but if you go to http://www.creativeresinsdistribution.com
they may still be doing this product.

[Rodney Gold]

I do the silver foils printed embossed and domed for car use.
There are some things you have to consider

You have to guarantee output for 10-15 years in respect of adhesive , print and resin(yellowing) as well as delamination

So you have to apply your own adhesive to the foils as the commercial vinyls start failing quite early in the harsh envirnonment a car is in , you also have to use specialised uv inhibited polyurethane resins , print is generally not a problem as uv inhibited resins encapsulate and protect it.

The process is :
Print and cut the foil , samwhich between a male and female die to emboss sellective areas , dome.

Sounds simple – but it’s not

Firstly you have to put the foils thru a laminator to give them the agressive adhesive

Printing can be done thermally with resins , or with ink’s (then you have to coat the foil with ink receptive layer) or screened or just vinyl on vinyl and then the decals need to be cut (re registered in a viny cutter or if you have a print and cut machine)

You have to make a male and female die (sort of like a seal type die that universitys emboss their crests on certificated) which requires either a laser or a cnc engraver and emboss the decal (most car decal done this way have selective areas raised to look like they were cast in metal)

Then you apply the dome , however working with polyurethane water clear resins is fraught with difficulty , they are very hygroscopic (attract water) and any moisture will cause all sorts of problems and they can’t be stored wel so you have to use a nitrogen blanketed commercial doping system which is expensive and have to do this in a rigidly controlled moisture and temperature environment.
You then dry the decals on racks in a totally dust free and slightly heated environment. (there are UV curable resins available (They cure in a few secs) , but they dont build high domes.)

If you arent doing this type of thing for lifetime use or for automotive manufacturers , and dont need embossing etc , you can use epoxy resins which are far easier to work with , hand mix and apply them , then all you need is a way to print and cut the decals.
Moisture is always a problem with a doming operation at least do it in a dry dust free heated room.
You also have to be careful that the resins actually stick to the vinyls – there are plasticisers in vinyls that make the resin layer delaminate – and some inks or methods of printing run when epoxys are applied.

[Darryl Seager]

Hi danny and welcome to the boards

Pehaps you would like to take a look at these web sites

http://www.likwidart.com run by a very talented artist Rob,based Wolverhampton .Exceptional use of resin and quite expensive

The other site is http://www.diametric.gb.com
look at the 3d and tufflex ranges—superb!!!!

darryl

[Darryl Seager]

web addresse amended
they should now work!!
cheers Darryl 😀 😀