Official Reg Plate suppliers?

[Tim Shaw]

We have made up a few plates for the motor show, bought all the blanks from a local supplier., Try a local motor factors.

As for the font if you can’t get it for the a Mac just by one letter of each and scan them in. It s not like you will need to type a lot of text, so they will be easy to position and layout etc.

Anyway the acrylic as the adhesive applied to it, the reflective white and yellow has no adhesive on it. The numbers are stuck to the reflective sheet and the rolled through a press, onto the acrylic.

[steve]

Thanks for that tim

[Adrian Howard]

i buy my blanks from tennants uk

http://www.tennantsuk.com

they know everything about no. plates you will ever need to know

tel 0115 973 8080

Adrian

[steve]

Thanks Adrian i knew you would know ! i have e mailed them i hope they will get back to me
regards

[Martin Pearson]

Steve as well as tennents Grafityp do them as well, sold in packs of two. You can buy, acrylic blanks in all sizes and reflective cut to size.
You have a choice of adhesive or dry faced acrylic and adhesive of dry faced reflective. They also sell a roller (small mangle) for making them up.
We dont do a lot of number plates and I think tennants are cheaper but have a minimum order which is why I get mine from Grafityp. I usually buy dry faced acrylic, cut the numbers in reverse and apply to the back of the acrylic and then put an adhesive faced reflective over the lettering, we dont have a roller as they are £150 and as we dont do a lot a good squeegee works fine.

[steve]

Thanks Martin rep of tennnants is calling in i am getting more clued up every day

[John Childs]

martin,

One of my lads bought on old mangle at a car boot sale for £2.00 😀

It works a treat and we can use it to make smooth faced signs much larger than number plates.

[Kevin Flowers]

Paul
welcome glad to see you finally found the site, enjoyed our chat when i picked up my supplies, should be up and running on the number plate side soon. Hope you enjoy the site

Kevin
Uksigns

[Allan Weyman]

Steve,

I am a registered numberplate supplier and despite what you have been told on the boards if you want to make legal platews you must use the BS kiite marked number plate blanks and approved backings. These were all changed at the begiing of the year when the DVLA bought in the new rules. The material of the new plates is definitely different because it is design to resist cracking and cannot now be scored and snapped. The backings are also a lot more sticky to attempt to stop the delamination problems. Needless to say the price was hiked up at the same time.

Also you must have your logo at the bottom of the plate with your phone number or postal code so budget for this as well and don’t think you will do it with cut vinyl it will drive you mad. The supplier will screen print that for you but expect to pay a setup fee.

As for the fonts there is someone doing them one of the logo suppliers I think, well known name but escapes me for the moment. I did me own in Signlab before the font was available. I scanned in a set of standard numbers and made the font from them. When the new font came out (same but narrower) I just modified it accordingly. As I do a bit of film work I sometimes use the old style for period plates.

Funny enough I am thinking of phasing out numberplates as I am now finding them a pain and if you do them with a plotter like I do time consuming. It was good before the new laws came in and I was selling plates with different type styles but the police (in London at least) are so hot now people don’t want them.

Also I have had a couple of potential nasty situations in the shop (numberplate rage my supplier is calling it) where guys have come in the shop, no documents, nothing and when I have said I can’t do started getting a bit bolshie. When it is a gang of 4 or 5 travellers and I am on my own with my wife I may be a big guy but it ain’t funny. I also had some Scots guys (not you Rob was it?) effing & blinding down the phone last week because I would not do him a set over the net for the same reason.

Finally (my opinion of course) I would not bother with Tennants, I used to use them but found their backings awful and I had a real dodgy batch that just delaminated, they wern’t very helpful and I had to redo quite a few sets of plates and they would not compensate me. I also find them a bit snappy on the phone. Much better to phone Europlates and speak to one of their charming young Brummie ladies and oh the product is better too, You will also get a lot of support and information from them plus some
pre-printed DVLA forms if you ask.

Allan

[Darryl Seager]

We get our blanks from Grafityp(Tennants supply them) The last batch we ordered came through without the BS 145au insignia on them,i made an irate call back to the sales desk and was told i could put my own BS digits on!!!!!.(They have now replaced the batch)
According to the Reps that visit you are not allowed to cut vinyl and use it to make numberplates! it may not be black enough,or, it may be TOO BLACK(i ask ya!!!) You cannot use any old reflective you have lying around it may not be reflective enough or it may be TOO REFLECTIVE!!!!
(WHATTTTTT!!!)
As far as i’m concerned when the blank says BS 145au on it and i have been supplied the reflectives by a supplier, the plates a good ‘un.

darryl

[Dazzel]

Hi Kevin

Yes finally found it and thanks, looks a great site and i’ve not stopped reading back posts.

If any of you guys wants help with Number plate law, supplies, etc etc, let me know – i’ve been in this game for over 10 years..and desperately trying to find something new 🙂

If i don’t know ! i know someone who will.

We don’t use vinyl AT ALL anymore to make plates, thermal printers are the way, but you need to be selling 5 pairs a week at least to justify the cost – c£500 for a 4″ and c£1800 for an 8″ (makes squares etc ). Although we now supply a FULL COLOUR laser printer at £1000 inc 1st colour pack.

Cheers

Paul

ps. it was not only Tennats who had a problem with de-lamination of reflective…everyone did including Europlate. problem solved now, it was due to the adhesive.

pps. I also wouldn’t advise selling plates without a DVLA licence, newspapers are sending out reporters to find people who will make “iffy” plates. Must have nothing better to do !

[dragon2000]

We got the kit to do plates when we bought an Edge, but we’ve been told that edge printing is not legal, as the black print needs to be tested for its reflective qualities! Then we’d get a BS mark of our own, and this process costs thousands.

Madness, considering that edge printing is technically the same as the thermal printers (isn’t it?).

I understand that process black is slightly translucent, and solid black is opaque. Anyway, we cant print legal plates with an edge. If we could, you can buy sproketted legal reflective (also for road signs I believe). One thing I never understood was once the plate was made up, you could peel the backing off and it would be adhesive! Not ideal.

Scanning the precut letters is a great idea, but the font costs £30 if anyone is serious about using it.

[Darryl Seager]

dragon 2000, what does the edgw kit consist of. and who was your Rep(from Spandex)?
Are the number plates stills shown in the Edge Portfolio?
Darryl

[Nigel Fraser]

Dragon2000, I make a lot of “plates” here using my edge and I have not bothered to register as a proper licenced station. I just tell the customer if they want me to make them a “sign” that conforms to all the spec except having my postcode then I will supply it for them. I normally only get asked to make slightly dodgy ones anyway so wouldn’t want to put my name to a road going item on that basis.
If you use a standard spot black cartridge it will be fine in terms of reflectivity, after all whos going to check that anyway ?
If you want the typeface for std plates, I posted it as an EPS on the boards a month or so ago, should find it with a search.

If you register as a licenced manufacturer what will you do when asked to supply no legal spec ones? I guess it depends on your market though, if you plan to supply car dealers etc then maybe you have no option. Do you have to specify how you make plates to become licenced though ? I’d be surprised if you had to. If so why don’t you just go the legal route and then print on your edge and forget the BS business.

I print onto reflective and then laminate to the acrylic, then apply a layer of cheap 2-3yr vinyl back to back to remove the sticky side of the vinyl – does that make sense ?? or you can print onto clear vinyl and use the manufacturers non-adhesive reflectives if you get the idea…

Hope thats some help anyway….

Nigel

[Chris Wool]

nigel
are you using std available blanks if so where are you geting them from as i want to deregister but am unable to buy blanks if i do.
my tip print on to clear then fitt between the reflective & acrilic
chris pm please

[Nigel Fraser]

Sent info Chris. I do a mixture of the printing on clear and direct to reflective, its a bit of a pain either way, but if you can get £12-15 a plate its worth while I guess.

Nigel

[Chris Wool]

thank you nigel
you are right on all points

chris

[Dazzel]

If you need advice, give me a call 07800 912347. I have been in this Trade for 10 years. Seeking to diversify that’s why we are starting out in signs. You may be able to help me one day !

Paul