Traffic information signs….

[KeithdWhitson]

you could buy another blade and use it only for reflective. usually just need to turn pressure right up and do a couple of test cuts. depending on what road sign its for you might not need to do it in reflective.

[Graeme Harrold]

For stock signs, buy them in from the likes of William Smith, they also produce to order.

[Gill Harrison]

Hi Roger

When it comes to traffic signage its a real can of worms and the rules and regs are very strict. The level of reflectivity used depends on the speed of road where the sign is fitted for example a mph sign in a car park would possibly be only class ref 1 reflective engineering grade (similar to the reflectivity of your car number plate) this product is about 150 micron twice as thick as a day to day polymeric vinyl so your graphtec 5000 should cut it ok.

The level of reflectivity on a motorway sign is much much higher…..prismatic retro-reflective vinyl…this can be as thick as 400 microns so a very heavy duty plotter would be needed.

When constructing a road sign you would cover the substraight in a sheet of the required reflective vinyl then trim away your excess so it would never go near a plotter, all of the detail would be made up from overlay vinyls (which allow full reflectivity through) and standard black, both would be cut by your plotter.
Mass produced traffic signage is normally screen printed.
Edge sealing is needed when diamond grade is going onto vehicles.

Your problem is more ensuring you get the correct sizes for boarders etc.
In the past I’ve known of speeding offenses being invalid on account of signage having the wrong sized boarder but by searching the Department of Transports web site you will be able to find all the correct info.

All that said if its for a private road the rules go out the window :lol1:

Hope that helps a little

Gill

[Martin Pearson]

As Jill has said Roger the rules for private roads and private industrial estates differ from those on the public highway, I tend not to do anything for the public highway because I don’t have the equipment required for edge sealing and you also need to have a permit and be insured to fit the signs.
For private industrial estates I normally use Nicolite reflective from europoint, your plotter will be able to plot it without any problems but reflective material does blunt the blades fairly quickly and this needs to be taken into account when pricing the job. I have a separate blade & holder for reflective material and as I buy them from Edward Mathias and they are set ready to go it’s no problem just to change the holders over when I have reflective to cut.

[Roger Clements]

Hi folks…many thanks for the replies. As a font of knowledge you guys have come up trumps again. Whilst I read what I could and found the ‘regs’ something of a minefield your replies have confirmed my ‘fears’ and findings. Next step is to visit the the customer and see if I can/am prepared to take this one on….it’s the legal minefield that is deterrring me to be honest….

Thanks again folks you’ve been a great help.