Signage work is dozens of pieces, all different sizes, fixed to a structure somebody else built. A 10 mm gap between drawing and site is normal. Whether that gap can be absorbed on site decides whether the job closes cleanly or comes back.
Signage rework rarely comes from machining accuracy. It comes from the few millimetres nobody planned for.
That is haze and light-guide dotting, not the LEDs. A 2% transmission difference between sheets is visible once they sit side by side on the same wall. We cut from one batch number and lay out the dot pattern to the actual LED pitch.
Standard sheet starts to yellow in 6–9 months under southern Chinese sun, and the colour shift is obvious after a year. Outdoor work gets UV-stabilised cast only, plus a drainage and vent gap along the bottom edge — trapped water and heat age it faster than UV alone.
The structure was built by someone else and the opening is a few millimetres off. We cut to nominal minus 2 mm, leave an adjustable gap all round and slot the fixing holes, so up to 5 mm can be taken up on site instead of remade in the plant.
Bolt straight through acrylic and it cracks outward from the hole by month three. Every fixing gets a slotted hole, a rubber washer and a nylon sleeve, so the panel can move with temperature instead of being locked to a steel frame.
Large, irregular and batch work all run in-house, including screen and UV printing. Process detail sits on the Art & project features page.
Signage is judged outdoors, at distance, for years. That single sentence decides most of the specification: the sheet has to hold its light transmission, its colour and its flatness through UV, rain and a 30-degree daily swing, and the fixing has to let it move.
A lightbox face is the hardest working part on the sign. It has to diffuse an LED array into an even field, which means a opal or diffusing grade rather than clear sheet, and enough thickness to hide the diodes without eating the brightness — 3 mm for a shallow box, 5 mm where the LED pitch is wide. Illuminated letter backing is a different job: the acrylic is the carrier for a printed or routed element and its optical job is to pass light without a hot spot, so a 3–5 mm opal is normal. Where the sign is backlit and read from an angle, the diffusion grade is what prevents the "stripes" that make a new sign look cheap.
Standard cast acrylic is reasonably UV-stable, but not UV-proof. On a south-facing fascia in a high-UV climate, expect measurable yellowing after three to five years, and a UV-stabilised grade to push that to seven to ten. There is no acrylic that stays optically clear outdoors forever, and any supplier who says otherwise is selling. Where a ten-year appearance guarantee is required, the material conversation moves to polycarbonate with a hard coat or to glass.
| Sign element | Sheet | Construction note |
|---|---|---|
| Lightbox face | 3–5 mm opal diffusing | Thickness set by LED pitch, not by span; a 3 mm face on a 100 mm pitch shows diodes |
| Illuminated letters | 3–5 mm opal or coloured | Routed returns bonded to the face; bonded seam must sit behind a letter stroke |
| Flat fascia panel | 5–8 mm cast, UV-stabilised | Slotted holes, not round, so thermal movement does not crack the panel |
| Monument or pylon | 8–15 mm cast | Panels over 1.5 m need a sub-frame; acrylic alone will bow in sun |
Acrylic moves about 0.7 mm per metre over a 30-degree swing. A panel bolted through round holes with no clearance has nowhere to go, so it cracks outward from the hole — usually in the first hot week after installation, which is why the failure gets blamed on the material. The fix costs nothing: slot the holes 2 mm in the direction of movement, use a washer with a compressible face, and never tighten a fixing so hard that the panel cannot slide.
Signage pricing is dominated by two things that have nothing to do with the sheet: size and fixing complexity. A large panel is charged by the hour on the machine as much as by the square metre of material, because a 2 m panel needs a bigger bed, more handling and a crate.
On a typical lightbox face or fascia panel: sheet 25–35 percent, cutting and machining 20–30 percent, edge polishing 10–20 percent, printing or applied graphics where required 10–25 percent, and crating 10–15 percent. Crating is the item that surprises buyers on export orders — a 2 m panel cannot ship in a carton, and a crate with internal bracing is a real cost.
| Decision | Cost effect | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Split a 3 m sign into two 1.5 m panels | −20 to −30 % | One visible joint, which can be hidden on a frame member |
| Standard UV grade instead of high-UV | −10 % | Shorter colour life in strong sun; acceptable on a north face |
| Polish only the visible edge | −8 to −12 % | None once installed |
| Ship flat-packed with site assembly | −15 % on freight | Needs an installer who can align a joint |
The one place not to economise is the fixing detail. Slotted holes and a compressible washer cost a few dollars a panel and prevent the failure that gets blamed on the material. We specify them as standard and will flag a drawing that does not allow for movement.
| Item | What we need | Why it changes the price |
|---|---|---|
| Panel size and count | Exact dimensions, and whether the sign can be split | A 3 m panel versus two 1.5 m panels is a 20–30 % difference |
| Orientation | Compass direction and whether it is shaded | Decides whether the high-UV grade is worth paying for |
| Light source | LED pitch and distance behind the face | Sets the diffusion grade and the thickness — a 3 mm face on a 100 mm pitch shows diodes |
| Fixing method | Frame type, and whether the holes can be slotted | Slotted holes cost nothing and prevent the most common failure |
| Delivery | Site address and whether a crane or a lift is involved | Drives crating and whether the panel ships flat or assembled |
Send a photo of the existing sign in daylight as well as the drawing. Reflection, hot spots and joint lines are visible in a photograph and invisible on a drawing, and they change what we recommend.
Recorded per piece, shipped with a packing list and fixing notes.
Set by LED pitch, not by box size. 3 mm to 300 mm pitch, 5 mm from 300 to 600 mm, and 5 mm with an intermediate frame beyond 600 mm. Too thin and uneven LED heat dishes the sheet locally — which shows up at night as a wave pattern across the face.
UV-stabilised cast typically goes 3–5 years outdoors in this climate without obvious yellowing; standard extruded starts at about a year. The price difference is around 30%, but replacing the extruded one every two years, including access and labour, costs more. Coastal or full-sun positions should go straight to UV grade.
Per piece, not a flat rate per square metre. Standard panels price by area, irregular shapes by developed area plus machining time. Mixed sizes in one batch do not raise the unit price — nesting is optimised across the whole order, which is why it is cheaper to place the full quantity at once.
Yes, and a radius is normal on a face that sits in a frame with rounded corners. We cut the radius on the same setup as the outline so the face does not need re-clamping, and we polish the edge rather than leaving it sawn, because a sawn edge on an opal face shows as a bright line where light escapes. Minimum radius is 5 mm on 3 mm sheet.
In a crate, not a carton. The panel is wrapped in foam, blocked off the crate walls with timber so it cannot move, and braced across the middle so the crate takes the load rather than the sheet. A panel over 2 m flexes in transit and a flex mark shows as an optical defect even when the panel is intact. Every crate carries a this-way-up label.
