BIG NEWS! Graphic Components was honored, for the 2nd year in a row, to be recognized as one of the 50 Fastest Growing Companies in the Piedmont Triad Region of North Carolina (population of nearly 2 million people). We ranked #29 out 50.

We owe our growth and success to our customers!
#customerservice

3 HIDDEN ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS OF THERMOFORMING

When putting together a new project, architects and designers place a special focus on the materials they use, gravitating towards materials that both perform as engineered and cause minimal impact to the environment. The problem is the decision on materials, more often than not, does not extend to signage, leaving an area open that can potentially increase the impact on the environment.

Thermoforming, also referred to as compression, is a highly vandal-resistant process within the sign industry. Similar to photopolymer signs, thermoformed signs are produced as a single piece; however, the process of creating them is very different and is seen to be harmful for the environment in several ways.

1. Thermoforming Utilizes Excessive Energy + Resources

Requiring a separate processing machine, a CNC router, special materials, and more, thermoforming is an energy intensive process. The process involves an extremely large amount of heat to form the acrylic signs, power to run the machines, and complete all of the routing. Some companies do not regularly count routing as a cost, but it should be noted that thermoforming consumes a significant amount of routing time that could otherwise be used for other fabricating applications. Combine all of this together and it is easy to see how exhaustive the thermoforming process can be for companies and the environment.

2. Thermoforming Does Not Support Recycling

To begin the thermoforming process, a mirror image of the desired sign must be routed into a mold, which includes letters, pictograms, and braille. This mold is then placed inside of the press with the acrylic that has been trimmed down to the same size as the mold. Special materials are also added to separate the acrylic from the mold. Once the two pieces are separated, the process is complete and you now have your fully acrylic sign, but what do you do with the mold?

“99 times out of 100, you’ll never be able to use [the mold] again. So, you just have to throw it away. The nature of ADA signage is that you make a sign to identify a room by either a unique number or name, so, for example, you really can’t have two Room 101s in the same building,” said Vince Cvijanovic, Co-Owner of Graphic Components. “And, the molds are pionite laminate, making it very difficult to recycle.”

3. Thermoforming Is Vulnerable to Mistakes

The abundance of resources and equipment needed for thermoforming creates many opportunities for the process to go wrong. If there is a mistake on the mold, the whole mold will go to waste and the sign to will have to restart. ADA laws and regulations state that signs that designate permanent rooms and spaces must have a tactile depth of 1/32” minimum. With photopolymer, this requirement is never an issue; however, if there is a routing issue within thermoforming or fluctuation in the amount of pressure and/or heat, the sign may not be deep enough to be ADA compliant—creating more wasted materials, resources and time.

Overall, perceived the low cost of thermoforming comes at a high price for the environment. Between the significant number of resources, the inability to recycle, and the high risk of mistakes, thermoforming has a fairly large carbon footprint compared to photopolymer signage.

Photopolymer ADA signs are the most established type of ADA signs and are among the most vandal resistant. NovAcryl PT series photopolymer is the greenest and most versatile line of signage photopolymers ever introduced. Features include a unique, clear PETG sign base that contains a minimum of 40% post-industrial recycled content which is resilient and shatterproof.

GRAPHIC COMPONENTS IS A 

Want to learn more about Photopolymer? CLICK HERE!

CLICK HERE to see more of our processes!

Hope Academy is a local middle school that exists to serve students that are socio-economically disadvantaged. At least 80% of the student’s families have a household income that is near or below the federal poverty guidelines. Hope Academy currently serves grades 5-8th, with plans to add elementary grades in future years.

The team at Graphic Components want to help our local community to thrive so we made the decision to manufacture and donate a complete interior wayfinding sign project to the school. We completed the project in August 2019.

Today we were honored to have four 8th grade students together with the Head of School – Josh Mullins and Development Director – Susie Guhne visit us and show their appreciation of our donation by bringing coffee and donuts for our entire team! We gave the students a tour of our facility and taught them about what we do and gave them a brief introduction to the exciting world of signage. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the visit!

We have an on-going commitment to continue to manufacture and donate signs to the school for the benefit of the students with future signs focused on the areas of Inspiration and Recognition.

We also want to recognize the contribution made by Dan Scranton with ProUp Services who donated his time to design all of the interior signs.

You can learn more about Hope Academy at their website - https://www.hopegso.org/