We were at the Southern Electronics show earlier in February; despite the foul weather on the opening day, it was an excellent show for us.
We welcomed a lot of people to the stand, many of whom had specific projects to discuss, and others who wanted to see what was new in our wide range of electronic and industrial enclosures.
It was good to meet so many prospects and customers and discuss their enclosure requirements.
One repeated topic that was brought up by a surprising number of visitors to the stand was our capability in adding textures and gloss or matt finishes to the complete surface or selected areas of the enclosure using UV-cured digital printing.
Given the level of interest, this newsletter gives an overview of our capabilities. Our recent investment in additional printers in both the UK and Canada, and in Basingstoke, the enhancement of our facility and the moving of our modification operation into a dedicated building of its own, which gives more space and also room for further expansion.
A recap on product printing is probably helpful. For many years, single-colour manual silk screen printing or pad printing were the only available ways of adding solid colour graphics and text to a surface.
The process was slow and required a lot of set-up time to achieve acceptable results. Creativity and corporate identity requirements were limited, and although several colours could be printed, drying time between colours was needed, and the target piece was precisely aligned in a jig to ensure that the additional colours were printed in the correct place.
For the majority of applications, screen printing was adequate for added legends to front panels and other flat surfaces to indicate the functionality of various switches and controls.
Screen and pad printing still have their place for relatively simple applications, but the development of UV-curing digital printing allows industrial designers to create graphics on curved and flat plastic and metal surfaces as if they were in a printed document.
Set-up costs are much reduced because silk screens or pads do not have to be created, so time is saved and small volumes can be produced economically.
In fact, because digital printers typically have another four separate inks in addition to the traditional CMYK four colour ones, adding additional textures and selective matt and gloss areas are easily achieved in one pass.
The appearance of the finished product is limited only by the imagination of the project engineer.
The enclosure defines the appearance of the finished product, so Hammond has in-house modification facilities to configure the standard product to meet the needs of an individual project.
High on the list of capabilities is UV-curing digital and traditional silk-screen printing. Digital printing enables the product to be finished with eye-catching graphics and legends.
The printer has eight outputs: the traditional four colour CMYK inks and clear, two whites and a primer, which can be used to achieve an impressive array of finishes.
The primer ink, applied selectively to the required areas of the surface, provides excellent, sharp results on surfaces with both smooth and textured finishes. The machine can print right to the edges of curved surfaces.
The clear ink allows selected areas or the complete surface to be finished with a high gloss, matt or embossed finish, greatly expanding the creative options for logos, backgrounds and legends.
An embedded library of 129 different texture effects means that the design possibilities are almost endless.
High-quality digital printing ensures that the finished product reflect their inherent quality, supporting brand identity and providing sharp, wear-resistant solid and gradient colours and textured effects on flat and curved panels and other surfaces.
A significant benefit, saving both time and money, of using the original equipment manufacturer to do the entire job is that there is no need to send part-finished components out to multiple specialist contractors for the different processes.
A single purchase order covers the exact quantity required; there is no need to over-order for first-offs and approvals at multiple stages.
The main features and benefits of full colour UV printing are that a wide variety of flat and curved surfaces with either smooth or textured finishes can be printed.
In terms of size, typically 19" (483mm) wide panels up to 9U (400mm) high can be printed with crisp, sharp images right to the edge on smooth, textured and curved surfaces.
Complex and colourful graphic designs are faithfully rendered with outstanding clarity; customer artwork is imported in a number of industry-standard file formats to eliminate transcription errors.
Both solid and gradient colours can be printed with gloss, matt and textured finishes on the complete surface or selected highlight areas.
Advanced software control minimises banding and uneven colours on large surfaces.
Product printing has come a long way since the days of single colour silk screen and pad printing.
Using the capabilities of UV curing digital printing to the full opens up a world of design possibilities, supports strong corporate identity requirements, reinforces brand recognition and produces a more aesthetically pleasing finished product.
Our distribution network
Hammond's standard enclosures are available from our global network of international catalogue and specialist enclosure distribution partners.
Many of our distributors also provide a local interface between their customers and Hammond for the design, configuration and manufacture of modified standards. Click here for the contact details of your most convenient European distribution partner.
Our in-house modification services bring your project to market on time and on budget.
All standard enclosures will need to be configured to suit a specific application. We have many thousands of standard enclosure designs and sizes, and we offer modifications for orders as low as 25 units. Using us, the original manufacturer, eliminates scrap and design interpretation of your requirements.
We offer:
• Precision CNC milling of holes, cut-outs, pockets, tapping and countersinking
• UV digital and silk screen printing
• Engraving of logos and text in both plastic and metal
• Pressed in hardware – nuts, studs and standoffs
• Custom moulding colours. All ABS, flame-retardant ABS and polycarbonate enclosures can be moulded in any custom colour subject to a minimum order quantity
• Custom painted colours – powder coating in either smooth or textured finish
Contact us
To contact our technical sales team about the enclosure requirements for your project, call +44 1256 812812, email us at uksales@hammfg.com or eusales@hammfg.com. To help you in specifying your requirements, you can download PDF, AutoCAD .dxf and 3D Solid Model .igs and .stp files for all our products from our website.