- What it is
- A rigid sheet of two aluminium faces bonded either side of a polyethylene core, cut to size and either printed direct or faced with a printed, laminated film. It is what gets specified when a sign has to be genuinely flat and stay flat: the composite structure resists the oil-canning a single metal sheet develops, and it takes up no water, so it does not swell or bow the way a board eventually will.
- What it is printed on
Aluminium composite material, printed direct or overlaid with a printed film under a UV laminate. The face can be had as mill finish, white, or brushed metal — and a brushed face used deliberately as part of the design is why this panel turns up in premium exterior work rather than only in utility signage. Shaping it means routing rather than cutting with a knife. It is not a sheet in the caliper table, so no reading is given for it.
- How it feels
- Cold, dense and completely rigid. It does not flex in the hand at all and it rings faintly when it is set down against a wall. The face is hard and smooth; the routed edge is a clean bright line of aluminium with the darker core visible as a stripe between the two skins, and that stripe is worth designing around rather than apologising for.
- What it suits
- Exterior building and unit signage, entrance and lobby panels, wayfinding that has to survive weather, and any panel mounted where a bow would be obvious across a facade. It does not suit a temporary campaign, where a panel built to outlast the message is effort spent on something coming down again, and it does not suit a curved surface unless it is routed and folded to that curve.
- Lead time
- Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days. Installation, where it applies, is scheduled on top of that.
- The common mistake
- Committing to the panel before deciding how it is fixed. Standoff bolts, a hidden rail, a tray fold, adhesive onto a flat wall and a post-mounted frame each need something different from the panel — holes at set centres, a folded return, extra material at the edge — and not one of them can be added after it has been cut and printed. Drill positions belong in the artwork, not in the installer’s hands on the day.
Print idea
Aluminium composite panels
Two thin aluminium skins bonded to a plastic core — the flattest exterior panel in common use, and the one that still looks straight after a year on a wall. Sold under trade names including Dibond and Alupanel.
Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
What aluminium composite panels is
A rigid sheet of two aluminium faces bonded either side of a polyethylene core, cut to size and either printed direct or faced with a printed, laminated film. It is what gets specified when a sign has to be genuinely flat and stay flat: the composite structure resists the oil-canning a single metal sheet develops, and it takes up no water, so it does not swell or bow the way a board eventually will.
Aluminium composite material, printed direct or overlaid with a printed film under a UV laminate. The face can be had as mill finish, white, or brushed metal — and a brushed face used deliberately as part of the design is why this panel turns up in premium exterior work rather than only in utility signage. Shaping it means routing rather than cutting with a knife. It is not a sheet in the caliper table, so no reading is given for it.
- The printed face.
- The core: Two hairline metal skins on a soft core: the skins are a thirtieth of the section and they are what keeps it flat.
- The skin, drawn at its real share of the section — 3 per cent of it, which is why the drawing looks the way it does.
- The fixing. A screw needs something continuous to hold — decide how it stands up before deciding what it looks like.
The specification
Six fields, and the last one is the useful one.
The same six questions are answered for every entry in this section, in the same order, so two objects can be compared without reading two pages of prose. The mistake is stated last and stated plainly, because it is the one that costs a reprint and it is the reason this page is worth sending to a colleague.
Where this sits.
Every entry is indexed three ways, because a buyer arrives knowing the occasion, the object or the material and almost never all three.
- Format
- Material and effect
Also worth looking at
- Foam PVC panelsStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Honeycomb board panelsStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Construction hoarding graphicsStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- SignageThe specification, and how it is quoted
- Every print idea, indexed three waysThe section index
- The materials libraryCaliper, weight and what each finish costs
Send the specification for this, and it comes back quoted.
Every job is quoted from its specification — stock, quantity, sides, finish, size and deadline.
- Quantity
- Stock — or the feel you want, if you do not know the stock
- Sides printed
- Finish
- Flat and finished size
- The deadline
Artwork is welcome but not required to start. Email sales@ezprint.com.sg if you would rather attach files.