Robot Signage

[Turtleinator]

My team has been debating how to display our sponsors and team branding on our robot this year. Traditionally we have used printed vinyl banners that were attached with Velcro (that never stayed on long enough) and eventually zip-ties. We found that it was annoying that the banners would tend to fold, and that they had a tendency to fall off or to be a complete hassle to remove (and nowhere in-between ).

This year we were thinking of using 1/8" green polycarbonate with stickers for the images we wanted. This would make the robot signage far sleeker and more stable yet also easier to remove. The problem with this however, is that we are very worried that the panels will get broken (they are on the edge of our frame perimeter due to the density of our robot). Can any teams with experience with polycarbonate signage offer some help? Thank you!

Also, if anyone has a suggestion for a good custom sticker company ,that would be helpful. As we are having trouble finding local companies that can do that.

[Cecil]

Our team has generally used 1/16" clear Lexan for not only a "shell", but also to put our branding and logos. It is usually stuck on with small squares of Velcro. This makes them easy to remove, but won't fall off during a match (at least not yet).

As for the stickers, we have just printed our logos onto heavy cardstock and attached them with clear packing tape from the inside. It's very hard to see the tape from the stands, especially when there is a match going on to distract them!

[Nirvash]

I've always used inkjet printable stickers and printed them myself, they come as full sheets which we then cut down to size.

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about breaking a polycarbonate panel, it is very strong.

[Botwoon]

http://i.imgur.com/v27IukR.jpg

Last year we cut letters/patterns on our laser inverted and stuck them to the inside of our panels, then backed the panels with a thin coat of silver lexan paint. Under the right light, I think the panels look to be made of sheet metal.

[Billfred]

We've done it a few ways over the years. Some years, we had stickers printed up. Some years, it was cut vinyl lettering adhered to the arm. Way back when, we'd also print large pieces on a plotter, laminate them, and velcro them into place--if you're inside the frame perimeter, this one can be cheap and light.

[James1902]

We've gone with Lexan (2007) (2009)

We've gone with printed cloth (2010)

And we've gone with laminated paper (2011)

We prefer the laminated paper just because it's easy and light, but I can understand your frustration with it.
We've never had a problem with our Lexan breaking when we used it and we kind of abused all of the robots that had it. Also we just printed the logos out on a decent quality printer and taped them to the Lexan, the quality is fine and you wouldn't have to find a sticker supplier.

[Brandon Zalinsky]

We usually use 1/4" black corrugated plastic.

2012- Front (Team name and logo) (We're on the left)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimsrobot/7457907638/

Back- Sponsors:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimsrob...n/photostream/

[Al Skierkiewicz]

We have used Lexan with velcro for years.

[Phyrxes]

Our usual method is stickers of some sort on 1/32nd Lexan panels that are mounted with Velcro.

[ehochstein]

You could try fastsigns in Bloomington - 2470 has been using them since 2008 and they remember us every year!

http://www.fastsigns.com/190-bloomington-mn

As for the polycarbonate breaking, we have only had that happen once. Last year we were lifting the robot into a car for an outreach event and the polycarbonate got sandwiched between the floor and the robot. Snapped right in half! Otherwise it hasn't been a problem.

We usually throw some industrial strength velcro on the back of the polycarbonate and velcro it to our robot. As long as you do not get any metal or wood shavings in the velcro fabric it should hold through all of your matches.

Feel free to pm me and I can try to find our contact for the Bloomington Fastsigns branch.

[IndySam]

If you break 1/8" polycarbonate then you have much bigger problems and probably a severely broken robot.

You could use much thinner, like others have said, and save a lot of money and weight.

We have used Velcro and much thinner polycarb film and have never had a problem.

[FrankJ]

The same people that print on vinyl can probably also print on yard sign material--a honeycomb plastic light & reasonably stiff. Looks better than stickers for the most part.

[wonder-weasel]

We've done this just about every year I've been on my team. It works really well, and there should be no worries about breaking. We've always just bought sticker material ourselves, gotten high-res images from our sponsors and printed them ourselves. Works pretty well!

[Turtleinator]

Thanks for all of the help guys! We will probably use polycarbonate this year, and if we can find 1/16" green polycarbonate we will certainly use it.

[drwisley]

Spray the inside of the the polycarbonate with your green paint. It looks really nice and keeps the sheen on the visible surface.