Robot Vinyls or Stickers?

[Mark Pettit]

Our signage was the most expensive line item on our robot last year. We have plastic signs printed for our sposor and number panels and we go all out with the decals too. We buy them from Fast Signs, Inc. The signs along with our uniforms won us the Imagery Award at Phoenix last year so it was well worth it!

[dhitchco]

One of the easiest ways to make "poor man's" signage that has been somewhat brought out on this forum is to print them yourself.

Here are several ideas:

1) Whatever paper you print the labels/stickers on, you can simply get clear "contact paper" and cut it one inch oversize. Just take the contact paper, lay it upside down on a smooth table and then take your "sticker/label" and lay it face-down on the sticky contact paper. Use a spoon to smooth all the bubbles etc from the middle. Then apply the whole thing to your robot and trim 1" of margin with a knife.

2) Now, at home you can print up to 8.5"x11" sheets in your inkjet printer. You could design a logo to span over two pages (use Powerpoint for easy designs). Or, you can buy "banner or panoramic photo paper" for most inkjet printers from an office supply store.

3) Or, you can take your design file to Kinko's and they can print it on glossy vinyl in larger formats.

I agree that companies such as FastSigns are nice, but there are other cheaper methods that produce great results too.

[roboguy #1]

First you should call some sign places around your area using good ol' yellow pages. Also see if they would like to sponsor you. If thats too expensive try going to a good hobby store and pic up so vinyl grafics without design cut outs. It will be a solid color or design without stickers them selves, and cut em out tracing a pattern drawn on. Or they have vinyl graphics printers that cut out the design just like a printer. One last thing just use spry paint.

[Joe Matt]

In past years we have used both stickers and vynal, this year vynal.

[Andy Baker]

We've done different things over the years:

2004: One of our teachers has a sweet printer, on which he printed out large, adhesive-backed, graphics on clear media. The stickers were pasted to the inside of our side panels, to the polycarbonate.

2003: We masked and painted the inside of polycarbonate. We also purchased stickers from a local sign company. These stickers had adhesive on the front, so they can be stuck to the inside of the polycarb so they don't get scraped off during matches.

2002: We did 2 things: masked and painted the inside of polycarbonate and also cut out very thin polycarb into numbers and painted them.

Andy B.

[boy_scout72688]

Our teams suppliers give us all the decales and then we add them into our design

James

[roboguy #1]

For the record in my oppinion vinyal is a cool well thought sticker. Of cousre made of vinyl or similar plastic.

[Anchi]

one of our mentors works at a hospital and they have a but vynle plotter that we use.

[Sean Schuff]

<CAUTION! Shameless plug for sponsor to follow!>

Team 93 gets their cut vinyl lettering and logos from Fast Signs in Appleton, Wisconsin (Thanks!!). They donate all of our adhesive graphics!

Like many teams we have them cut everything in reverse so we can attach it all to the inside of the polycarbonate side panels. This keeps the graphics on our robot looking brand new even after a few bruising matches.

Happy building!

Sean

[JAH]

Cyber Blue 234 has, this year and 2004, done our graphics on vinyl. In the past, we'd done everything from printing out logos and taping them on a piece of lexan, such as 2003 the back panel at the bottom of the robot. In 2004, there was a student who has an aunt who works for a vinyl company and that is where the blue flames on the side of the robot came from. This year, we have a student on the team who has a connection with a different vinyl company. We're getting our vinyl done through the same company that does the vinyl stickers for the Nascar cars and Indy cars that race at the Brickyard. It's great having those type of connections.

[wheeler]

Just to let you know if you have a way to purchase through the school. Most schools have an account with a local office supply distributor and get very good pricing on all products. We bought a box of 100 8.5x11 labels for about $9 and printed out multiple copies of our sponsors logos then cut them and placed them on the robot. If they got messed up we just put a new one on. Easy to do and very cost effective. Total for all labels including ink about $12. Oh an we still have some left from last year.

[Coachmac]

OK...so we have decided to got with vinyl. but, with everything going on, i have forgotten all about the decals for our robot. can anybody tell me if we can add the decals to the robot AFTER we get to the regional? is that against the rules or is this something that is allowed in the work time on the thursday of the regional? thanks

[Bcahn836]

I know most decals stick to lexan but will they stick to plywood or particle board?

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by Coachmac

OK...so we have decided to got with vinyl. but, with everything going on, i have forgotten all about the decals for our robot. can anybody tell me if we can add the decals to the robot AFTER we get to the regional? is that against the rules or is this something that is allowed in the work time on the thursday of the regional? thanks

I don't believe non functional decoration/complying with the marking rules like that is an issue. You need to have your team number and sponser on the robot anyway.

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Coachmac

OK...so we have decided to got with vinyl. but, with everything going on, i have forgotten all about the decals for our robot. can anybody tell me if we can add the decals to the robot AFTER we get to the regional? is that against the rules or is this something that is allowed in the work time on the thursday of the regional? thanks

It needs to be added before inspection. Plus, you need the team nuber on four sides of the robot in a certain height.