Anyone know for certain if stick on vinyl #s is viable ?
Anyone know of a paint that is particularly appropriate for cloth ?
Any other technology we should look at ? Is there some iron on material ?
Tried vinyl in 2008. Lasted about a day at competition. (We ended up using spray paint but the visibility wasn’t great.)
2809 uses a stencil and a couple of coats of acrylic paint.
Also: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99938
Craft stores have fabric paint. Paint pens and certain sharpie products also work well.
Thanks for the insight. Sorry I missed the other link.
We are going with screen printing this year after several years of less than ideal approaches. I hope it doesn’t get rubbed off in the heat of battle. It cost us $50, and some time to set up the exact font/spacing etc so that it would fit on the 11" bumper segment and be the right size – We did did all the design work.
We just got the fabric back yesterday, and it looks really nice…
We use heat fused vinyl numbers and have had no problems. If you want to go this route, or embroidery if you prefer, I would suggest talking to your schools activities department and see who they use.
Screen printing or custom embroidery will probably last forever, but we’ve had a lot of success with silver Sharpies and it’s only a fraction of the price.
We’ve used screen printing for a number of years, and it’s never come off.
Dumb question: I am assuming screen printing means silk screen printing which means a trip to a graphics art company. What sort of costs ?
You can buy a simple screen printing kit at an art store for $50-$100, which will come with everything you need for 8 sets of numbers. It’s a pretty neat skill to learn anyway.
We liked silver also, but [R35] changes that…
A local company charged $12.50 setup fee, and $4 per print. Since our team number only covered 9.5x4", each bumper was $4, so $32 + $12.50. All the mentors thought it was a great idea— excellent result, no hassle. Especially with the remaining time we had.
Out team just gets some of the same material used for the bumper covers in white, cuts out the numbers and sews them on. One of our other Mentors has a nice sewing machine she brought in and a couple of our students became pretty good at using it, another skill that isn’t bad to have.
Please note this years bumper rules regarding numbers:
[R35]
Teams shall display their team number on the Bumpers in four locations at approximately 90° intervals around the perimeter of the Robot. The numerals must be at least 4 in. high, at least ¾ in. in stroke width, and be either white in color or outlined in white. Team numbers must be clearly visible from a distance of not less than 100 ft, so that judges, referees, and announcers can easily identify competing Robots.
Bold mine, as that is a new requirement this year. So Sharpies aren’t likely going to cut it anymore.
I hadn’t noticed R35. It’s probably won’t be as nice, but you could still outline the silver with a white paint pen. I wonder what the GDC has against silver.