Custom Paint and Logos for RackMount Computer Systems

Brand awareness is a major factor in repeat business. Shouldn't people looking at your equipment know you are the manufacturer. Chassis Plans can help your brand by providing custom logo and paint to our broad selection of standard products in addition to any custom system we design for you. It is inexpensive and easy to make this YOUR product..

Logo
Your logo is one of your most valuable assets and should be on the front of any systems you sell. The following guidelines will help you send us the appropriate material so we can silk screen your logo to the front of our chassis.
There are 3 common technologies for putting your logo on a product.

• Silk Screen
• Die Cast Labels
• Printed Bubble Labels

Silk Screen
Silk screen is the easiest and best looking. Your art is photographically printed on a fabric screen (not silk anymore) and epoxy ink is forced through the screen onto the part being printed. Multiple colors can be applied through subsequent applications after each previous layer dries.

Fine detail and complex logos can be applied. Gradiations, where one color fades away across the logo, don't work well as there is a discrete dot size for the screen. Note the uneven printing at the top and bottom in the following example.

Printed	Silk Screened

For example, in the following, the original logo on the left presented a gradiated blue across the circle and a gradiated 'sound' emitting from the speaker. The simplified logo is on the right. Even on your monitor, you should notice banding and patterns in the logo on the left which would also be evident in a silk screen.


As with most things, garbage in = garbage out. The better the quality of the original art, the better your printed logo will appear. It is best to provide original digital files in vector format such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Correl Draw, etc. Image formats such as .jpg, .gif, or .bmp may work but they usually have artifacts that degrade the image. Faxed copies don't work. Film originals or printed 'stats' work. For just printed text, such as a model number, font style and size will be sufficient for us to create new art. Please consult with your Chassis Plans Sales Engineer for an evaluation of your logo. We can make suggestions or actually create art as required.

Another issue to keep in mind is contrast between your logo and the background color. Chassis Plans chassis are painted black, Cardinal 8102-08, medium texture. Thus, a dark color logo will not show up unless it is surrounded by a contrasting light color. For example, the Sound Associates original logo used black ink for the lettering and speaker. It was a simple matter to change it to white against the black chassis.

We will also need a color specification for your logo colors. You will read on this site that Pantone colors are not suitable for paint specification. However, because silk screens are printed with ink, Pantone colors are preferred for logo color specification. Alternatively, specific manufacturers ink colors such as Hysol will suffice. For an example of a silk screen specification drawing in PDF we provide to the silk screen shop, click here.


For further information on the EyeOn Automation System, visit www.eyeonautomation.com.
Costs for silk screen logos is:

• $80 Film Positive Charge (1 time fee)
• $200 Setup Charge (charged for each order to create screen, set up the job, etc.)
• $4 / Color / Part to Screen Logo on Chassis

Die Cast or Etched Metal Labels

Die Cast Labels are 3-dimensional stick-on labels. These can be simple flat metal with silk screen or complex 3-dimensional labels with filled colors. These can simply be stuck to the front of the chassis. See Prestige Graphics at www.pgisd.com for a source. Setup is $500-$2,000 and cost per label is in the $1-$3 depending on complexity and quantity. In general, you need to order a minimum of 250 labels.

Here's a sample of a metal label photographed at an angle to show the height of the letters. Note the texture in the background paint to match the standard Chassis Plans paint. The size of the label is .50x2.50". Contact your Chassis Plans Sales Engineer for a paint sample.

Domed Labels
Domed Labels are created by depositing a clear PVC material on top of a printed paper or foil label to create a 3-D label. See DomeTag at www.dometag.comfor examples. The advantage to these labels is they are very inexpensive. Because they are printed, they do not have the limitations regarding the art work that silk screen and metal labels have. Setup is about $75 and labels cost about $1 each for 250.

Paint
Custom paint (liquid or powder coat) allows the immediate recognition of your equipment. The EyeOn chassis above is an extreme, yet visually striking, example. More common is a simple one-color paint scheme in combination with the customer logo. This sets the chassis apart from other equipment and immediately draws the eye toward your products.

Liquid paint is low-VOC (Volatile Organic Component), typically water based, which is sprayed on and cured in an oven. Previously painted chassis can easily be repainted with minimal surface preparation. Thus, for low quantities, we will repaint our standard black chassis to match your required color. For larger quantities, we will paint to your specification as the chassis are manufactured.

Paint color is not a straight forward as you would imagine. Everybody wants to use Pantone colors for a specification but Pantone is specified for printing applications and you will get color shifts when applied to metal. In addition, trying to pick a color from samples on your monitor does not work because your monitor is probably not color calibrated. See our page on Pantone for more information.

The absolute best way to match a color is to send us a painted sample. We can guarantee an exact match in both color and texture.

In order of preference, what we would like to see for a paint specification is:

• Painted Sample with a manufacturer paint specification
• Manufacturer's paint number (should be able to get a paint chip to go with this)
• Federal Standard 595 number
• Pantone number

For Pantone numbers, we charge $150 to purchase a gallon of paint and provide a paint chip to you for approval. $100 will be credited to your paint costs on approval of the sample.

Costs for providing custom paint is dependent on the quantity and the particular chassis. Please contact your Chassis Plans Sales Engineer for a quotation.

Powder Coating
Paint is relatively durable but will scratch. Touch up paint can be supplied on request when your chassis are painted. On the other hand, Powder Coating is much more durable. Powder coating is a mixture of finely ground particles of pigment and resin sprayed onto a surface and baked (melted) in an oven. Applying powder is similar to spray painting in that they are both applied through a gun. One reason powder coating is becoming more common is it does not release smog creating chemicals when being applied so expensive pollution control equipment is not required.

Often the driving factor on paint versus powder is the capability of the shop manufacturing the parts. Because of the low cost of entry into applying powder, many shops provide powder coating and not paint. Therefore, if you want painted parts, they have to send them to an outside vendor. This raises the cost because there is much more handling of the parts.

Powder offers a wide variety of colors and custom colors can be mixed. In some cases, however, very large quantities of powder are required to get a custom color. See www.emachineshop.com/finishing/powder.htmfor a good list of stock colors. Powder cannot be applied over paint. Thus, our standard black painted chassis cannot be recolored with powder. Only new bare metal can have powder applied. Another problem with powder is it does not stick to the filler used to smooth the heads of installed PEM hardware. Some facilities use a conductive filler to get past this issue. Often, powder coated parts will show the heads of the installed hardware which show as depressed rings in the coating.