Building the ‘wow’ factor with CNC bending machines

True built up letters are often made utilising a channel letter bender machine. When the machine has completed its activity, some finishing touches are added to your letters in order to give them a compelling effect. Adam Atashin, director of Clarity LED explains.

Demand for built-up letters continues to increase for several reasons. They are suitable for everything from retail to business signs. These 5D letters are intended to actually ‘pop’, giving a brand instant and powerful visual appeal.

For many years predominantly hand-crafted, the introduction of automatic channel letter benders has made built-up letters much more affordable without compromising on quality.

We invested in CNC machines about three years ago and quickly realised the benefits. Fabricating around 41 letters a day of various shapes and sizes from cutting through bending, welding and finishing, just would not be possible by hand. It would take an experienced worker at least half a day to produce 5-6 letters.

Factoring in labour costs and the time it takes to produce one letter, producing them on a machine is a no-brainer for us. In addition, you don’t need any special expertise to learn how to operate the bender, whereas hand-crafted requires great skill and experience. However, if you are only producing a small number and not planning to increase that amount any time soon, a large investment in automatic equipment would not be a cost-effective solution.

Clearly, the different types of standing 4D letters you see outside large business premises have the most ‘wow’ factor – the largest we have made to date was 3 metres high - but you can achieve an eye-catching impact on a smaller budget if you explore the range of options available.

Using mostly stainless steel, aluminium and plastics, the artwork is entered and the material channel fed into the machine and then bent to shape. When the machine has completed its process, letters are laser welded and finishing touches added by hand to the letters in order to give them a compelling visual effect.

Without any doubt, signs comprising built-up letters including illuminated front/backlit can truly take advertising to the next stage. At Clarity LED, we are highly experienced in helping our customers - mainly large retail businesses - to get the best value for their investment.

www.clarityled.co.uk