Graphic Overlays
Protect your application from scratches, chemical abrasions, & extreme temperatures with durable overlays.
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Our Services
Customization
We deliver customized graphic overlays to ensure that the final product meets all your specifications and requirements. Every customer receives a personalized experience that matches their applications perfectly.
Expert Prototyping through mass production
Starting with a high-quality prototype is the key to producing graphic overlays for membrane switches. At the onset of our collaboration, we will design a prototype that matches the product specifications. Later on, after the batch production, the product will be ready for mass production.
About Graphic Overlays
Graphic overlays can be found on electrical equipment as front panels. They’re printed on the reverse of a transparent material and serve as the most lasting type of non-metallic label. The construction of graphic overlays protects the ink from wear and tear, providing excellent quality and value.
Graphic overlays are frequently designed with system buttons, touchscreens, LED backlights, and indicators. Our graphic overlays can be entirely opaque or feature transparent “dead front” pictures in the backlight. With epoxy keycaps, urethane silicone, materials, and embossing, we can elevate the look of any application. We can also add variable data, such as model numbers within a product family.
Our team of specialists will assist you in selecting the most appropriate choice. We take into account the surface to which the overlay will be applied (surface texture and chemistry) and environmental factors such as UV exposure, salt spray, solvent, acidity, and temperature range.
Manufacturing Materials
Polycarbonate:
Our polycarbonate overlays come in different textures – from matte to coarse velvets – depending on the desired look. Since polycarbonate is relatively soft and may scratch easily, our experts treat it with a hard coat material.
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Polyester:
Polyester is available in textured, scratch-resistant glass, and outdoor-rated options. Our experts can deliver polyester overlays with scratch-resistant hard coats, which is essential in clear window applications. Polyester overlays come in thicknesses of .008” and thinner.
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Adhesives:
- Second surface printed ink on the overlay’s backside
- Surface to which the overlay will be attached
- Application environment
- Spacer stack-up needs
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Other materials:
Innovative finishing
We use screen, digital, and offset printing to apply images of all kinds to graphic overlays – including spot, metallic, or full-color images.
Overlays and membrane switch layers that are thinner than .020″ are die-cut using steel rule dies, digital cutting methods, or class 1 die-sets. Our experts usually cut thicker parts using digital routing, laser cutting, or water jet cutting technologies.
Embossing helps accentuate the critical area of a graphic overlay. We can emboss graphic overlays using a male/female die set. The features are typically raised .010″ (1.5x material thickness) if embossed – this can serve, for example, to raise LEDs above the overlay surface or provide a decorative effect to a logo or text.
An alternative to embossing, hydroforming involves more expensive tooling, set-up, and cycle times. It allows adding feature heights up to three times the material thickness.
Graphic overlays often feature clear windows for viewing LCDs. Such overlays with LCD windows are manufactured using glass, hard-coated and scratch-resistant polyester, or polycarbonate. The LCD windows can be specified with alternative gloss levels for glare attenuation requirements or a window tint, selecting appropriate background colors.
Our experts can develop graphic overlays with small, clear, and round windows for viewing light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The windows can be flush with the overlay surface or embossed so that LEDs are raised above the overlay surface. Such LED windows can be tinted or dead-fronted.
Take the first step in designing your graphic overlay
How to design a graphic overlay and make sure that it meets the needs of your application? Use our free design guide to get started. Once you go through it, you’ll be able to design your graphic overlay.
Our guide will walk you through the following points:
- Substrates used for graphic overlays
- Durability requirements
- Testing the surface affection
- Lenses and gaskets
- Design techniques
If you’re not sure whether you’re making the right choices, get in touch with us. One of our dedicated advisors will gladly help you out and design a perfect membrane switch with you.
The Melrose World:
Sharing our expertise about membrane switches and keypads is our passion. Discover more engineering insights and learn from our experts.
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