Dibond vs. e-panel (or others)? Also, how to stabilize?

[azmike]

 Is the tape holding up well?

Well there are tapes and there are tapes.  We could fill a forum on the subject.  I have built an all aluminum off-road camping trailer with 3M VHB tape as the principal bonding for the skin-to-frame structure (and it's a tank).  3M markets the VHB tape for semi trailer manufacturing. 3M is certainly a leader in the high tech foam tape business.  If you Google "3M VHB tape" and search for a 9 page pdf document "Technical Data" you'll be off to a good start.  The key issue is dynamic vs static loading/strength. These tapes are really strong with respect to dynamic loading but you need to take care with static (long term) loading.  Proper selection of the exact tape, surface preparation and proper application are things you need to understand and pay attention to. I mount 2' by 4' 3mm aluminum composite with 1/2" aluminum angle mount/stiffeners (hence the static load is over say a 36" by 1/2" surface...and I use 1/2" 3M VHB tape).  I had one failure....that I forgot to pressure seat the tape bond at the initial application (you need to carefully press the angle or moulding to the panel to get the tape to begin the bond....it's covered in the 3M literature).   All that said, the 3M tape is really cool stuff, even if it's expensive.  I'd be cautious with no-name cheap foam tape.

Mike Coffey
Prescott, Arizona

[stcstc31]

i buy in length and cut on mitre saw


Richard the 8mm i find is to flexible and also doesnt give enough stand-off

its 5 euros something a meter. so for a 900 sq panel i would put a 800 sq (outside size) frame on, the frame is gonna be around 20 euros + the vhb tape

the one lion wells works really well and waaaaaaay cheaper than the 3m equivalent


i have done 2M wide facemount acrylics this way with great success

[Brad P]

Stephen - I see Lion also has a 15 mm version of the sub frame. With your experience using the product, do you have a view on whether that might be strong enough for use with a 48 x 30" Dibond 3mm panel?  I'd aesthetically prefer that stand off distance if rigid enough.

Brad

[Ernst Dinkla]

i buy in length and cut on mitre saw


Richard the 8mm i find is to flexible and also doesnt give enough stand-off

its 5 euros something a meter. so for a 900 sq panel i would put a 800 sq (outside size) frame on, the frame is gonna be around 20 euros + the vhb tape

the one lion wells works really well and waaaaaaay cheaper than the 3m equivalent


i have done 2M wide facemount acrylics this way with great success

So a  90cm square frame for a square meter panel will cost >22.5 Euro. As I understand it the stand-off is then 25mm which may be nice for very large prints but too much for most prints, matter of taste of course. The frame at 5cm offset from the sides will show but a smaller frame could be used. It varies between 12 to 16mm the way I do it with adhesive felt pads put at 3 spots at the back. For larger prints the profiles are interesting, good to know they exist.


Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
January 2016 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[stcstc31]

havent used the 15mm, although have seen it


its stiff ish. what i found was that dibond, or acrylic at any reasonable size will bow

so thats why i use the 25


ernst. 50 mm in from the edge, yes you can see if you look, but you have to get pretty flat to the wall to see

[Brad P]

There obviously are a diverse number of fine quality display options mentioned here. Thanks for the great contributions and collaboration.

Here's what I'm focusing on now.
 
* Sheet.  Di-Bond.  3 mil brushed silver.  Two to three times the cost of white E-Panel.  May or may not be worth it on my deathbed, but it is way cooler looking, and it has a meaningful assurance of higher structural qualities (stiffness, fire resistance) than the clones.

* Sub-Frame.  Structural aluminum extrusion subframes.  I'm leaning toward Lion as what seems like the only purpose-built, plug and play product. Having been down to my local hardware store today to flex by hand all the aluminum dimensional materials they have there, I'm reasonably confident the 15mm Lion panel will approach about the limit of support needed for 4x3' 3mm official Dibond panel.  I did find on the internet what looks like stronger but not purpose built structural aluminum extrusions that could also work if the 15 mil Lion version doesn't.  I'm checking with the Lion distributor and going to wait to hear their input before deciding whether to use their product or another.

* Adhesive.  To be determined.  I'm almost certainly going to use one or two of the adhesive products specified by 3A composites for adherence to Dibond.  See page 36 here http://graphicdisplayusa.com/downloads/Dibond%20Fabrication%20Manual_May%202011.pdf.  (There is a similar doc you can google for e-panel that on cursory glance may list the same adhesives.)  I would love to use tape because of the convenience and near instant cure, but am still very partial to what appears to be longer lasting liquid alternatives.   Somewhere I read a suggestion of combining both thin tape and thin liquid adhesive (the tape to hold during a longer 30 day liquid curing process.  I'm going to seriously consider that.

Brad