plastics

The direct mail campaign consisted of 3 intra-state mailings of 1680 letters each and 6 out-of-state directed to electronics, plastics, pharmaceutical, and business machine manufacturers, and to publishers.

In the period since the end of World War 2, -- a period coinciding with merchandising demands for the colorful, the unusual, and the original in signs and displays -- plastics have come on so strong that today they are the acknowledged leaders in the field.

The importance of the sign industry to the plastics industry, however, is not in terms of volume alone.

Designers of signs and displays have shown a refreshing approach to the adaptation of plastics that has influenced the workings of other industries.

and the reverse-surface decorating techniques now used for escutcheons, medallions, etc., owes much to the field, as does the technology of designing with the light-transmitting properties of the transparent plastics.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal survey, plastics units now account for more than 50% of all sign sales.

And it's far from the end for plastics.

today, 85% is in plastics.

Why the trend to plastics??

What accounts for the rapid growth of plastics in the sign and display field??

Vacuum- and pressure-formed sheet plastics fill the gap between cardboard and molded plastics.

Pre-decoration, low-cost molds, and the freedom to form large and small, thick and thin materials make plastics tailor-made for the industry.

What plastics to use??

For specialized types of displays, such as large three-dimensional units reproducing a product, package, human or animal figures, etc., reinforced plastics and rotationally molded vinyl plastisols are other materials frequently used.

For outdoor signs and displays, where the problem of weathering resistance is no longer a factor, the choice of plastics is almost unlimited.

Often, the finished sign or display incorporates several types of plastics and two or more fabricating techniques.

One of the most significant advancements in design of plastics signs is the so-called trans-illuminated billboard, now being produced by several large sign manufacturers such as Advance Neon Sign Co., Los Angeles, and Industrial Electric Inc., New Orleans, La..

Thus the film can be applied to back-lighted translucent plastics faces ; ;

Perhaps the best way to indicate the versatility of design that characterizes the use of plastics in signs and displays would be to look at what is happening in only one of the areas in this complex field -- changeable signs.

Such an instrument is expected to be especially useful if it could be used to measure the elasticity of heavy pastes such as printing inks, paints, adhesives, molten plastics, and bread dough, for the elasticity is related to those various properties termed `` length '', `` shortness '', `` spinnability '', etc., which are usually judged by subjective methods at present.

Within only a few years, foamed plastics materials have managed to grow into an integral, and important, phase of the plastics industry -- and the end is still not yet in sight.

Many of the other foamed plastics, particularly the styrenes, show similar growth potential.

And there are even newer foamed plastics that are yet to be evaluated.