Alternative to branded Chromaluxe aluminium panels

[pisquee]

Not spoken to them, no - knew they did wooden laser cut jigsaws for another designer company we know, but they are laminated rather than sublimation, so didn't know that they did their own sublimation coating etc

[GoonerGary]

I sent off an email to Wentworth Puzzles explaining our plight, but they replied stating that their machines couldn't cut thin aluminium; I wasn't asking them to cut it! I can send you a sample of the coaster if you'd like? Perhaps an email from someone else to the managing director instead and asking for a coating service might help.

[dougbraz]

I am sure you lads want to keep it at "home" if possible, but have any of you looked at http://www.longstarsublimation.com/ ? Chinese of course. They sent me a trial batch of a few sheets and the quality was really good. Price? well, China vs USA speaks for itself. My main problem with them was the minimum order quantities - waaay to many for my fledgling operation, but if you all chip in together...you never know...
I am thinking of trying them again essentially because of the price difference being so huge, it would allow me to sell the products here for a fraction of the current cost and therefore an interesting proposition to the final customer. I can lower my margin but gain with volume.
Just some musings from the tropics..

[GoonerGary]

None of those Chinese companies go as far as 1mm though. Can't sell anything of value if it is too thin.

[dougbraz]

None of those Chinese companies go as far as 1mm though. Can't sell anything of value if it is too thin.

Gary - they go to 1.15mm which is the same thickness as Chromaluxe (0.045").
Their other stuff is 0.75mm which I agree is too thin unless you are going to set it in or on something else - certainly not as a standalone print.

[GoonerGary]

Has anyone tried any of the 1mm HD photo panels being sold by Wunderboard or Longstar?

[dougbraz]

Nope, but also thinking of buying a batch of 1.15mm sheets. The problem there is their minimum quantities per order. Trying to reduce this to maybe just 100-200 in mixed sizes or so to test. They are asking for 1500!

[Justin]

Did anyone get anywhere with a substitute product? I was looking at having a push and maybe printing the largest panels but Xpres appear to have been out of stock forever......what's going in with these stocks??

[GoonerGary]

It's strange, rather than Chromaluxe branded products, I've seen thinner Unisub aluminium being sold. Odd that they would have two product lines like that. Maybe to compete with cheap imports of thinner metal?

[dougbraz]

I may be mistaken, but I think the Chromaluxe range is more for photographs per se that have to be thicker to stand up by themselves or hand on the wall. Unisub seems to be more in the "trinkets" line - like name tags, pendants, light switch covers, keychains, what have you.