Here at Trade Made, we manufacture and wide range of bespoke Acrylic boxes and displays,
All our acrylic work starts from either a drawing, sketch or even just some basic measurements, the customer can simply send this via email or call us on the phone
In this post we are making some hinged clear display boxes with handles attached to the sides and a locking key latch on the front ( pictures shows boxes with protection film still on them )
So what is the process for getting something like this made :
its quite straightforward in this case the customer had simply emailed us with a sketch and some basic measurements of what they were looking for , once we received the basic drawing we had our design team speak with the client to confirm his design once everyone was happy we then created a cad file of all the required parts to make these boxes,
Design to Manufacture ;
Once the cad file has been created checked and verified by the client it goes into production, For these acrylic display boxes we send all the required parts to one of our CNC routers for cutting, we used 5mm clear acrylic for these boxes.
CNC Routing ;
The good thing about the CNC routing process is you can add things like drill holes i.e for the handles at the sides plus recesses ( area cut into the material but not right through ) this was used for the hinges at the back, All of these tooling commands are very useful for controlling the accuracy of the parts plus it speeds up assembly of the final product.
Once the parts have been CNC Routed they were sent to polishing, Th polishing process turns the CNC cut edge back to a perfectly clear colour this is very important to the final look of the overall product or component.
Once the polishing process is complete the acrylic is then annealed to remove the stresses that are caused in the CNC machining and polishing process after the acrylic has been annealed it is then moved to the assembly line
Acrylic Assembly
With these display boxes we had a number of assembly features that needed to be added like the handles, hinges, and locking latches, with all the main features per machined by the CNC router this makes assembly and lot easier as these features are pre-set in precise locations making assembly a lot easier, Once the main box is assembled and glued together we normally leave this overnight to cure, once the glue has cured we then install the other components like the handles and the latches.
Product Inspection.
Once the display boxes are complete we quality check each one for fit and final appearance, as these boxes are going into a retail environment they must be perfect especially the glue line as this will be very visible so it must be perfect and bubble-free, only after QC checks are passed are the boxes released for delivery to the client
Overview of the process
Just a quick recap of all the processes we go through for typical acrylic boxes
Basic design from client
Speak with the client to confirm all details if required
Cad file creating and approval
CNC routing of components
Polishing process and annealing
Assembly
Final inspection
Delivery
Summary
If you need any CNC routing or any Acrylic work done please give us a call or drop us an email we will be glad to help, you may be surprised at what we can do, no job is too big or too small
Contact us at
Tel.028 302 68623
email: davidhogg@me.com