SwissUse cases
Workshop & retail
Here a plate is a tool, not a decoration. It has to be readable in bad light, survive solvent and be cheap enough to replace when the layout changes.
Machine and switchboard labels answer to different rules than a name plate. They are read fast, under poor light, often by someone wearing gloves and in a hurry, which makes contrast and size the only criteria that matter. They also get wiped with solvent, which rules out acrylic. And they change: a workshop reorganises, a shelf is renumbered, a machine is sold. Two-tone engraving laminate is the honest answer to all three — legible, chemically indifferent, and cheap enough that redoing thirty labels after a reorganisation is not a decision anyone has to think about.
What to engrave
Short. A machine label with eleven words is not read at all. Number, function, and a warning only if it is genuinely a warning — everything else belongs in the manual, not on the housing.
Which material
Two-tone plastic indoors, in a colour code you decide: one colour per line, per voltage, per department. Anodised aluminium for anything on an external wall or a loading bay, where plastic would fade within a few summers.
The mistake to avoid
Choosing a material for how it looks in the workshop photograph. The label that survives is the one nobody notices because it is still legible after five years of oil and solvent.
Use cases · Workshop & retail
- Colour-coded by line, voltage or department
- Indifferent to oil, solvent and workshop cleaners
- Cheap enough to redo after a reorganisation
Questions
Can you work from a spreadsheet of labels?
Yes, and it is the fastest way. Send one row per label with the text and any colour code; we set the whole batch from the file and send a single proof sheet back for approval.
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