We offer a complete mounting and laminating service using a cold roll fed pressure based system.

Surface Mounting

When frame shops mount pictures they traditionally use a vacuum press where a tissue is heated and the tissue print and board is fused together. In theory this process is reversible by reheating the print and board although it is not always successfully.

Our process is archival, permanent and non-reversible. We use a cold, roll fed laminating press to attach the print to a variety or boards. We use a white high tack permanent solvent based acrylic which has an opaque white liner which diminishes the effect light or black mounting material showing through.

We currently mount to a a variety of substrates:

• Foam board - Archival, lignin and acid free 3/16"
  Foam board is great for temporary signs or prints that will be mounted in frames. It has a tendency to warp.
• Acrylic in 1/8, 3/16 and 1/4 thickness without without polished edges
  We use cast acrylic which is more expensive and much better than extruded.
• DiBond(R) in 2 mm and 3mm
  Dibond and E-Panel are both two sheets of pre-painted aluminum with a solid polypropylene core. This makes it much lighter and more rigid than aluminum. They are both made by Alcan, DiBond in the USA and E-Panel in China. DiBond is made from two sheets of .012" aluminum and E-Panel 0.008". Specifications are here
• E-Panel in 3 mm- see notes above
• Gator foam 3/16 and 1/2 in Black and white
  Gator foam is an extruded polystyrene foam board bonded between two layers of Luxcell® wood-fiber veneer. It is extremely rigid and light making it very suitable for mounting prints without any other kind of backing. Whether it is archival or not is open to debate (check the web!) because we use a white polypropylene liner between the image and the board it adds an extra level of protection. In the last 5 years we have not seen any evidence of any deterioration is prints mounted to Gator.
• Sintra(R) in 2 mm and 3 mm in Black and White
  Sintra is a lightweight yet rigid board of moderately expanded closed-cell polyvinyl chloride (PVC) extruded in a homogeneous sheet with a low gloss matte finish and is archival.
• Museum Board 4 ply and 8 ply - yes this 100% cotton rag base board is lignin and acid free,it is archival

Face Mounting

We use an optically clear permanent acrylic adhesive with added UV inhibitors to protect images from fading. We print on a premium grade resin coated gloss paper and the print is face mounted to 1/8" cast acrylic. A 2 mm DiBond back is fixed to the back and then a 3/4" or 1" square aluminum tube frame is glued to the back with a lip on one side of the tube to allow it to be attached to a wooden French cleat. The mounted piece is provided ready to hang.

For extra special applications we can provide the acrylic face with a non glare or scratch resistant surface.

Laminating

We offer either matte or high gloss over laminates which both provide UV protection. Our over laminates will not shrink.