This week has seen the completion of a commemorative plaque for the Girl Guides. The sign was CNC engraved with information on the maze at Crystal Palace designed and built especially for the Girl Guides Centenary.
Measuring over 1.5 metres in length we had to use our largest CNC machining centre to machine the details onto the sheet of stainless steel. Our customer had provided us with CAD data of the design, which included the intricate design of the maze, text regarding the history of Girl Guides and several emblems of companies involved with the Centenary.
As polishing stainless steel is a difficult process where aesthetics are concerned, we re-grained the surface of the sign so the grain on the top surface of the plate ran in the same direction. Once the CNC machining had been finished this created a contrast between the uniform, grained top surface and lighter, matt lower layer of the material.
This contrast made the text, emblems and maze more sharper and prominent to view.