What is Plexi? (How Acrylic got its nickname)!

Acrylic glass, a generic term for poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) is a hard clear plastic, commonly known by the brand names “Plexiglass”, “Lucite”, or “Perspex”. To us, Plexi / Acrylic, it’s one and the same, but the question does come up occasionally about acrylic print mounting in general.

How is the Acrylic Print Mounting Different from Direct Digital Print?

Acrylic Print Mounting:

At ArtisanHD, we take great pride in our mounting process. It’s rather technical, and serious skill and attention to detail is required. It all starts with an amazing Photographic Print. These are true, continuous tone LightJet or “Laser Exposed” prints, chemically developed just like back in the dark-room days. Once the photograph is made, we have to apply an optically clear adhesive, right to the face of the print using a pressure & heat combination laminator.

At this stage, the print is “prepped” for mounting and goes back through the laminator for application to the backside of the acrylic sheet. This process reveals stunning depth and clarity while protecting the photo via a permanent bond to the UV stabilized “plexi”. Now you have a truly archival rated print, ready to hang. How do you hang it? More on that later!

In Contrast, a Direct Digital Print (video) is produced by printing directly to the back of the acrylic sheet with our UV Cured OCÈ Flatbed printer. This machine will “spray” and “cure” the ink on one pass, then we add a solid layer of white ink to give it opacity and POP.

How do you hang a direct to acrylic print? Well, we only sell these prints with 1″ stainless steel stand-off barrels, floating the print off the wall by 1″. Since adding / gluing a frame to the ink can cause a fail-point, we don’t offer a Museum-back.

What Framing / Hanging Finishes are Available?

As mentioned before, we can pre-cut any acrylic or Dibond Print for Stand-off mounting. Our “Float Frame Solution” commonly referred to as a Museum-Back Frame can be added to Acrylic Mounted Photos and any “1st surface” Direct Digital Print on a rigid substrate such as SINTRA ® (PVC sheets), Dibond Aluminum Composite, Infinity Board and more.

Installing ANY of these hanging mechanisms is very easy. All you need is a level, pencil and the ability to sink a few screws into the wall. Our video collection on ArtisanHD.com is sure to help get you there in less than two minutes.

Now that you know HOW, all you need is the WHAT…and for that all WE need is YOUR IMAGE so we can craft your next print, to be hung just how you want it!  Simply visit ArtisanHD.com or call us at 1-877-948-0009 for more information.