Professional Engraving Systems

How to Engrave Braille - by Jimmy DuBose

What is a Braille sign and what businesses need them?

Since the passage of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, all public access buildings are required to have Braille signage. This means that hospitals, schools, government buildings, and restaurants all need Braille signs. Restrooms, meeting rooms, exits, and elevators are just a few of the areas that require signs.
Braille signs created by our systems are constructed of plastic. The substrate or core material must have raised characters and Braille engraved or applied to it. We use 1/32” thick appliqué material to create the raised characters. The appliqué already has adhesive on the back side that cures within 24 hours after it is applied to the substrate. The layout and construction of these signs follows very specific regulations created by the ADA. We will discuss some of these regulations in this article. However, you can review the complete American with Disabilities Act as it relates to signage and design from the following link: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adastd94.pdf
Section 4.30 of this document refers to signage standards.

What is the best system to produce ADA signage, rotary or laser?
The only engraving system that can produce both the raised letters and the Braille needed to produce a compliant ADA sign is a rotary system. Lasers are very useful and efficient for producing the appliqué portion of the ADA sign. However, they are not effective in producing the Braille portion of the sign. A laser beam can produce a hole in the substrate, but the hole will always be larger at the material surface. This fact prevents the effective use of the patented raster Braille process. A rotary system will produce the correct type of hole needed for the raster process.

What tools do I need to generate Braille?
There are two types of Braille that can be produced with a rotary engraving system. Route out Braille is generated by routing or milling away the surface of the substrate and leaving rounded Braille dots. A special cutter is used for this application, but this cutter is the only extra piece of equipment needed. The raster or bead method of Braille is generated by drilling holes in the substrate and pressing beads into the holes. Accent Signage owns the process patent rights to this method. To use this method, you will need to contact your local Xenetech distributor or Accent Signage and purchase the rights to use it. Please see the link listed below.
www.accentsignage.com

What materials are used to construct a Braille sign?
The substrate material can be made of a variety of materials. Braille signs have had substrates consisting of acrylic, engraving plastic, brass, and steel. The most popular substrate is acrylic or plastic. Clear acrylic is used when it is necessary to get a precise color match or an image must be printed on the back. Engraving plastic is used when the color match does not need to be precise. I prefer using Rowmark’s reverse engravable Ultramatte plastic. www.rowmark.com
The appliqué material must be raised 1/32” above the substrate surface. I recommend using Rowmark’s ADA appliqué material with the adhesive already applied. This adhesive cures after 24 hours, so the appliqué should not be applied in advance of engraving the sign. Finally, before choosing the colors of your substrate and appliqué, you must consider the amount of contrast between the two materials. There should be at least a 70% color contrast between the two materials. Your material supplier can help you with the pairing of substrate and appliqué materials. The materials should also be low-glare, non-reflective, or matte finished.

Things to consider in your layout….
Text must satisfy the character proportion and character stroke requirements. The character can not be condensed below 60%, and it can’t be stretched above 100%. The stroke ratios prevent the use of many fonts. For example, the times new roman font fails the stroke ratio requirement in the areas shown below. However, the arial font satisfies the stroke ratio requirement.

Text must also have a minimum letter height of .625” and a maximum letter height of 2”. Pictograms must be placed in an area at least 6”x6” with no other text or Braille in this area. A description of the pictogram must be placed directly below the pictogram.

Caution: Know the ADA requirements and get that customer to sign off
There is a possibility that your signage will be inspected to make sure that everything adheres to the ADA signage guidelines. For this reason, it is very important that you are familiar with all of the ADA signage guidelines. Your customers may request certain color schemes that satisfy the color contrast requirement, or they might request the use of fonts that don’t meet the character stroke requirement. As the supplier, it is your responsibility to know the requirements for ADA signage, and you must inform your customer. If your customer insists that you follow a layout that is out of specification, you should get them to sign a waiver stating that you made them aware of the problems with their layout. This waiver should protect your company from remaking signs that fail inspection at your cost.

You shouldn't let the strict guidelines for constructing ADA signs prevent you from offering this type of sign in your line of products. ADA signs can become a very profitable part of your business. If you want to find some prospective Braille sign customers, I recommend approaching the maintenance department of some large public facilities, or approach local architectural firms and offer your Braille sign services.