Prototypes

Today's high-tech firms require ever increasing support to bring new designs from the drawing table to functional prototype (and production) as soon as possible. Valmark has continued to invest in the ability to provide advanced rapid-prototyping capabilities that outdistances many in the membrane switch industry.

Valmark pioneered some of the earliest efforts in digital printing technology on thin-gauge plastics. With this capability Valmark can quickly take most digital artwork formats and use a direct digital deposition process to print from file to directly to a thin-gauge plastic overlay. This digital printing process bypasses some of the time consuming steps in conventional production screen-printing. The final rapid-prototype graphic can be embossed, cut and/or laminated to a membrane switch circuit subassembly.

Further, because Valmark is vertically integrated, we can then quickly cut custom graphics, windows, shielding components, etc. with our CNC laser-cutting stations. Once the prototype is cut, if embossing is required, a photopolymer embossing tool can be rapidly made and used in our in-house hydroformer. The hydroformer can then provide production-grade embossing to the prototype subassembly.

These units have been tested to more than 1 Million cycles before failure! This level of reliability rivals full production quality assemblies. And all of this rapid-prototyping can be done without the time and expense of hard tooling.

The next time you need a new Membrane Switch or Graphic Panel Overlay but are short on time---or want to see what your concept really looks like before committing to production quantities--call Valmark, we'll get what you want - when you need it!