Looking Back and Moving Forward: 2015 in Review

Cal Poly SLO Supermileage Car

As we reach the culmination of another whirlwind year here at Coastal Enterprises, it’s important not to let the holidays pass us by without taking some time for reflection. In the fast-moving world of composites, it’s too easy to move right on to the next task without meditating on the events that brought us to where we are today. Quantifying our successes, our failures, and our formative experiences from the past months is an essential part of the learning process, and allows us to better focus our efforts for the next year. It’s been a big year for the composites industry in general, and we have seen advancements in 2015 that will truly shape the face of the modern world. From the successful launch and recovery of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, to the continuing development of Boeing’s highly advanced 777X twin-engine jet, the foundations are being laid for incredible leaps and bounds in technology in the coming years. We are proud to be part of a community that is actively working toward the betterment of human kind as a whole.

Chico State University Concrete Canoe Team

The most important factor in our own growing business are the customers that believe in us, who trust our products and service enough to continue standing by us as we move forward. No matter how good our material is, we wouldn’t get anywhere without people willing to take the plunge and try it for themselves. So as the year finally comes to a close, we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you. As hard as we work to improve and perfect Precision Board, it is our customers that make it all possible. Thank you for trusting us to provide the best customer service in the business, and the ideal HDU substrate for your industrial and signage needs. We are so thankful for each and every one of you, and we are ready to start this New Year the same way we did last year: with personal, comprehensive service; dedicated to helping you get the most out of Precision Board. We wish you a merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a joyous New Year. See you in 2016!

Cal Poly SLO ASME Team

2015 was a huge year for creation, invention, and innovation. Check out some of the incredible projects accomplished by our customers this past year!

InterSign Group

Impressive Signs and Graphics

Sawatzky’s Imagination Corporation

Xpressive Graphix

A Storybook Christmas with Xpressive Graphix

Tis the season for Christmas miracles, and when the Muskingum Library needed to drum up some holiday cheer with an eye-catching display, they knew exactly who to call: Tony Rose and his team at Xpressive Graphix. Tony is the master of creating incredible designs from just a sketch and a dream (check out his visionary work for The Angry Bull Saloon earlier this year), and this time around was no different. The theme for the library’s holiday attraction is “A Storybook Christmas”, and what better display for a public library than a pile of oversized, well-worn Christmas classics?

The books began life as five plywood boxes, reinforced with steel cages for durability. The boxes were screwed together with self-tapping screws to form a tall stack. This would serve as the backing framework to support the Precision Board outer layer. Next, the Xpressive crew went to work with their Multicam 1000 Series CNC router. They machined the surfaces of each book from PBLT-4; our lightest-weight material but still dense enough to hold edges for intricate detailing. In total they routed twenty separate sections of Precision Board, four for each book.

Next, they glued the routed sections of PBLT-4 to the sides of the plywood frame. The tower of massive holiday classics was beginning to take shape.

After the Precision Board was attached to the frame, Tony and the team applied two coats of TSF-45 to the entire piece. The base layer was solely to protect the PBLT-4, but the second coat was for detailing. Our specially formulated Texture Surface Finish is perfect for adding protection to low-density Precision Board for a durable yet lightweight final product. Check out TSF-45 here. Tony used a paintbrush to texture the drying TSF-45, beginning to create the illusion of aged leather and worn paper.

When the TSF-45 had dried, it was time to paint. The team used a combination of mixed glazes for the first coat, resulting in a range of vibrant colors that were a bit too bright for their purposes…

So they used exterior latex paints to rough up the too-new finish. This is where the true artistry of Tony and the Xpressive team comes into play. They subdued the colors, added wear and tear to the bindings, and yellowed the pages. By the time they were finished, it would be easy to believe that some ancient Christmas giant had left his book collection in the middle of their workshop.

All that was left was to wrap the books up in a big bow and deliver them to the New Concord branch of the Muskingum Library. Tony and the Xpressive Graphix team really outdid themselves on this one, but they’re used to people saying that. Incredible work like this doesn’t just happen by chance; it takes skilled artists working with the right materials. We at Coastal Enterprises are beyond proud that Xpressive Graphix chooses Precision Board for their display and signage projects, and we look forward to providing the material for even more of their masterpieces in the future. Check out the Xpressive Graphix website for a full rundown on their projects, services, and design philosophy.

Have a display or signage project coming up? Request a free sample today and see for yourself why signage professionals choose Precision Board for lightweight, rock solid projects that can stand up to extreme winter conditions. The weather outside might be frightful, but keep your signs delightful with Precision Board Plus!

Introducing newly updated Precision Board Plus

Staying relevant in the modern composites industry requires a delicate balancing act of honest trial and error. In order to grow and mature, a manufacturer must identify the areas in which a product or process can be improved. This requires transparency and self-awareness; the will to acknowledge one’s own shortcomings and confront them in the open. We here at Coastal Enterprises believe that that no progress can be made without serious self-reflection, and we constantly strive to reinvent, to refine, and to reevaluate ourselves in the midst of changing times and shifting standards. With this in mind, we are proud to introduce a newly updated process for Precision Board Plus, a testament to our continuing commitment to adaptable excellence.

The processing changes we have made to Precision Board are based around our own careful study of industry trends and requirements, in order to more closely suit the needs of our customers. The new Precision Board features a tighter cell structure, providing a smoother surface finish and increased strength profile. No matter what the application, from low-weight signage and display construction to autoclave-cured tooling, stronger is always better. Whether it’s an exterior sign that needs to survive a harsh winter or a vacuum form/layup tool subjected to extreme temperatures, Precision Board has the durability you need for your specific project.

Another important benefit of our stronger, tighter, redesigned cell wall structure is the sharper edge machining we’ve achieved with Precision Board. It’s now much easier to dial in CNC speeds and feeds to control the router bit, to determine the amount of chips and dust produced while machining. Check out the short video above showing Precision Board being machined, producing mostly chips and little to no dust. Speeds and feeds were selected from the Onsrud router bit guide for machining Precision Board. Check out machining settings for all Precision Board densities to optimize your chip load.

All fifteen standard densities of our new Precision Board have a higher durometer, as well as increased compression and tensile strength across the board. We have standard densities ranging from 4pcf to 75pcf in both our PBLT (200°) and PBHT (300°) materials, with sheet sizes from 20”x60” to 5’x10’ and thicknesses from ¼” to 24”. With such a wide variety of densities, sheet sizes, and temperature tolerances, Precision Board can easily be adapted to most projects. But please, don’t take our word for it. Get your free sample today, and see for yourself how our new Precision Board can work for you!

Did you know: Coastal Enterprises constructs custom Precision Board mandrels to order? With the updated production process for our material, the quality and adaptability of our mandrels are top notch. Check out our recent blog post to find out how to streamline your filament winding process.

Custom mandrels made easy with Precision Board

The steel mandrels often required for filament winding are a limiting factor when producing custom prototypes or other low-volume projects. It can be prohibitively expensive to fabricate a new steel mandrel for a single project, not to mention the design limitations that come from working with steel mandrels. Last minute design changes can often force a project back to square one, causing weeks of delay in the manufacturing process and adding a battery of excessive costs. If there is one single design change made after fabrication of the steel mandrel, there is usually no other option but to start over from scratch. When it comes to operating with tight deadlines and high-cost materials, restarting a project is always extremely serious. Luckily, Coastal Enterprises has a unique solution: Precision Board custom mandrels.

It’s time to modernize your filament winding process with Precision Board Plus! Any one of our fifteen densities of high-density urethane substrate can be made to fit the exact specifications of your project. We mold Precision Board around a spindle pipe reinforced with axial fins to ensure that it will withstand the twisting compression during high-tension filament winding. Furthermore, the temperature tolerances of our PBHT and PBLT Precision Board are able to function within typical resin exotherm temperatures. No more catering to mandrel tools that are not designed for changes usually experienced during prototype development: We will produce any square or rectangle shaped mandrel you can dream up. All you have to do then is to machine it to your specifications.

But what if there are errors in the machining process? Or late-stage design changes? No problem. Simply bond additional Precision Board to the desired areas (using our specially-formulated EP-76 epoxy) and machine over the new material. Just like that, you are ready to move forward with your altered design. What would normally be a project-halting disaster with steel is usually a quick and easy fix with Precision Board. And speaking of quick… Fast turnaround on every order is our specialty! We will construct and ship your mandrel with a level of speed that is achieved through experience and expertise, usually 5-7 working days from receipt of P.O. Call the Coastal Enterprises Technical Dept. for assistance at (800) 845-0745.

The composites world never stops moving- what about you? Don’t get bogged down with the necessities of the past. Shape your own future with Precision Board Plus. Request a free sample today, and start reinventing your filament winding process.

Drilling for an Eye-bolt

Drilling holes in Precision Board has many similarities to wood. However, there are some differences that should be noted. This blog will feature step one of two for hanging a sign using an eye-bolt. Here is a step-by-step picture and video guide to show you how to drill a proper hole in Precision Board to hang from an eye-bolt.