[simpits-tech] panel

[Fred Mahone]

Allen,

	Unfortunately, I was not given the exact brand. The white coating is a 
primer so that there is no pigment which will cut off light transmission. 
He said the outer paint is a two part leading me to believe that it is a 
polyurethane with an additive to flatten the finish. I did drag a 
fingernail over a panel and was not able to mark it. I know Akzo Nobel 
makes finishes like this and all of their finishes are MIL-SPEC. The hard 
part is locating a vendor for them. I think I might have found one in 
Richmond, Virginia. Stupid me,
they have an office in Charlotte, N.C., but I could not locate it. I think 
it is in a new office park that was not on my map. Also,
Charlotte has two area codes and the city is not split so you can use it to 
locate businesses.

	As for the laser, it is used to cut out all of the openings, frost the 
areas to backlight knobs and to etch the lettering. The person I talked to 
said the laser was custom made for them.

	My audio panel front plate is made of a base of clear plastic, holes are 
drilled, a piece of translucent Gravoply is glued on to it. Then the back 
and sides are give a silver coat first then a black coat. The problem is 
the white of the Gravoply has turned yellow
and the places where screws went through have buckled. The Northern 
Airborne Technology booth had newer models of that panel on display and 
they have gone to the MIL-SPEC style panel. They also had 
visible/nightvision backlighting available.

	I do not know if you can exactly copy the panel as it has their logo on it 
as well as their initials, both being custom. I managed to make them up in 
my cad software while drawing up the panel. Other than that, it uses the 
standard lettering. I do not know how well it will convert to a format you 
can use.

Fred Mahone