New hardcoat film from MacDermid Autotype offers stainless finish for keyboards and graphic panels

Autotex Steel is manufactured using a conventional flexible polyester substrate. This is coated with a ink adhesion layer on the underside or reverse and a specially developed hardcoat outer layer, which is chemically bonded and UV cured. The hardcoat layer has a textured finish which, when the film is printed on the reverse with standard metallic or silver inks, creates the appearance of a brushed stainless steel panel.

This film based solution offers a number of advantages over conventional stainless steel materials, including the ability to produce high quality keyboard or graphics panels at a far lower cost using standard screen processes. In addition, Autotex Steel can easily be embossed, making it ideal for use with domed tactile membrane keypads or in applications where keys or panel areas need to have raised edges. Embossed areas have an excellent flex modulus, with a typical flex life for domed keys being in excess of five million actuations.

Unlike stainless steel, Autotex Steel does not show fingerprints, and can easily be printed with clear display windows or contain secret-until-lit graphics, with the film offering excellent colour rendition and light transmission in clear areas. Graphics are normally reverse printed, so are protected from wear and abrasion by the body of the film substrate and the textured hardcoat layer. This layer has also been formulated to resist a wide variety of common industrial solvents and cleaning fluids, including alcohols, ketones, weak acids and hydrocarbons.

Autotex Steel can be supplied in thicknesses of either 150 or 200 microns, with each being available for use with solvent or UV cured inks, offering product designers and screen printers an efficient and versatile method of developing striking and high quality graphics products with the appearance of stainless steel.