“Times change very easily. Your communications should be even easier to change.”

The above statement very aptly describes the scene in a typical supermarket or retail store. With products going in and out of trend, it’s important for the store team to constantly recalibrate and promote their best offerings.

A major challenge in showcasing and promoting these top offerings is the selection of a medium for communication. The traditional approach to inform people about products and offers is to get vinyl wallpapers and sunboards printed and fixed on the walls. However, this approach is effort-intensive and time-consuming. Moreover, it requires a skilled fitter/installer.

A more convenient and better-looking alternative is an acrylic sandwich board.

What are Acrylic Sandwich Boards?

As the name suggests, an acrylic sandwich display frame is made of two sheets of clear acrylic. The actual communication/poster to be displayed is placed between these two sheets. These sheets, since they are made of clear acrylic, give a great glass-like look, minus the weight or handling hassles of glass.

Why Use Acrylic Sandwich Boards?

• Easy to install and maintain: Acrylic sheets are extremely lightweight and easy to handle. Apart from a one-time installation effort, they can be easily maintained and kept clean. With acrylic sandwich sheets, you get the clarity and finish of glass, without the associated weight.
• Easy to update communications: The poster/communication within the acrylic photo frame can be easily changed without any special expertise involved. This doesn’t require you to call a specialized fitter/installation expert and can be easily done by one of the staff/team members
• Inexpensive: Price-wise, the sandwich acrylic board is a fairly inexpensive and a high-return solution. The major cost is that of the actual which has to be incurred just once. Once installed, the only recurring cost is that of printing the new posters for the products, offers, etc. And this cost of printing just the poster is quite negligible.
• Looks impressive: Half of the visual appeal of the print comes from the fact that it is clear and clean to look at. Acrylic, also known as perspex sheets are very clear plastic sheets which look just like glass. The other half is a result of a 3D effect achieved, wherein the print looks like it’s floating away from the wall.

You might wonder, “How is this floating photo frame effect achieved?”. Read on to find out.

Construction of Acrylic ‘Floating’ Photo Frames

An acrylic sandwich frame is made of the following basic components:

• Base Acrylic Sheet: Typically of 3 mm or 5 mm thickness, this serves as the base plate on which the photo print is mounted. The entire acrylic frame setup rests on the base plate. 
• Top Acrylic Sheet: Typically of 2mm or 3 mm thickness, this plate sits atop the photo print. This plate gives the sandwich acrylic board a visually great and shiny finish. This plate can also easily be unscrewed to remove/replace the print within.
• The print bearing the advertising communication: This high-resolution photo print is placed/sandwiched between the base and top plates. This is usually a print on photo vinyl or high-resolution poster paper. We also laminate the print to increase its life.
• Floating Acrylic Photo Frames: A major part of the panel’s appeal comes from the floating effect achieved by having the print at a small distance from the wall. For this, small metallic cylinders are first drilled into the wall. The entire frame rests on these cylinders. They create a gap by effectively raising the acrylic frame away from the wall. Hence these cylinders are also referred to as ‘risers’, in hardware stores. The base plate, print, and top plate are placed on the risers. 
• Holes for the risers and stud caps: An acrylic frame has four 10 mm holes on the corners. An inch-long risers/cylinders (as described above) are fitted beneath each of these holes. The risers are hollow and you can screw in a cap screw or stud in it. The two sheets of acrylic and the print within, are held between the riser and stud cap. The stud caps on top hold everything in place. All these components together make for an impressive 3D acrylic floating photo frame that highlights the print well and gives an impressive look and feel to the entire panel.

• Economy version of acrylic poster frames: Using a base plate is apt for scenarios where the communication needs to be regularly changed/updated. But in a cheaper variant of acrylic sandwich frames, the base acrylic plate is replaced by a sheet of sunboard. This sheet is typically of 3 – 5 mm thickness. This variant of the acrylic photo frame is more suitable in cases where the life of the communication within the frame is longer. Examples of more permanent content could be a company’s mission statement or marquee product photos. These types of posters are more or less permanent and would remain unchanged for long periods. Since one sheet of acrylic (the base plate) is removed from the equation, this variant also costs less.
• Crystal edge for the frames: The acrylic sheets are cut on our laser machine. This gives them a very smooth and even finish. This gives the acrylic poster frames a ‘crystal edge’ that looks very good when viewed from the side.

How Easy Is Changing the Prints in an Acrylic Sandwich Frame?

As easy as 1, 2, 3, 4…

1. Unscrew the stud caps on the corners of the sandwich acrylic frame
2. The top sheet is now removable
3. Replace the print inside
4. Put the top plate back in its position, and screw in the stud caps

This process is quite simple and can be performed by anyone at your store/office. Changing the print should take you less than 5 minutes in all. This is what makes the acrylic poster frames such a convenient solution for stores where the speed of execution matters.

What Is the Cost of Acrylic Sandwich Frames?

As explained above, there are two variants of the acrylic sandwich frames. The pricing and components of the acrylic sandwich board varies as follows:

* Please Note:

• The rates quoted above attract 18% GST.
• The rates quoted above are per square foot. This means you first need to work out the total area of your job to arrive at the final cost. For example, let us assume that you require 2 premium variant sandwich frames each having a width of 2 feet and a height of 3 feet. In this case, the total cost of the job is calculated as follows…

2 feet (width) X 3 feet (height) X 2 copies X ₹ 440.00 (cost of print, as per the table above) =
₹ 5280.00 (+ 18% GST)

Shipping and Delivery

• Acrylic Sandwich boards can be delivered anywhere in Pune City and its nearby areas.
• Delivery charges are extra and will be communicated to you once we receive the delivery address.
• Above rates do not include installation. If required, installation services can be provided within Pune City, at an extra cost.

Question: Does this product get shipped out of Pune City?
Answer: No. We are sorry. It does not.

Here are a couple of reasons for the same:

• Hassle and Risk in Transportation: Acrylic is liable to break in transit. Also, these structures are pretty large and bulky. We need to hire a tempo to deliver them.
• Feasibility of Transportation: These boards are a pretty low cost product. So, packing and shipping them over long distances means that our customers will end up paying more for the cost of delivery than the cost of the actual print. Therefore, if you are stationed out of Pune, it makes sense for you to source the print from your local printer. All you have to do is share / take a print of the above post, show your local printer the material specifications and commission a similar job from him.