Photo By Keith Hayes | A sheet of military vehicle control panel instructions in Arabic is ready to be cut...... read more read more
Nearly all of the banners, metal signage and information decorating the walls and vehicles in Production Plant Barstow were more than likely created by the Graphics Shop at the facility.
Mike Sanchez and Paul Marquez are Visual Information specialists with the Test, Measurement and Diagnostic Equipment Division’s Graphics Shop at the Marine Depot Maintenance Command facility aboard the Yermo Annex of Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif.
They create banners, metal etchings, informational signs and other graphically produced information using various computer controlled “printers.” Among those machines is a laser engraver capable of etching on anodized aluminum plates, wood or vinyl. They also use a Summa DC5 Thermal Transfer Printer to create huge vinyl banners and signs that drape the walls of PPB.
“The vinyl used in the banners and signs doesn’t need lamination to protect it from the elements,” Schyler Yacono, TMDE supervisor, said. “The thermal printed banners last five to six years before having to be replaced.”
Sanchez said he uses Corel Draw to create the images or text needed by the “customer” from scratch if they cannot provide him with an example of what they want.
“I love the creative aspect of this job very much,” he said. “Everything I do can be seen around the Plant by everyone.”
Among the myriad of items created by the Graphics Shop are Unique Identification data plates, or UID. Laser etched on a black anodized aluminum plate, the UID plates are then attached to the vehicles, weapons, or other types of equipment worked on at PPB.
The laser burns through the anodized coating at various microscopic depths, allowing the artisan to create elaborately detailed renderings.
“One of the training programs that came with the machine is a high resolution photo of Marilyn Monroe which we loaded into the computer program used to control the laser etcher and created an exact duplicate of the photo on metal,” Sanchez said.
“These machines save the U.S. taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars when we create these labels and signs in-house rather than contracting them out a huge expense,” Yacono said.
The more production steps that can be accomplished within the Plant, he concluded, the faster the project can be completed and the faster it gets back out to the end customer, the Marines on the front lines.
| Date Taken: | 09.13.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 09.13.2018 11:13 |
| Story ID: | 292605 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 31 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Graphics Shop at PPB uses heat, light to create, by Keith Hayes, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
