Six notes on getting an aluminium sign right
Film grade, substrate, tolerance, alloy, channel section, customs code. Each note answers one question and gives the numbers behind it — no company news, no trade-show diaries.
Which film grade does your market actually require?
Type I to XI, the clause in MUTCD, EN 12899-1 and GOST that decides it, and why the upgrade usually pays for itself.
SubstrateAluminium or galvanised steel blanks?
A market-by-market answer, including the two regions where steel genuinely wins and why aluminium loses there.
TolerancesWhat “±0.5 mm” actually means on a sign blank
The five tolerances that decide whether a blank is usable, and the six lines to put in a purchase order.
Alloys5052-H38 or 3003-H14?
Strength, formability and the stiffness point most buyers get wrong — plus the 5A02 naming trap.
ExtrusionWhy 6063 sign channel beats folded sheet
Five widths, fixing spacing that holds, and when T6 is worth paying for.
CustomsHS 7606 or 8310? The line that moves duty by 50 points
Where the classification falls, what it costs on each side, and how to declare a mixed container.
They are the questions that come back in every second enquiry: which film, which substrate, how tight a tolerance, which alloy, which channel, which HS code. Each note answers one of them in the order a buyer needs it — conclusion, table, reasoning — so it can be forwarded to an engineer or pasted into a tender document without editing.
Have a specification you cannot resolve?
Send the drawing and the standard it must meet. We answer in writing, with the clause references.