Custom Metal Nameplates

This is the plate for wording that does not fit a standard format. You write the text, we cut it into metal. A component name, an asset or tag number, a warning, operating instructions, an inspection status, a door or room reference. Custom metal plates are made singly or in matched sets, in whatever size the fixing position allows.

Identification plates are the commonest job. A brushed stainless plate with four countersunk holes reading W.T. Door 19s or Pressure Relief Valve tells a crew what they are standing in front of, in the wording their own drawings already use. Marine and offshore work, plant rooms, risers and switch rooms are the same job: short text, hard wearing metal, a fixing that survives a wash down.

Warning and instruction plates carry far more text. A plate announcing that an underfloor void is protected by a gas fire suppression system, with the isolation and evacuation steps set out below in several paragraphs, has to read at a distance for the heading and at arm’s length for the body. Our in house graphic designers set the type sizes and line spacing to the plate size you have room for. The wording comes from you; we manufacture to the text supplied and do not advise on what a notice must say.

Status and inspection plates are short and usually come in pairs. A green TESTED plate and a red SKIP RETEST plate of identical size, screw fixed side by side, is a typical order. Filling the engraved recess with pigment puts the colour below the surface of the metal, where wiping and solvent cleaning cannot take it off.

Stainless steel 304 suits general indoor and plant use. Stainless steel 316 is the grade for coastal, marine and offshore work and anywhere chlorides or wash down chemicals are present. Both come non directional, 2B, hairline or mirror finish; a brushed face hides handling marks and holds colour fill cleanly. Aluminium is supplied anodised or in mill finish, and brass plain. For indoor plates, engraving laminate (Gravoply and Traffolyte), acrylic and polycarbonate are also used.

The process follows the material and the wording. Rotary engraving suits large characters and thicker stock. Laser engraving and laser marking give fine detail in small type and logos. Chemical etching bites the whole layout to a controlled depth in one operation, which suits a plate carrying a lot of text. Screen printing and UV flatbed printing add multiple colours and full artwork where the environment allows. Engraved, etched and laser marked plates are produced under our Milmark process brand; printed plates under Milscreen.

Metal plate engraving is only half the order. Tell us the fixing and the plate is supplied to match: pre-drilled or countersunk to your hole centres, drilled for blind rivets, or with adhesive backing where the substrate cannot be drilled.

Send the wording exactly as it should read, with the plate size, material, fixing centres and quantity, and we will quote. If instead the plate has to carry what the equipment is rated at, its model and serial, its electrical or capacity figures, or its certification and inspection references, that is a rating plate or a data plate and it is covered on our Compliance and Rating Plates page. Contact us if you are unsure which you need.

Produced alongside our rating, data and compliance plates and name plates for switches, so a machine, its panel and its instruments carry one scheme.