Exhibit projects rarely die on the fabrication floor — they die in the spec, and many of the fatal entries are logistics-shaped. Eight specific specification mistakes, each with its show-floor consequence and the one-line RFQ fix, written as the checklist to run before the components are ordered.
A fixture’s finish grade should match the brand’s position and the placement’s viewing reality — and that match is only possible when finish is specified in measurable terms. The three published grades mapped to real brand situations, the mismatch costs in both directions, and a spec block you can lift into an RFQ.
Polycarbonate buys impact resistance acrylic can’t match — and gives up the laser, the flame-polished edge, and acrylic’s familiar process plan along with them. What a buyer who knows acrylic needs to unlearn, how polycarbonate parts are actually cut, formed, bonded and finished, and what the drawing should say differently.
A surprising share of real RFQs start with a picture: ‘can you make something like this?’ Usually yes — once the photo’s missing facts are filled in. What a photo can’t tell a fabricator, what to send with it so it quotes fast, why a physical sample beats any picture, and where the one hard line sits.
A display drawing shouldn’t carry a blanket ±1/64-inch note copied from a machined-parts template — and it shouldn’t carry no tolerances at all. Where tolerance genuinely matters on a POP unit (product wells, mating slots, hardware patterns), where it buys nothing, and how to write the general note that gets both right.
A process that defines acrylic fabrication can be impossible on the sheet next to it: polycarbonate and PVC never see the laser, flame polishing works on acrylic alone, and solvent cement won’t touch HDPE. One table of what each material allows in this shop — and why a drawing’s process callouts have to match the material line.
Want to reorder something we built for you? We are ready to do that, and we will work through it with you: pull up what is on record, confirm anything that has changed, and put it into the schedule. Here is what that record has to contain for a reorder to come back identical — as-built drawings, material and finish specs, approved proofs, pack-out, tooling — and what to say at the first order so it starts with the first unit.
A material chosen for the show floor misses where exhibit damage actually happens: the crate, the truck, the drayage dock and the hurried teardown. Scored against the whole exhibit life cycle, acrylic is the presentation material and polycarbonate is the survival material — and the right booth specifies per component, not per booth.
Grant periods end on dates the sponsor set. Beam time is booked. The site visit is on the calendar. A research buyer needs date language, not lead-time estimates — and the Production Scheduling tiers are exactly that language. Which tier fits which deadline, one worked timeline, and the one-line translation for your purchasing office.
An acrylic shelf that holds the weight today and one that stays flat for years are two different questions, because acrylic under sustained load can keep bowing over time. What drives sag — span, depth, load, thickness, supports, time — and the structural moves that beat raw thickness, with the design call where it belongs.
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