Three-dimensional film process upgrades appearance and cleanliness of food display cases

PENNSAUKEN, NJ — Display cases utilizing a fast-growing film-fabrication technique attracted as many people at the recent Fancy Food Show in New York as they might in a popular bakery or coffee shop. Presented by Display Concepts Inc., a company that designs retail merchandising cases, the units featured side and front panels utilizing membrane-pressed rigid thermoplastic film from American Renolit Corp., LaPorte, IN, which combine aesthetics and durability in a seamless wood veneer look.

The cases, targeted at high-end bakeries, coffee shops and grocery stores, may be the only food-merchandising displays to use membrane-pressed panels in their design, notes Sandy Fine, general manager of Display Concepts, Mount Holly, NJ. The cases compete primarily with cases laminated using high pressure laminates that do not provide the aesthetics of membrane-pressed film (3D laminates), and which, she says, can delaminate, creating a worn look and snagging customers' clothes. "The look of these cases puts us far and away above the competition," Fine remarks. "I don't believe any other display-case manufacturer uses this process."

Membrane-pressing poised to expand into retail markets

Joseph Romano, president and owner of East Coast Cabinets Inc., Pennsauken, NJ, which manufactured the cases, believes it's just a matter of time until membrane-pressing makes inroads into the retail market. "Membrane pressing has been popular in the kitchen cabinet industry in the U.S. for some time, and more recently has become popular in commercial furniture and store fixture markets," he says. "We are employing the process to produce fixtures for retail food displays, where I think it has a broad application due to significant improvements in the durability and aesthetics of certain new, high performance surfacing films to hit the market."

Membrane-pressing uses heat and a vacuum process to apply sheet to a substrate that has been routed into virtually any three-dimensional shape. The film conforms to all top and side surfaces of the substrate including detailed profiles, compound curves, corporate identity routed into the substrate and wire management holes routed completely through the substrate.

East Coast Cabinets uses three-dimensional laminating film made by American Renolit Corporation, LaPorte, IN. The film ranges in thickness from 8 to 20 mils, and features multilayer construction, with most grades exhibiting greater resistance to abrasion than high pressure laminates.

Display Concepts specified an American Renolit film having a maple wood grain pattern called "Fusion X", which is supplied in rolls that are 1450 mm (57 inches) wide and 50 to 500 meters (164 to 1640 feet) long.

East Coast Cabinets orders MDF board that is pre-laminated on one side with melamine, and routs the opposite side to create three-dimensional shapes. After a conventional thermoset glue is applied to the underside of the film and the panels are placed on the bed of a vacuum forming machine, both the film and the panels are rolled into a chamber that heats the film and draws it tightly onto all top and side surfaces of the substrate, encapsulating all but the melamine backside.

The panels are then trimmed and connected to the display cases which feature curved or straight glass in the display area, and mirrors on the interior that are laminated to the walls. The rear doors are made of smoked glass.

Romano says the cost of the bakery and coffee cases will be competitive with conventional cases surfaced using high pressure laminates.

Customer response to seamless look yields orders

Though the Fancy Food Show was the first major venue in which Display Concepts exhibited the cases, the company exhibited them at smaller expositions several months prior. Fine says attendee interest exceeded expectations, recounting that companies placing orders at the show appeared most impressed with the absence of seams that would otherwise collect dirt or delaminate.

"At the New York show, customers could compare high-pressure-laminated cases with their seams and lines, to our cases," says Rich Fine, service and merchandising manager at Display Concepts. "They saw our 3D laminate cases with their detail work, raised panels, and seamless edges, and we came away from the show a step ahead of the competition."

Display Concepts has made the membrane pressed cases part of its standard product line, and according to Fine, is counting on their seamless aesthetics and functionality to penetrate the high end market for cafés, branded coffee kiosks and grocery stores nationwide.

"We expect these cases to propel our company to a new, higher level of business," she says.

Display Concepts Inc.
126 Front Street
Mount Holly, NJ 08060
Tel. 609-702-9650
Fax 609-702-9754
www.displayconceptsinc.com

East Coast Cabinets Inc.
2250-A Sherman Avenue
Pennsauken, NJ 08110
Tel. 856-488-9710
Fax 856-488-9719
www.eastcoastcabinetsinc.com