When it comes to picking the right size and thickness of your mat, there are many things to take into consideration. 99.9% of all rail mats located in bars are .500 inches thick. Therefore, oddball sizes of .625 inches or .250 inches thick tend to cause tipping hazards, as the rail mats are all placed next to each other. If you have one mat that is half an inch, and one at quarter of an inch, when setting a drink down on the edge of both mats, your drink will tip as the quarter inch mat is lower and thinner.

Another thing to take into consideration is that most bartenders end up placing any mats with a .625 inch thickness on the floor, as they do not prefer the size. The best size universally to choose would be .500 inches thick for all your rail mat needs.

We often come across logos with many intricate colors. When a color is in close proximity to another, we call this double engraving detail. With one colored logos, or logos with colors that have plenty of space between them, we can have what we call single engraving. As with any art, we have to determine how to proceed with the piece in the best way possible for our molding process. All opposing colors need a separation (walls, or down area) between colors.

For example; In the case of our example mat (pictured above) you will see two different types of engraving. While “Bacardi Est’d -1862-“ and “Genuine Spiced Rum” are all single color with enough space between them, they are single engrave. Whereas, “Oakheart” has different colored drop shadows and therefore these separation walls are required. This keeps the tan color from mixing with the cream color.

These walls, and each color, have to be a set size per our molding process, so more intricate mats with more design may lose detail depending on how many colors and how close each color is to one another. In these cases, we will usually opt for one of the colors to be considered as the backing of the mat (the black color you see in the Oakheart image).

Poly Enterprises is continuing our partnership in 2017 with the Georgia Mountain Food Bank by striving to reach our goal of providing 3,000 meals to the hungry children and senor citizens of North Georgia. WE ARE ASKING FOR YOUR HELP!

The Georgia Mountain Food Bank provides food supplies to rural parts of North Georgia. Currently, 1 in 4 children and 1 in 10 senor citizens in Georgia live in a food deprived households. Every dollar we raise results in providing one meal to these folks in need. Please click on the link below and join the POLY FAMILY in our quest to provide 3,000 meals!
Your help is greatly appreciated.

https://www.gamountainfoodbank.org/poly-enterprises/

One of the specialties we offer for our clients is the ability to create vibrant colored mats. We pride ourselves in paying special attention to the colors provided by our clients. Each color is matched to one of many options; our Pantone book, a swatch sample or item provided by the client.

The colors are mixed until perfection is achieved and the customer receives a ‘1st Article’ sample of the completed product. Modifications are made to the color as needed, but tweaking the color does not happen often, as we able to match many colors.

In the Point of Purchase world getting your brand a piece of real estate in your local Home Depot, Surf Shop or Grain Feed Store is important and floor and counter mats serve as a great vehicle as a low pressure sales tool. As opposed to signs hanging everywhere and unfortunately often times in you sight line when you are looking for something else, counter mats and floor mats feel somehow more passive.
When a customer goes to purchase a starter for his 57 Ford and sees the Amsoil floor or counter mat the seed is planted. When that seed germinates is probably determined by a lot of things: the knowledge of the brand, the immediate need for the product and if they are searching for a change.
Passive sales tool are just that and with all the brand bombardment on all forms of social media passive sales is a gentle sales tool that works.
Our custom mats are custom through and through. We can add subtle and not so subtle design features that not only enhance the look of the logo but how well it gently sells. Our mats also serve a wide array of needs. On benches in repair facilities they can catch oil and dirt on the Stihl Chainsaw that needs some attention from a technician. Our floor mats do the same. All our custom products are 100% pvc and clean up nice. They are durable and last for years and most of all they sell passively all year round.
Robb Donker

Poly Enterprises has always been a MADE IN USA company. Manufacturing domestically affords us the ability to turn around jobs quicker than overseas companies. We can also fulfill orders via daily drop ships, again benefiting our customers by feeding their supply chain daily (or weekly) and them only getting invoiced as their product ships. When shipping out from Asia, the ship has to be completely full before it can leave the dock, then there is 90 days of just on the ocean and then more time spent through customs.

Manufacturing is the largest and most dynamic sector of the economy in the U.S. China became the leader of the world’s manufacturing economy in 2010, but the U.S. has consistently kept a strong standing in second place. The value added by factories in the United States is more than $2 trillion a year which puts us as the envy of the world.

Gross output of the United States manufacturing industries totaled $6.2 trillion last year. That’s 36% of U.S. gross domestic product and almost double output of any other big sectors. Manufacturing is at economy’s center as it is highly connected with other sections.

All of our information has come from the below source and is well worth the read. If you would like to read more on the topic, please visit the link below.  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-manufacturing-dead-output-has-doubled-in-three-decades-2016-03-28

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of heading over as a Poly Family and participating in helping feed a few families in need. We are so thankful for those who came out to help us bless these families with a full Thanksgiving meal.

First, we made our stop over by the Georgia Mountain Food Bank headquarters. From there, we were able to get together three different packages of different kinds of food. We started with the frozen meats, making sure each package had plenty of choices. We then moved on to desserts and breads, and finally dry foods and cans. In total, we had 54 full meals for the families.

After we filled our trucks up with the goods to be delivered, we headed over to the neighborhood. From here, everyone gathered up in groups and we carried the food to each family’s door to deliver the food with a smile and fun.

The Georgia Mountain Food Bank is committed to helping the community and feedling people in need. They have a large facility dedicated to the storage, sorting and distribution of all the donations of foods that come in through their doors.

Poly Enterprises is proud to be such an ACTIVE member of this effort. If you have time, check out Georgia Mountain Food Bank’s website at http://www.gamountainfoodbank.org/

 

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Here at Poly Enterprises when your artwork is initially sent to our graphics team, there are some important things to take in to account before sending us your artwork. First and foremost your graphic elements should be placed in vector format. This allows us to manipulate the artwork in a way that in impossible with files in other formats such as JPEG.  A Quick way to check this is, when you zoom in on your art does it become pixelated or does the art remain a smooth shape no matter the zoom. If the latter is the case for you, then you have the correct vector artwork.

jpg vector

Secondly, take into the account the colors that you want included in your custom molded vinyl product. It may be necessary for you to send us these colors requested in the form of a Pantone swatch call out, so that we can accurately replicate the look you’re requesting. For example, Pms 187 is a common red that we use in multiple products. In some rare occasions when your custom molded vinyl product need to match a preexisting product it may also be much easier for us to reach that by the client sending some form of a physical example to us.

pantone

After our graphics team has received all of this, our process of manipulating your art into something that can be tooled into a mold begins. The first step of this is ensuring that all elements in art are within our size restrictions. Due to some of the processes of our production, elements have to be certain sizes, generally the small are the largest problem. So in those cases we tend to grow them slightly, and most of the time this is hardly noticeable. As is the change is only by a few thousands of an inch. For example this is an element from a recent client in which some of the thickness is not applicable for our production. So our graphics team will take these elements, and if space allows it, scales the entire element up. If space doesn’t allow for this then our graphics team will go in and grow out certain places within each element. For this example I will just grow the letter “ E” .

ee

Next we take in to account the tools we use for cutting the mold, and due to their shape some of the hard corners within an element may become more rounded, in the design process we show this on the art work, so that there is not any discrepancy between the electronic design and the physical product. The result looks something like this.

scher

Sometimes when elements of two or more colors that touch each other, a separation or “wall “is need between the colors. This allows our production process to maintain clean transitions from color to color. While these walls vary in size depending on the size of the custom molded vinyl product, they only appear on the actual mold, the product itself will only have a slight separation between colors.

Notice the black areas in between the colored elements, this how our graphic department shows this in electronic form.

walls

This is a finished product, not how on the actual sample how the black areas that appear in the fax approval show as separation between colors.

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The last part of our graphic process is to take this information and compile it on to a fax approval, creating for your & our records a signed copy to file. This fax approval will have all the information need to understand the type of product we will be producing. Including size, color, depths, and even an electronic representation of your finished product. This fax approval will need to be signed and returned to us. Before the molding process can begin.

fax

Once the fax approval comes back to us signed and dated, the art is then moved into machining process. During this process, a mold is cut, cleaned and inspected thoroughly before being sent to production. After inspection and before final production, we create our first few samples that are then sent to the customer for final approval.

 

— Written by Cruz Bennett

One of the major things we do in our design process is different cut details for each logo and mat. Some mats have what we call a No Cut design. No Cut is used for two reasons. When the detail is too small on some artwork, placing walls between the designs makes it appear very blocky and distorted. If the art is the same color as the backing, No Cut works well. A few examples are shown in the images below. Stoli GF is a great example.

Another thing we do is different backings. Counters and rails are usually created with what we call round or elongated nibs. These nibs help keep drinks on the mat, while the spaces between help catch liquid and mess. Floors have a designed called herringbone. Unlike flat mats, the herringbone helps hide footprints and also keeps the design looking sharp.

Flat top mats, such as the 3D Skull Pop and Typhoon, have no raised edges. The only area that is different is the walls that separate color. They are down on the mat and very minimal as to not take away from the flat design. These are great for drone landing pads.

Occasionally, we have requests for unique, custom backing designs. This usually means that some part of the logo becomes the nibs or herringbone. A great example of this is the Springfield floor mat we have recently finished. Springfield used one logo for the initial design, and a text logo for their backing. There is even the opportunity to place the art within the herringbone itself, leaving a very creative design.

Each logo comes with a new opportunity for creativity in designing the client’s end product. We work closely with all of our clients for each project to ensure it is to their approval.

 

Written by Lauren Sweeney

Stoli GF - Detail Ross Apartments Herringbone Backing Ross Inspire Skull Pop Inspire Typhoon

 

The Rockford Fosgate floor mat is a design that we recently acquired straight from the company. The customer provided us with complicated art which turned into a very exciting project for us to work on. We decided on creating unique heights for each part of the mat’s design. The unique heights required very special cutters for all of the intricate and detailed spots. There are areas of deep embossing and wonderful detail within this floor mat. What you see in the featured image is great care taken to turn the client’s into an amazing reality. We are very pleased with the outcome of the artwork, and the finished product was greatly loved by the client.

It is always extra easy when using a good design to build off of and create a unique, one-of-a-kind mat. Fosgate excelled at providing us with a unique and detailed idea that was brought to life.

Rockford Fosgate’s company started off when James Fosgate built the world’s first car amplifier in his home garage in Arizona, USA, in 1973. Rockford Fosgate has been going strong for a solid 35 years, creating the best in car audio equipment and amplifiers. Similar to Poly Enterprises (which was also founded in a garage), this company is American Born and American Made. We love the American Spirit that is put into the heart and soul of the product and company. To learn more about Rockford Fosgate, give their website a look.

Written by Lauren Sweeney – Graphic Designer