Standout move on braille signs
A TORQUAY company is set to start making vandal-proof braille signs with superior hygiene qualities under its newly patented process.
Using a specially imported press from Germany and bespoke tooling designed locally but made in the US, the move is being hailed as a gamechanger for the niche industry.
Braille Sign Supplies owner Travis Ashford said the equipment, which was still being bedded down, would produce nonflammable signs of greater quality and at vastly improved efficiency. “It’s something the industry has been looking for,” Mr Ashford said.
He said the traditional method of using tiny balls embedded in drill holes produced lettering that could wear down or be damaged over time and was open to deliberate vandalism.
“We identified these issues in the traditional way of making the signs and redesigned it,” Mr Ashford said.
Using a new 20-tonne press, Braille Sign Supplies will form raised text, graphics and braille to a compliant level from a single piece of metal.
The method, patented for Australian use in March, can be used to create raised braille, raised text and raised graphics.
The old process is painstakingly labour intensive and the new method will see production time slashed at the growing company, which has 10 employees.
Mr Ashford said the 17-year-old business, which started in a Jan Juc garage, had been achieving more than double-digit growth every year over the last five years.
The business was born when Mr Ashford, a sign-writer, struggled to find suitable quality braille signs and so decided to learn how to do it himself.
While it stocks a range of generic signs, about half of the business is in customised services.
“We have been building our reputation … a lot of architects are specifying our products on their plans,” Mr Ashford said.
Mr Ashford and his team are preparing to increase the marketing of the business on the back of the increased capacity at the Torquay factory.
Braille Sign Supplies recently won the Regional Development Victoria Business Achievement Award at the 2019 Regional Achievement and Community Awards.