What You Need to Know about Dry Erase Boards
Dry erase boards, also known as whiteboards and markerboards, are boards with a surface on which the user can write with a dry erase pen and erase the writing without leaving any ink. Whiteboards are used in schools, offices, and anywhere where chalkboards were used previously. Dry erase boards are cleaner than chalkboards (no dust), and are easier to read. Multiple colors are available for dry erase pens, and our Murerase dry erase boards are printed with any image, grid, text or other graphic that is required.
What is the Nature of Dry Erase?
Any printing or writing with pencil or pen deposits ink on the surface of the material being marked and absorbs into it or attaches to it via adhesion. The idea is for the mark to remain in place in order for the marking to be shared with others. Dry erase boards are exactly the opposite. A dry erase board surface is a tight surface that allows the ink to sit there but NOT adhere or soak in to the surface. After the ink is dry it can be read, but it also can be readily removed from the dry erase board by wiping or brushing it off. This allows the dry erase surface to be reused many times. The tighter the surface the less the dry erase ink will adhere to the dry erase board and the less the surface will absorb the ink and become dirty or “ghost”.
What Kind of Dry Erase Boards are There?
The highest quality and highest priced surface is porcelain. This is a sheet of steel with a fired, clear porcelain (glass) face applied to a white steel sheet. The surface absorbs no ink and the dry erase board is easily erased and cleaned. It is NOT, however, possible to print on to a porcelain surface successfully. The fact that it allows no absorption or adhesion of the ink makes a great erasable surface, but inks simply don’t stay on a porcelain surface very long or very well.
There are many other ways to create a dry erase board surface. There are melamine coatings on all kinds of hardboard and laminates. They form the bottom end of performance although some manufacturers do a good job with melamine by using a lot of resin instead of the normal, minimal amount. There is also a host of dry erase board coating systems, and they also vary as to performance and price due to the quality of the coating, the method of application and curing. Finally there are dry erase films and these also are all over the map as to quality, abrasion resistance, and cost.
Murerase whiteboards are made from a coated steel sheet with a high quality coating system that includes a primer for the steel, a white coat to provide a background for printing and writing, and a special clear coat that is both a performance and receptor coat. The clear coat is first a high quality dry erase coating. It can be marked with a permanent marker and cleaned with isopropyl alcohol leaving NO ghosting of the permanent marker. This special coating is also a receptor coat for our high temperature transfer printing called dye sublimation imaging. Our coating system is designed and built for intense applications such as hospitals, schools and the military.
Why Magnetic?
Although we manufacture plain (unprinted) whiteboards, our specialty is printed dry erase marker boards. We can make non-magnetic dry erase boards with a coated MDF board as a substrate instead of steel. The non-magnetic dry erase board doesn’t cost less than the magnetic dry erase board and the custom magnetic dry erase board allows the use of magnets and magnetic media. Not only can emphasis be added with magnets, if something changes (ie. The text in a header on a tracking board), we can make a magnet to cover the out of date information or area of the custom dry erase board. The magnet can be a printed dry erase magnet as well, making it a flexible element of the custom whiteboard.
Why a Custom Printed Dry Erase Board?
The primary reason for a printed dry erase markerboard is so that specific content does not need to be rewritten on the whiteboard, and that lines or grid that organize content remain on the dry erase board. Murerase custom magnetic dry erase boards accomplish these objectives by a heat transfer printing method that chemically crosslinks the ink molecule into the long chain carbon molecule of the top, clear coat. That is why the top coat is BOTH a dry erase (performance) coating AND a receptor coating. The images in a Murerase, custom magnetic dry erase board are permanent. The ink is within the top coat so it doesn’t sit on top and collect ink dust. It cannot be removed unless subject to very high temperature (over 350 deg F). Cleaners won’t move it; acetone won’t change the imaging and time won’t either.
In addition to the practical application of content, lines and grid there is the opportunity to add images such as logos, art, or graphics of any kind at no additional cost for content or full color. All of the imaging on Murerase dry erase boards is digital, so there are no plates, film, screens or other expensive upfront printing costs.
What is the Rest of the Process?
After we have printed the dry erase steel sheet, we laminate it to a MDF (medium density fiberboard) backer. All dry erase boards smaller than 48”x 48” are laminated to be ¼” thick boards, and everything 48”x 48” and greater are ½” thick. The whiteboards are then framed with aluminum framing and marker trays added to the bottom edge of the whiteboard, if required. We ship hanging hardware with our dry erase boards, and we package them carefully to make sure that they get to our customer in perfect condition.
All of the custom magnetic dry erase boards that we make are suitable ONLY for the customer for whom they are made. No matter how prestigious the organization, if it isn’t your organization, you will not want their custom magnetic dry erase board – and they won’t want yours. For this reason we are very careful to make sure our order confirmations are signed, and that the .pdf proof that we send before printing the board is approved by the customer.
Why Murerase Custom Magnetic Dry Erase Boards?
We believe that we make the finest custom magnetic dry erase boards available. Our steel coating system has excellent dry erase properties and our printing is the best in the industry. We handle each project with the objective of satisfying our customer. We can help you with your layout. We will work to create in image file that will produce the best result for our customers. We package with protection and stability in order that you get your shipment in pristine condition.
We have instructions for hanging the dry erase boards, and we have instructions for cleaning and maintenance. If you need a full specification we can supply on in CSI format.
If you are a government purchaser, we have a GSA Contract (GS27F0018W), and you can find us on GSA Advantage. If you need references or answers, give us a call (800-691-2044) or send an email to sales@murerase.com or contact us on the contact page of our website. |
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