Rainier Display Facility Tour

Rainier Display brings dreams of all sizes to life. We decided to formulate a blog that describes our manufacturing capabilities from the eyes of our team members and agencies. In this blog, we take a facility tour to explore the resources found inside our 140,000 square foot warehouse. We will cover our state-of-the-art equipment used to design, manufacture, and deliver custom solutions for architectural enhancements, permanent art, temporary events, and more.

I took the opportunity to take a facility tour through our warehouse as if I were a guest to Rainier Industries. I met with Matt Cutchin, the Rainier Display Division Director, and Charlie Rueb, our Program Sales Manager, to take a facility tour through the entire warehouse.

The Design Room

We begin our facility tour in the art room. The art team at Rainier comprises of talented, creative, and innovative minds. Rainier’s art team has a separate room, to better collaborate and think creatively as a team. The design room at Rainier is normally dark because our art team works without overhead lighting. The light commonly displayed on monitors holds blue lighting that can diminish the color displayed on a web browser. While working through the creative process, the art team refers to color swatches to identify specific textiles. It’s important to control the monitor calibration because each project is custom to different brands and color palettes.

Furthermore, Rainier’s art team utilizes a specific room to strategically match colors for various projects. The room is made to specific standards, ensuring that color coordination’s show through materials properly. For example, the wall is painted grey, and the lights are hung at a specific angle. This diminishes the probability of light and color mixing to display the wrong color.

Creative Displays

Rainier Industries exhibits multiple visual and textile displays to help guests understand the touch, color, and process that goes into the captivating projects we create.

For example, SEG stretch fabric prints on polyester fabric, then our etching materials create a silicon graphic to frame in an aluminum case. You can quickly change out the fabric of this display without removing the metal attachment. We house this display to show visitors the difference between printing capabilities and materials used for each project.

We print each metal display on a flatbed printer. The metal displays throughout Rainier include: galvanized metal, tampered metal, hot rolled, cold rolled, and diamond clean. Visitors can experience the difference between each fabrication process while browsing through each display.

The Metal Fabrication Room

Rainier is recognized for a long history of working with many different materials within the facility and designating full sections of the shop to be specialized in a specific media. Rainier’s metal shop is one of many designated areas in the warehouse where designers and engineers work tirelessly to develop visually stunning displays.

Rainier’s welders are recognizable for their exceptional work. Our welders primarily work with aluminum within the metal shop, though they semi-frequently work with steel. We carry a 6’x12’ water-jet bed in the metal shop that cuts up to twelve inches of thick titanium. The water serves as a carrier for sand that is inside the jet. The sand that is rises during the production process completes the cutting. After a product has processed through the water-jet cutter, it then goes to our powder-coat room.

The Powder Coat Room

Next, on our facility tour, we explore the powder coat room. Powder coating is a process of electro magnifying metal to create static cling that attracts powder or paint. Once our team sprays the project with powder, they take the product to a large oven that bakes the powder onto the metal, turning it into paint. It is important to mention that we always run a wire through anything that has a powder coat. The wire electrifies the metal to create static electricity and attract powder to the object.

The Wood Shop

Our woodshop contains any and all equipment a customer may need to accomplish a large-scale project. We continuously build custom pieces for our display clients to exceed their expectations.

Rainier maintains vast manufacturing capabilities – that does not end when it comes to our woodshop. The woodshop team specializes in wood fabrication for university displays, dimensional displays, an entire line of outdoor products, custom framing, and more. Rainier uses a 5’x10’ CNC Cutter Table that prints onto wood elements. The CNC Cutter has a digital reading system that registers dots from a diagram to print accurate images or graphs. Our team inputs cut files into a program that serves as an outline for the machine to reference any display. This CNC Cutter is new to Rainier and performs four times faster than the last system.

Our Printing Capabilities

Rainier Display prints, etches, and cuts materials all in the same department. We own vast forms of printing capabilities within the warehouse such as flat-bed UV printing, roll-to-roll printing, dye-sublimation printing, laser etching, etc.

First, the Flat-Bed UV Printers use water-based ink to print on any flat material such as metal, wood, plastic, paper. Material feeds through the printer, uses water-based ink, then performs a curing process with a light inside the printer. Once, the light stops then the ink is 96% cured and will finish curing within the final 24 hours of production. This printer will print on materials that are up to 1 ½ inches thick, and 96 inches wide. The vacuum within the printer holds the substrate down while printing to ensure accuracy.

Next, the three-meter and five-meter Roll-to-Roll Printers at Rainier Display were originally made as billboard printers. However, we use this printer for a wide range of projects. This printer allows us to roll three different projects that are unique to three different designs at the same time. Roll-to-Roll printing is not belt driven, instead, uses tension that keeps the roll tight and secure while printing. The resolution factor with this printer, and many of our printing capabilities, is all about dots. The more accurate the dot, the greater resolution. Roll-to-Roll printing uses 30 picolitre drops and is the only UV ink operated printer that is 100% economically sound.

Finally, Dye-Sublimation Printing. Traditionally, printing on dye-sublimation requires printing on paper, then placing the paper through a heat calendar, turning the ink into a gas, and dying the fabric. Dye-Sublimation will only print on polyester textiles. The dye-sublimation printer completes the printing process, then rolls through a heat calendar at 300 Fahrenheit, where the ink seeps into polyester to make the ink pop.  Rainier Display houses a dye-sublimation printer that only prints direct to textiles; therefore, we print faster, have better edge quality, sharper resolution, and better saturation.

3D Freeform Tube Bender

Rainier Display is proud to be the only fabricator in North America that offers 3D Freeform Tube Bending. The Tube Bender sits in a large room within our warehouse, due to the maximum amount of space required to complete projects. This digital machine outputs 20-foot sticks in the form of aluminum, stainless steel, PVC pipe, and more. We begin by entering the shape of the design into the tube bender program, then watch as the bender outputs 20-foot sticks in the exact shape found within each file. This process would take hours to do by hand, but the tube bender outputs the product in just minutes. Additionally, the bender has the capability to print on the tube before beginning the bending process.

Our Tube Bending capabilities provide clients with the opportunity to create breathtaking sculptures and artwork inspired by profound artists. You can learn more about our 3D Freeform Tube Bender by watching “Rainier Industries Introduces the Bender”.

Now that you have an insider view of our manufacturing capabilities, be sure to contact us with your next big project! Contact us at https://oai-rainier.com/contact-us/.