Application Story - ACRYLITE®

James Page, founder and creator of Kalos, started his business with a simple idea. Understanding his passion for designing and manufacturing his own products rather than re-selling goods made by others, he decided to buy himself a small CNC milling machine. One night as he was watching TV with his family, he reached over to put his drink back on a coaster but struggled to find it in the dark. This sparked the thought of adding a light to the coaster which would be an easy fix to such a common problem. Creating coaters is a typical starter project for those just beginning on a CNC machine, so the idea of starting with coaters was already on his mind, but with this unique light addition, Page was ready to get to work.

He spent hundreds of hours on design iteration as he thought through light placement, function, and diffusion. He not only wanted the coaster to illuminate light but wanted to design it so it would illuminate automatically when the ambient light levels dropped below a preset threshold. Page tested multiple ACRYLITE® products as he worked through the design process ensuring he chose the best material for the job.

Initially, he tested an ACRYLITE® edge lit acrylic but with the variety of diffusion grades offered, he wanted to test the multiple opacities of ACRYLITE® Satinice to see if he could find a good balance between brightness and diffusion. After looking into edge lit and five different Satinice products, he came to love a simpler back-lit design using ACRYLITE® Satinice optimum light diffusion white WD008.

"This product nails my requirements and is really easy to work with on my machine as well. I cut on the CNC mill at high feed rates and the material machines nicely at those speeds, which helps keep cost down. ACRYLITE® has been a step above in customer service and product selection. The information available for each product made my research and development process easy. The ability to order samples in small sizes to do one-off testing was a godsend for a new business. The engineering that goes into a product like Satinice is very apparent and greatly improves my product. At Kalos, we are going for a high-end experience (our motto is 'Elevating the mundane to useful and durable art') and I couldn’t offer a premium product like this without premium materials to back it up. ACRYLITE® is making this possible with products like Satinice!", says Page.

He hopes to use ACRYLITE® on future Kalos products as he continues his journey to elevate the mundane. If you are interested in learning more about the Edra Illuminated Coasters, visit his website at www.kalosdistinctive.com. The first production run will be available soon. Don't forget to follow Kalos on Facebook and Instagram as well to see what goes on behind-the-scenes and keep up with updates!

Fabricator: James Page, Founder of Kalos