One stop shop

Manufactured in Austria to the highest standards, Trotec lasers deliver first class winning performance and reliability.

We have the broadest range of laser cutters in the industry, from the compact Speedy 100 A3 desktop laser engraver/cutters to the large-format SP3000 system covering 2.21 x 3.21m. In addition, Trotec manufactures a line of industrial galvo’s for high speed part marking or high volume paper blasting.

Most popular with sign-makers are the Speedy and SP line, the choice of model being mostly decided by the type and size/thickness of the materials a sign company wish to process. With six well stocked showrooms across the UK and Eire, we are committed to establishing the platform most suited to customers’ needs, in short, our customers are able to make an informed choice based on first-hand experience.


CO2 lasers can cut or engrave any organic media, for instance paper, card, wood, plastics, and many more. It is this versatility which allows sign-makers to be creative, designing and manufacturing back lit, edge lit, or three dimensional signs in mixed materials. One of the most popular reasons for sign companies investing in a laser is the ability to cut acrylic with a polished edge, and in combination with us processing spline curve data and the utilisation of servo motors, a Trotec laser can deliver clean and smooth edges of the very highest quality. We are so confident of our superiority, in terms of productivity and quality, that we openly invite customers to put us to the test and visit a showroom for a demonstration.

Trotec are also manufacturers and stockists of sign and engraving materials, and as such are a one stop shop. This says much about the business, creating long-term relationships and supporting customers to expand and introduce product lines and access additional markets.

Opening more markets


With your own service, you can offer a full range. Having a laser or router in-house means you are able to cut larger items such as acrylic letters and you can respond quickly to demand, but it also means you can offer the customer a broader range of items that can be personalised with their logo or design.

We have noticed in the sign-making market that lasers are getting widely used now for LED lighting panels, which allows you to go into lots of other markets. With using the laser to mark onto the acrylic, you can produce light channels that carry the light around. Major car manufacturers use them around their gear sticks, so they channel the light from LEDs, giving you a nice glow around the gear stick, which is just a piece of acrylic cut out on a laser with some very fine lines that guide the light.


Sign-makers use our machines predominately for extending their service so they can engrave and mark onto metals, they can cut out their acrylic signs, and they can engrave onto Dibond so they can use off-cuts for other projects. The sign-maker becomes more of a one stop shop rather than outsourcing.

Our main view is that because our machines are affordable, you can probably make more of a margin once you have led a client down the bespoke path, which is where lasers are ideal as you become more of a one stop supplier.

We have five engineers out on the road all the time, and we carry all the spares and parts here. We have been established for ten years and have a growing customer base, as well as repeat customers. We have just taken on fibre metal cutting lasers so we are bringing that high-end market to those who have not been able to cut metal before.

Natural progression


Engraving has always been an integral part of the business here at Impact Signs and we have found that being able to offer engraving has been a natural progression for us, especially with managing director Andy Borrow’s background in engineering. It allows you to do more in-house—for example, we use our laser engraver to cut Perspex letters and plaques without having to worry about cleaning or polishing the edges as the finish that a laser provides is highly polished and supremely accurate.

If you are looking to offer engraving as a part of your business, you need to know what kind of engraving you would like to offer. Unfortunately, one machine may not necessarily be able to do it all. We currently have four different types of engraving machines, each have unique engraving processes.

Fibre laser allows us to engrave stainless steel, labelling for machine parts, control panels, and commemorative plaques. Whereas CO2 laser engraver is great for acrylics, card, wood, and specialised laminates. Rotary engraving and routing is used for engraving aluminium, brass, and Traffolyte, and is also great for routing control panels.

Finally, chemical etching is great for deep engraving into stainless steel and brass, which can then be infilled in colour to suit the customer’s needs.


On top of your investment for the engraving you also need to consider items such as saws, bevelling machines, drills, punches, and guillotines. You need a hydraulic guillotine and punch for stainless steel to get a quality finished product. Engraving also requires a certain level of craftsmanship to produce products that will always keep your customers coming back for more.

As each machine and process provides its own strengths and weaknesses, it is important to consider all the possible applications and which will be most advantageous.

Engraving can be a large part of the sign-making market so you need to make sure that what you choose works with what you currently offer, or better still, improves on what you can offer. If you are unsure of how best to approach engraving within your business, you may find it best to buy from a trade supplier whilst you build up a client base. This way you can find out what processes work best for your company before taking the leap.

Best of both


We do engraving in-house and use a trade supplier for etching. We have a CNC router that is more than capable of engraving fairly basic work. Although we do not have a dedicated engraver as such, what we have is capable of doing many things and I use it every day. We are looking at upgrading it shortly, but it has served us really well.

You cannot ever have just the one machine that does everything. Going right back to when we first bought the CNC router, we knew that a chunk of what we did could be done on that, but that if we wanted to do a batch production or lots of colours, etching it would be the right way to go. I do not think one piece of equipment fits all.
You have to weigh up that if it can do the lion’s share of what you want then go down that route, but for us a laser would not do what we wanted to do and we would not use it to its potential.


We send work to be etched at least two or three times a month, sometimes more or sometimes less. By using a specialist, they know it inside out so they can do things that perhaps we could not do ourselves. They can do far greater things than we could do at a fraction of the cost of what we would have to charge.

I think you can get pushed into thinking that you need to have a certain process in-house and for the most part, a piece of equipment might sit in the corner of your workshop not getting used. We take a long time to make these decisions to figure out if we have got the work for it.

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