Material for back-lit panels?

[larrymci]

I need multi-layer material to cut/engrave a large instrument panel. Customer wants back-lighting too. Have seen on numerous boats and aircraft but don't know what such material is called nor where to buy. Any ideas?

[bleeth]

Check out Johnson Plastics:
www.johnsonplastics.com (http://www.johnsonplastics.com)

They have just about anything you need in engraveable panels and it is worth having their catalog as well.

I've done panels like that and they are very impressive when the backlighting is red (better for not inducing night blindness as well.

[jseiler]

Backlighting???

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G14880

Depending on what you are trying to do, this might be right up your alley. It's a bar of surface mount leds. If I counted right, there are 26 in each row, 2 rows and they are bright, bright green. They have a thin piece of plastic over them, but I removed that to count the leds, which brightens them up a bit.

This little baby shines though .09 inches of white acrylic sheet, 3/4" of hdpe, or a good .2" of white corian. I wish they came in white...

If green backlighting works for ya, at 2 bux each, they're great. They run nicely at 4V, series up 3 for 12V.

I bet they'd rock behind 1/16" colorcore. The only hit, they are green and they aren't huge enough to cover the whole back of a lithophane.
On the plus side, they're cheap, thin, will last forever and throw nearly zero heat.

John