How to bind a reflective and acrylic to produce a number plate

Intro

The first step of producing 3D gel and 4D laser cut number plates seems simple enough - binding together the reflective and the acrylic. However, if you don't get the technique right, you will find yourself wasting a lot of supplies by producing imperfect plates. This knowledgebase article will guide you through the best technique.

Step by step:

1. Take a reflective from your stack, ensuring you don't crease it, and give it a soft wipe with your (clean) palm to ensure there is no dust on the surface.
2. Place the reflective upon your roller, positioning it against the pegs or within the pre-defined area.
3. Take an acrylic from your stack, and peel the protective film from the wet side (the side with the adhesive layer). Leave the protective film on the side you'll adhere the letters to.
4. Hold the acrylic, with the wet side down, around 1cm above the reflective film and ensure you are positioning it correctly.
5. Softly, without moving position, drop the acrylic on top of the reflective. Once it has made contact, you shouldn't adjust it as you will cause creases in the reflective. You can however re-use the acrylic if you need to remove the reflective.
6. If you are using a height adjustable roller, adjust it so that the rollers are in position to apply only a light pressure to the acrylic and reflective. The ideal position is something you will learn over time, but can be judged by eye in the beginning. You can roll the acrylic multiple times if needed, so it's better to less as opposed to more pressure for the first roll.
7. Roll the acrylic and reflective combination, the speed at which you do it isn't too important, but you can watch for any issues if you go slower. 
8. Peel off the protective film from the dry side of the acrylic, and inspect your work. Look for dust particles and air bubbles between the reflective and acrylic.
9. If needs be, increase the pressure on your adjustable roller and pass the plate through once more.
10. If the reflective overlaps the edges of the acrylic at all, use a razor blade or alternative utility knife to trim this down. Be careful not to cut into the plastic, and try to do it in one smooth movement so you get a clean edge and no jagged pieces.

Important notes:

• When rolling, if you use too much pressure, you will cause silvery "stretch marks" to appear in the reflective. These can sometimes be removed by applying heat, through a heat gun or standard room heater.
• If you don't keep your supplies in a clean state, you can introduce dust which will stick out like a sore thumb when you have applied the reflective to the acrylic. You can reduce the potential for dust on your reflectives by keeping them in their delivery packaging (the plastic film) and remove one at a time.