Your Expert Guide: Precision Tooled Plaques and Cast Plaques. What’s the difference?

Plaques are a communication tool used for long-lasting architectural, commemorative,
and wayfinding applications to honor people or events or bring a design to life. They offer dimension and multiple finish options to create permanent signage. At Gemini, we are a premium manufacturer of precision tooled plaques and cast plaques. Our team breaks down the differences between the two plaque types to help you better understand which plaque may be more suitable for your project. 

Precision Tooled Plaques 

Precision tooled plaques, known as tooled or milled plaques, are machined-manufactured plaques that provide crisp detailing for small and intricate designs on dedications, memorials, ADA, and wayfinding signage. Utilizing a CNC machine, custom artwork is cut on sheet metal to the desired shape and machined to create raised and recessed details. The metal is cut at a 90-degree angle, achieving a clean, crisp look. 

Precision tooled plaques are available in aluminum, bronze, and brass alloys and offer a range of depths from 1/8 inch to 3/8 inch, depending on the plaque size. They are commonly manufactured as rectangles, squares, and circles, but can also be made in any custom shape the design requires - up to 38 inches by 84 inches. Most precision tooled plaques are custom-made for the project with optional, custom ADA braille, but we offer pre-designed ADA plaques. You can add a personal touch with portraits or inserts to bring the plaque to life. Infuse texture and appeal with a selection of background textures - leatherette, stipple, sand, or pebble.

You can paint a precision tooled plaque with custom colors or select from our standard color options, or use UV Colorlast to incorporate small graphic details in a logo or photo. Unique to precision tooled plaques, we can add integral braille with our milling process, offering longevity and eliminating the risk of braille popping off or being tampered with. 

Mounting for precision tooled plaques goes beyond the standard surface mounting, post, and stake mounts - hanging loops are an option to display the plaque from a sign bracket.

Cast Plaques 

Metal casting is a 6,000-year-old process that has clearly withstood the test of time. When professionals think of a plaque, cast plaques come to mind. Cast plaques are a classic, timeless product that creates one-of-a-kind tributes and memorials. Starting in a foundry, skilled foundrymen hand-craft molds made from custom artwork. Metal is then melted down and poured into the custom mold. The manufacturing process is labor-intensive, but the result delivers distinguished, traditional signage.  

Gemini's cast plaques can be manufactured in a wide range of shapes and sizes in bronze or aluminum with depths ranging from 5/16 inch up to 3 inches, depending on the plaque size and design. They can be as small as five inches in diameter, with a maximum size of ninety-six inches in diameter. Rectangle, square, or custom shapes can be as large as twenty-four square feet in bronze and up to forty square feet in aluminum. With cast plaques, we can also manufacture sculpted and flat-faced military seals. 

You can elevate a cast plaque with unique background textures like classic leather, leatherette, stipple, sand, and pebble. Cast plaques can be painted from a selection of standard or custom colors. Sculpted portraits are available to personalize a dedication and create a dimension look - Bas relief and photo relief portrait options are popular choices. Customers can also request inserts, like ceramic and UV Colorlast inserts, to be attached to a cast plaque to showcase vivid graphics or logos. Finally, cast plaques offer versatile mounting options to support larger sizes and help the plaque stand out with the post-cap, post-back, and post-side mounting.

How to choose between one or the other

To determine whether cast or precision tooled plaques will be best depends on the project specifics and its end goals.

Precision tooled plaques are more cost-effective and are faster to manufacture than cast plaques. These plaques offer more design flexibility, allowing for more creative freedom. We can direct print on a precision tooled plaque with UV Colorlast, capture fine detailing in custom artwork, utilize finish options with larger size capabilities, and manufacture ADA-compliant signage with braille in the design.

Cast plaques are a great option for a plaque with more dimension, and handcrafted sculpting. With stock art available for the military seals and marks, ordering these is made easier than ever. You can also add the classic leather texture and have your cast plaques displayed in a way that will surely stand out.

Get Started

Now that you've narrowed down which plaque type you'd like to use for your project, jump to your Partner Portal account where you can manage projects, view quotes, check on your status, pay invoices, and more. Our experienced team will review your art files and notes for your request to help determine the right fit for the application.

5000.11