DIBOND® BUTLERFINISH Brushed Metal Panel

DIBOND® BUTLERFINISH is the brushed-metal version of the same panel: two 0.012 inch aluminum skins on a fire-rated polyethylene core, with one face put through a specialized embossing process that gives it a genuine brushed-metal look under a clear lacquer. It is made for interior store design, furniture, high-end displays and signage where a printed imitation of brushed metal would not pass.

It fabricates exactly like the painted panel - same cutting, routing, returning and roll-forming - and it takes direct digital and screen print unusually well, because the brushed texture shows through a translucent ink and gives a result you cannot get any other way.

Three things differ from the painted colors, and all three matter. THE GRAIN IS DIRECTIONAL: run every panel the same way the arrows on the protective film point, and take the panels for one job from a single batch, or the brush direction and tone will not match across a seam. THE EXTERIOR LIFE IS SHORTER: the clear lacquer over the brushed face is rated for roughly five years outdoors, well short of what the painted colors will do, so treat this as an interior material unless you have accepted that. AND IT IS A METRIC SHEET: 49.213 by 98.425 inches is 1250 by 2500 mm exactly, because this line is made in Germany rather than the USA.

The reason it gets specified over cheaper composite panel is flatness. 3A calls it the flattest panel on the market and the practical claim behind that is that it will not bow or oil can - the shallow waviness that shows up across a large face in raking light and ruins an expensive printed graphic. If the panel is going on a wall where people will see it edge-on, that is the property you are paying for.

Fabrication: it saws, routs and drills on standard shop equipment, and two things set it apart from solid sheet. It can be routed and returned - a V-groove cut through the back skin and core lets the panel fold into a dimensional edge - and it can be roll-formed into curves. Both are done cold. Use carbide tooling and support the panel properly; the skins are thin and the core is soft, so a dull cutter tears the aluminum rather than shearing it.

On fire performance, stated exactly as 3A publishes it: the fire-rated polyethylene core is self-extinguishing and the panel carries a Class A rating to ASTM E-84. Two things we will not tell you, because 3A does not publish them. There is no flame spread or smoke developed index - only the Class A classification itself. And there is NO NFPA 285 result for DIBOND®; that test belongs to a different product line. If your job is an exterior wall assembly that needs NFPA 285, this is not the panel and we will quote you one that is.

It is UL 879 certified for electric sign components. That is worth having and worth reading precisely: it is a certification for use as a component in electric signage, not a blanket UL listing of the panel for every purpose. If your inspector wants the certificate, ask us and we will get it.

One dimensional note that catches people. DIBOND® is sold in millimeters and 3 mm is 0.118 inch - NOT 1/8 inch, which is 0.125. Seven thousandths does not sound like much until a panel will not seat in a channel letter return, a routed groove or an extrusion cut for imperial stock. The unbranded aluminum composite panel we also carry is 1/8 inch. Check which one your detail was drawn for.

Both faces ship with a protective film on them. Leave it on through fabrication and peel it after installation where you can - and note that the film is printed with orientation arrows, which matter on the brushed finishes.

DIBOND® and BUTLERFINISH are registered trademarks of 3A Composites. We are an independent distributor and are not affiliated with or endorsed by them. The generic description of the material is aluminum composite material, ACM.