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PinLights™ External LED High-Tech Cabinet Signs

Manufacture  -  Install  -  Service

A Brighter Future...
Using Less Energy™

Signs Manufacturing™ incorporates a patent pending high-tech design into our unique new-look concept.

PinLights™ LED first-surface lighting systems feature SolarBrite™ LEDs that are optically enhanced to appear larger.

Cabinet signs with color graphics and PinLights™ LED first-surface lighting is a hands-down winner.

No other face-decorated cabinet sign incorporates direct lighting.  And when compared to incandescent lighting or fluorescent back-lighted cabinet signs it is better-looking, cheaper, lasts longer, and uses less energy.

This is the only sign face, other than an Electronic LED Sign, that can use light to attract customers during the day.

With LED first-surface lighting you determine the daytime brightness of your sign by the density, colors, and patterns of lighting you choose.  PinLights™ gives you choices, unlike all other forms of lighting.

PinLights™ can also comply with many cities bans on flashing lights, which causes electronic message centers to be banned or severely restricted, or they can flash or twinkle (in multiple or varying colors.) 

But at a minimum the decorated sign face is comparable to a traditional back-lighted sign face when not lighted.

Signs Manufacturing™ only uses SolarBrite™ LEDs that are rated to retain 80% of their brightness for 60,000+ hours.  These are the most expensive, but highest value, conventional LEDs.  Our selection of LEDs is what makes our signs brighter, and last longer.

SolarBrite™ LEDs utilize military specification coatings on the circuit boards the LEDs are attached to, preventing corrosion and electrical problems.

Solar Powered Energy Saving Signs

PinLights™ Cabinet signs can be economically directly solar powered, without even using an energy-robbing inverter, saving you even more!

They are one of very few major business signs that can.

You are saving much more than just energy, and money.

Energy-Saving ™ PinLights™ Signs

PinLights™ consume 0.1 watt per light at 5 volts DC!  One thousand lights left on 8 hours per day for 365 days will use $4.01 in electricity.

Patents Pending

What are LEDs?

A LED is a special type of semiconductor diode. Like a normal diode, it consists of a chip of semiconducting material impregnated, or doped, with impurities to create a structure called a pn junction. Charge-carriers (electrons and holes) are created by an electric current passing through the junction, and release energy in the form of photons as they recombine. The wavelength of the light, and therefore its color, depends on the band gap energy of the materials forming the junction. A normal diode, typically made of silicon or germanium, emits invisible far-infrared light, but the materials used for a LED have band gap energies corresponding to near-infrared, visible or near-ultraviolet light.

Unlike incandescent bulbs, which can operate with either AC or DC, LEDs require a DC supply of the correct polarity. When the voltage across the pn junction is in the correct direction, a significant current flows and the device is said to be forward biased. The voltage across the LED in this case is fixed for a given LED and is proportional to the energy of the emitted photons. If the voltage is of the wrong polarity, the device is said to be reverse biased, very little current flows, and no light is emitted.

Conventional LEDs are made of inorganic minerals such as:

• aluminium gallium arsenide (AlGaAs) - red and infrared
• gallium arsenide/phosphate (GaAsP) - red, orange and yellow
• gallium nitride (GaN) - green
• gallium phosphate (GaP) - green
• zinc selenide (ZnSe) - blue
• indium gallium nitride (InGaN) - blue
• silicon carbide (SiC) - blue
• diamond (C) - ultraviolet

LED development began with infrared and red devices, and technological advances have made possible the production of devices with ever shorter wavelengths.

Blue LEDs became available in the late 1990s. They can be added to existing red and green LEDs to produce white light. Most "white" LEDs in production today use a blue LED chip covered by a scintillate coating made of Zinc solenoid (ZnSe). The LED chip emits blue light, part of which is converted to yellow by the ZnSe. This mixture of blue and yellow light creates the impression of white - hence the bluish or yellowish tint that these diodes usually exhibit.

The most recent innovation in LED technology is a device that can emit ultraviolet light. When ultraviolet light illuminates certain materials, these materials will fluoresce or give off visible light. White light LEDs have been produced by building ultraviolet elements inside material that fluoresces to produce white light.

The semiconducting chip is encased in a solid plastic lens, which is much tougher than the glass envelope of a traditional light bulb or tube. The plastic may be colored, but this is only for cosmetic reasons and does not affect the color of the light emitted.

Most typical LEDs are designed to operate with no more than 30-60 millewatts of electrical power.  In 2002, 5 watt LEDs became available with efficiencies of 18-22 lumens per watt.

SMD (Surface Mounted Device) LEDs have been created that combine RGB color sources in one LED.  They allow the display matrix, pitch, to be much closer.  They are very expensive, but more importantly do not have the nits (candela per square meter) for outdoor use.

For outdoor use, you need at least 2,000 nits for daylight use in most situations. (The brightness of LEDs can be turned down.)

Signs Manufacturing Corporation's SolarBrite™ LEDs are 8,000 to 13,000 nits, depending on color.

Please stop by and see all of these products displayed in our unique Sign Lighting Laboratory and Display Showroom.

Let Our Sign Consultants Help You

• Will your Sodium Vapor or Metal Halide parking lot lights affect the colors of your sign at night?
• How visible will your pylon sign's border neon be during the day?
• Should you consider PinLights™, LetterLites™, SpectraLites™, or Trembler™ signs?
• Brighter Signs™ neon or SolarBrite™ LED lighting for channel letter signs?
• Fluorescent or HID lighting for your monument sign?
• Do Daylight or Cool White fluorescents make your sign's colors look best?
• What are the differences between a flex-faced, a Lexan™, and an acrylic-faced sign cabinet? Which one is best for you?
• How will shadows affect my sign's readability during the day?
• Should the wall behind my sign be light or dark colored?
• Would a different type of sign look better on my brick wall?
• Should I consider a routed sign face with push-through letters?

Let our experience help you. Come to our showroom and see for yourself which sign works best.

No one else can offer you this unique opportunity. Be sure to take advantage.

Sign Cost Information

We sell our signs FACTORY-DIRECT to the public.  No middle-man profits.

Please contact us to develop an exact plan to meet your particular needs - for free.

Our professional staff will usually have exact quotations, and exact scale drawings of your signs installed on your building or property ready for you the same day we meet with you.  (Much faster than the 2 1/2 week average in our industry.)

Why are "Listed" Signs Critical to You?

Virtually ALL cities, as well as the State of Texas, adopt the National Electric Code as law.

The National Electric Code (NEC) requires that for electrical, structural, and installation safety all electrical signs be "Listed" (tested and labelled with an appropriate Listing Mark.)

Certification (testing and labelling) organizations acceptable in the USA to test to the multitude of Standards signs are required to meet are determined by OSHA.

If the sign you are purchasing does not have a ETL or UL Listing Mark label the sign is probably not legal to install, anywhere in Texas.

We are the 9th oldest UL Listed Manufacturer in North Texas.  (File #UXYT.E149959)

Incidentally, ISO (International Organization of Standardization) Standards, such as ISO 9001, are NOT electrical Listings (similar to a UL or ETL Listing) that allow a sign to be installed in Texas.  That said, components in our electronic signs also meet ISO 9001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and RoHS standards.

Parts Supplies

To purchase sign and neon parts and components, please go to TexasSignSupply.  How's THAT for an easy-to-remember website?