DFW's Largest Custom Sign Company

A Brighter Future...Using Less Energy™

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

LetterLites™ Channel Letters with  LED first-surface lighting is a hands-down winner.

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

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) says that an electronic message center will increase a store's volume 15 to 150%.  The attribute that makes LED Electronic Message Centers so effective is that they use light to attract attention during the day. 

This is the only channel letter sign face that can do so.

With LED first-surface lighting, again like electronic message centers, you determine the daytime brightness of your sign by the density, colors, and patterns of lighting you choose.  LetterLites™ Channel Letters gives you choices, unlike all other forms of lighting.

LetterLites™ Channel Letters 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 channel letter is comparable to a traditional channel letter sign when not lighted.

In other words, a LetterLites™ channel letter sign will always look better, and attract more attention, than any channel letter sign ever built previously; and it uses less energy!

LetterLites™ channel letter signs can also be designed to Twinkle (see the video below.)   Importantly, the individual lights never go "off", they DO NOT "flash."  Many cities ban flashing lights.

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.

As an example, a White SolarBrite™ LED is 280 lux, compared to our BrighterSigns™ neon's 235 lux, or standard neon's 140 lux.  "Lux" is the candle-power of light shining on a surface.  Of course a single LED is much smaller than the smallest piece of neon, so many of them are necessary to light an object uniformly.

However, with visible light sources "nits" are more important than "lux."  As explained below, Signs Manufacturing Corporation's SolarBrite™ LEDs are 8,000 to 13,000 nits, depending on color.

A SolarBrite™ LED incorporates a new kind of chip, different from all other LEDs.  Signs Manufacturing™ is an industry leader in the implementation of new technology in advertising.

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

Like neon, LEDs are also affected by voltage.  For instance, an LED will also burn nearly 100% brighter if you double the power feeding it.  The LED will last about 1/6 as long, however, making this alternative quite expensive in total cost.  We power our SolarBrite™ LEDs properly.

Unlike virtually every other LED sign currently manufactured, each individual LetterLites™ LED is independently serviceable.

And if a single LED does fail all of the other LEDs still light.  Our wiring is in parallel, not in series.

SolarBrite™ LetterLites™ LEDs are available in 5 fixed colors (Red, Green, Blue, White and Yellow) or as multi-color infinitely-variable individual lights featuring 65,000,000 colors.  Colors can be mixed or matched.

The spacing on the LEDs can be 15mm, 25mm, 35mm, 45mm, random, or custom pitch to create any "look" you desire.  Enlarge the picture and note the different spacing and patterns in the letters to the right.

UL or ETL listed Sign Component

Underwriters Laboratories has evaluated LetterLites™ and they have been approved for use in outdoor, damp and wet location signs.

UL Approval #E345252.

Ours are the only approved individual LED first-surface lighting products.

As the manufacturer we are very proud of this.

Colors in Motion™

NIGHTTIME COMPARISON	DAYTIME COMPARISON
Everything Lighted	Everything Lighted	Only LetterLites™ Lighted

Comparison of:

• A LetterLites™ LED Channel Letter "H" Sign

•  A "S" exposed double-stroke red neon channel letter

• A "I" internally LED lighted white channel letter with red vinyl graphics

• A "G" Day/Night Black/White channel letter

• A "N" blue acrylic internally lighted channel letter with a blue backplate

Differences Sell.

Light Sells.

When deciding on channel letter style and colors consider which direction the sign will face.

Shadows from building elements and the letters/raceways themselves can dramatically affect the daytime readability of a channel letter sign, unless you incorporate LetterLites™ faces.

For signs facing East, South or West consider using a backplate in a contrasting color, or  LetterLites™ faces to break the effects of shadows.

Existing channel letter signs can be easily and economically upgraded with LetterLites™ faces.

Your storefront is your customers image of your store.  Totally modernize that image, usually for less than $6,000, or $150.00 per month if leased.

Your image will be New, Different, Stunning, Modern, Attention-getting.

The upgrade is self-installable, saving money.

Rather than the problems you are having with your current sign, your new faces will even work under water.  The lamps have a 60,000 hour projected lifetime, but even if one burns out the LEDs are replaceable and the entire sign will be virtually self-serviceable.

However, because our LEDs are wired parallel, not in series, if a lamp burns out only that lamp won’t light, not an entire sign section as with a neon-lighted sign or most LED internally lighted signs.

These signs use less than 1/2 of the electricity of a neon sign.  This translates into LESS THAN $200 per year TOTAL ENERGY COST.

Because this is an upgrade of an existing sign, no city permits are required in most cities, keeping building inspectors away from your business.

Energy-Saving ™ LetterLites™ Signs

LetterLites™ 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.

Click to enlarge.

State Licensed Sign Installation and Sign Service

We are a full-service sign company.  We provide sign site surveys, sign permits, sign installation and sign maintenance services for electrical and non-electrical signs for our customers as well as other sign companies.  We provide this work in Dallas, Fort Worth (DFW), and ALL of North Texas and Northeast Texas.

State Sign and Electrical License Numbers:  TECL17503, TSCL18015, TSCL18016.

Our technicians are also Quality Certified Signs™ certified.   (Click the "Installation & Service" tab for details.)

We serve and have installed signs in the Texas cities of Addison, Aledo, Allen, Alvarado, Anna, Argyle, Arlington, Athens, Aubrey, Avalon, Azle, Balch Springs, Bedford, Benbrook, Blue Mound, Bonham, Briar, Bridgeport, Buckingham, Burleson, Caddo Mills, Canton, Carrollton, Cedar Hill, Celina, Cleburne, Cockrell Hill, Colleyville, The Colony, Combine, Coppell, Corsicana, Crandall, Crowley, Dallas, Dalworthington Gardens, Decatur, Denison, Denton, Desoto, D/FW Airport, Dido, Duncanville, Eagle Mountain Lake, Edgecliff, Ennis, Euless, Everman, Farmers Branch, Farmersville, Ferris, Flower Mound, Forest Hill, Forney, Fort Worth, Frisco, Gainesville, Garland, Glenn Heights, Granbury, Grand Prairie, Grapevine, Greenville, Gun Barrel City, Haltom City, Haslet, Highland Park, Hillsboro, Hudson Oaks, Hurst, Hutchins, Irving, Italy, Itasca, Jacksboro, Joshua, Justin, Kaufman, Keene, Keller, Kennedale, Kleberg, Krum, Lake Dallas, Lake Worth, Lakeside, Lancaster, Las Colinas, Lawson, Lewisville, Little Elm, Longview, Mansfield, Marshall, Maypearl, McKinney, Melissa, Mesquite, Midlothian, Milford, Mineral Wells, Mount Pleasant, Mount Vernon, Murphy, Nevada, Newark, North Richland Hills, Ovilla, Palmer, Pantego, Paris, Parker County, Pelican Bay, Pittsburg, Plano, Ponder, Princeton, Prosper, Quinlan, Quitman, Red Oak, Rendon, Richardson, Richland Hills, Rice, River Oaks, Roanoke, Rockwall, Rowlett, Royse City, Sachse, Saginaw, Sansom Park, Sanger, Seagoville, Sherman, Silver Creek, Southlake, Springtown, Stephenville, Sulphur Springs, Sunnyvale, Terrell, Texarkana, Trophy Club, Tyler, University Park, Van Alstyne, Valley View, Watauga, Waxahachie, Weatherford, Wedgewood, Westlake, Weston, Westover Hills, Wheatland, White Settlement, Whitney, Wichita Falls, Willow Park, Wills Point, Wilmer, and Wylie.

ZIP Codes 75001 thru 76958.

Area Codes 214, 254, 430, 469, 682, 817, 903, 940, and 972.

Serving Collin, Cook, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Fannin, Franklin, Grayson, Henderson, Hill, Hood, Hopkins, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Lamar, Navarro, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant, Titus, Van Zandt, Wood, and Wise Counties in Texas.

We also have signs in 43 different states, and 6 other nations.

What are LEDs?

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits incoherent monochromatic light when electrically biased in the forward direction. This effect is a form of electroluminescence. The color depends on the semiconducting material used, and can be near-ultraviolet, visible or infrared.

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 pn 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.

What is Binning?

ALL LED lamp production is binned, grouped with LEDs with similar properties, 3 different ways:  color, flux (brightness), and forward voltage (the minimum voltage the LED will operate at, using a specified minimum operating current.)  All 3 vary in even a single wafer’s production, so binning is critical.

LED “binning” is controlled by an ANSI minimum standard: ANSI C78 377A.  SolarBrite™ LEDs are binned to much tighter standards, however, which is allowed.

If a competitor BRAGS that their product is binned, they are probably warning you that they will not be able to match color and brightness later, when replacement parts are needed, because their sign’s individual LED color and flux is not adjustable.

The SolarBrite™ LongLife™ LED System

An operating LED is a direct electrical short; it will consume all the current fed to it; destroying both it and its power source.  However, an LED has a rather-constant voltage drop when operating.  A current-limiting resistor is placed in-line with LEDs to restrict the forward current.

Remember that each LED consumes differing amounts of electricity to operate, which is partially why they were binned (above.)  Forward voltage even varies based on the color of light produced by an LED.  We obviously must supply enough voltage to meet the highest forward voltage requirement.  Therefore each resistor is also sized to consume the potential over-supply of voltage from the power source feeding all the LEDs.

Done properly, this double-protection lengthens the life of LEDs (reduces heat-generation.)  This is a critical part of the SolarBrite™ LongLife™ System.

LetterLites™ LED Channel Letter signs can be economically directly solar powered, without even using an energy-robbing inverter, saving you even more!

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

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

Are You a "Visual" Person?

It is difficult to picture what a sign is going to look like. What do you picture when we say "triple-layer multi-colored lighting with a textured backplate?"

Our showroom is designed to solve that problem. Most people are visual ... they need to see something firsthand to understand what it is and whether it has value to them. Seeing is believing!

Visit our Showroom to see for yourself.

FOR ORDERING OR ASSISTANCE CALL:

214-339-2227 254-582-7446 817-861-1234 903-561-5959 940-365-3433 972-850-3300

877-SINCE79 toll free

Business Hours
Office: 7:00am to 5:00pm (CST) Monday thru Friday
Showroom/Tours: 7:00am to 5:00pm (CST) Monday thru Friday (or by appointment)

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