The Big Picture - June/July 2013 - (Page 6)

upfront upfront Super Smart and Stunning In a time where technology such as iPod nanos, smart phones, and GPS devices can easily ﬁt in your front pocket, it’s diﬃcult to imagine the necessity for a computer bigger than your home desktop, let alone the length of a swimming pool. But Argonne National Laboratory’s Mira is just that. Measuring 65-feet-long and 6-feet-high, she’s one of the biggest and fastest computers in the world. Constructed by IBM for the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) in Illinois, with the support of the US Department of Energy, Mira is used to address today’s science and engineering problems and explore issues related to energy and the environment such as material science, climatology, seismology, and computational chemistry. In 2012, Mira was named the fourth-fastest supercomputer in the world by leading computing-industry experts. So why not add some beauty to this monstrous brain? That’s what Signs By Tomorrow (signsbytomorrow.com/plainﬁeld) in Plainﬁeld, Illinois, recently did by producing a full-color graphics wrap to ﬁt Mira’s entire body. “While working on a diﬀerent project inside the facility, we were approached to see if we could ‘wrap’ a computer,” says James Murray, owner of Plainﬁeld’s Signs 24% 6 THE BIG PICTURE JUNE/JULY 2013 By Tomorrow. “We planned this out really well with the client and everything came together as planned.” The graphic’s design – featuring images representing the research Mira can assist with – was handed over to the shop by the client, and Signs by Tomorrow then tweaked the ﬁles and addressed technical elements such as sizing, media selection, and adhesion issues. The shop created two, full-size proofs and “minor color modiﬁcations were done to the original ﬁle by the client after the printed samples were reviewed,” says Murray. For ﬁnal output, Signs by Tomorrow utilized its HP Designjet 9000s with HP 790 ink, printing onto approximately 390 square feet of 3M Controltac Graphic Film 180-10 with Comply v3 Adhesive; the print work took 4 hours. The graphics were laminated with 3M Scotchcal Gloss Overlaminate 8518 via the shop’s Seal 64 laminator. Mira’s transformation was ﬁnalized as two installers took 8 hours to complete the wrap. “Signs By Tomorrow has completed highly specialized projects before, but this job reﬂects the pinnacle of technology for our industry as well as our client’s,” says Murray. “We are very proud of our role in this very important project.” – Adrienne Palmer Companies that offer comprehensive employee training have a 24-percent higher proﬁt margin than those companies that do not provide training to their staffs, according to the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD, astd.org). http://www.signsbytomorrow.com/plainfield http://www.signsbytomorrow.com/plainfield http://www.astd.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Big Picture - June/July 2013

The Big Picture - June/July 2013
Contents
InSight
Up Front
Inside Output
Flatbeds & Hybrids 2013 Report
Establishing a ‘Green’ Identity
Give Your Shop an Edge with Cutters & Routers
Technology Spotlight: ISA Expo
Explorer

The Big Picture - June/July 2013