A placard is a compliance consumable displayed at equipment or on a premises to satisfy a posting requirement.
2 products · substrates: aluminium, rigid PVC, reflective
A rigid sign mounted at the equipment or the entrance, sized to be read from a distance by somebody who did not install it. Placards are read under pressure - by a responding crew, or an inspector who has never been in the building.
Choose a placard when the audience is a stranger and the reading distance is measured in feet rather than inches. A tag answers "when was this done" for the person maintaining it; a placard answers "what is this and what does it control" for everyone else.
Legibility at distance, which is a function of character height and contrast, not of how much you can fit. Most placards fail by being crowded: the moment the text drops below the size it can be read at from where people stand, the extra detail has cost you the message.
PLC-RISER-ALU
Identifies the area served, the control valve, and the design basis at the riser. Permanent, because a responder reads it under pressure.
Substrate Anodised aluminium Size 7in x 5in Fits Sprinkler risers Serialized Yes
In stock
$15.08/ unit
25 $15.08
50 $13.40
100 $12.06
250 $11.17
PLC-FDC-ALU
Marks the connection type, the system it serves, and the required pressure. Mounted at the FDC where an engine company will look for it.
Substrate Anodised aluminium, reflective option Size 6in x 4in Fits Standpipes Serialized Yes
In stock
$13.99/ unit
25 $13.99
50 $12.43
100 $11.19
250 $10.36
A placard is for information that has to be readable at distance and stay in place for years, rather than a record that gets updated. Capacity limits, procedures, warnings, equipment identification at scale. Because it is read from further away, size and contrast matter more than they do on any other artifact here, and the common mistake is specifying the size that fits the mounting point rather than the size that is legible from where people actually stand. Rigid substrates suit permanent mounting and take mechanical fixings; heavier adhesive stock suits flat surfaces where drilling is not an option.
A placard states something that was true when it was made, and the risk is that it stays convincing after it stops being true. Capacities change, procedures are revised, and equipment is repurposed, while the placard carries on asserting the old answer with complete confidence. Binding it to a record gives you a dated inventory of what is posted where, so a revision produces a list of specific placards to replace rather than a walk around the site hoping to spot them. For anything safety related, that is the difference between a controlled revision and an aspiration.
The record mechanics are the same for every artifact and are set out on how inspection records work.
Placards are proofed at actual size, which matters more here than elsewhere because legibility at distance is the whole specification and it is much easier to judge on a full-size proof than on a description. Production time depends on the substrate and on whether mounting holes are required. Each is recorded at production, so scanning one when it is installed captures where it went. Because placards are replaced on revision rather than on a cycle, most reorders are triggered by a change rather than by a calendar.
The full sequence, including what the proof shows and how approval works, is on how ordering works.
Size follows reading distance, not the mounting point. Work out how far away somebody will be standing when they need to read it, then size for that. The most common error is choosing the placard that fits the available space and producing something nobody can read from the floor.
Rigid where you can mechanically fix it and where it needs to survive knocks, adhesive where drilling is not possible or the surface is unsuitable. Rigid lasts longer in industrial settings; adhesive is faster to install and cheaper at volume.
You replace the placard, and the record tells you exactly which ones carry the superseded version and where they are. Without that, a revision means surveying the site, which is why superseded placards survive for years in practice.