Plastic decoration methods

I need some help figuring out what’s the best method to achieve this look:


It’s a cylindrical piece and ideally soft-touch with the pattern being gloss. The pattern could be thicker and have some depth to it. Any ideas?

Probably a bunch of different ways, depending on the pattern could just be a gloss base part that gets masked and then has the soft touch paint applied. Mask removed, glossy areas remain.

If you wanted it in the raw plastic, it could be molded into the tool with a matte surface at one level, and then the recess can be polished to create the contrasting look. There would need to be a small step in the plastic as well.

You can also paint the part gloss black, then soft touch on top, and then do laser etching to remove the paint and expose the base part, or a secondary paint layer.

What’s the diameter and height – may be possible to silk screen the gloss pattern on the soft touch surface. I’ve seen cylindrical printers up to about 18" dia. Maybe there are larger.

Thanks for the responses!

It’s a pretty small piece, the diameter is 4" and height is 2"

Laser etching seems to be the way to go. There are rotary attachments for laser cutters as well so you can engrave cylindrical objects.

Alternatively, consider hydrographic printing/dipping which can be used on any 3d geometry