About Knapheide

Since 1848, Knapheide has provided customers with high quality, work-ready transportation solutions.  Today, Knapheide is North America’s most popular manufacturer of work truck bodies and truck beds.  There are more work trucks on the road today with “Knapheide” stamped on them than any other manufacturer.

The Project

In 2018, Knapheide engaged Form Manufacturing to create and produce a product emblem for their iconic logo. The construction of the badge for their work trucks needed to represent the premium look and feel of their brand, but also durable enough to withstand the harsh environments and match the longevity of their products, in addition to being a cost-effective alternative to other badge manufacturing processes.

The Solution

Form Manufacturing is an industry leader in injection molded badges, logos and emblems and set to work on defining manufacturing processes that would deliver on the customer’s requirements.

The solution consisted of an automotive-grade chrome electroplating over an injection molded substrate with a matte black ink fill inside the lettering.  The part was designed to be installed using an automotive-grade, die-cut foam adhesive and molded pins on the back of the part for poke-yoke alignment in Knapheide’s assembly process.

Manufacturing Process:  Injection Molding

Material Selected: Plating-grade ABS

Decoration Option:

• Polished Bright Copper/Nickel/Chrome plating (exceeds ASTM B633 “Severe” duty requirements)
• Matte Ink fill

Adhesive: Norton E545 Foam Adhesive