Question about Diamondplate

jow

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When a playfield is Diamond plated, that just means its clear coated right? Is the only advantage to a clear coated playfield that nothing will get worn? Why weren't all pinball machines clear coated? Cost?
 
Diamond Plate™
Diamond Plate is an especially hard sort of lacquer coating developed by Williams that protects the playfield even better than mylar since the transparent film often started getting scratches or bubbles after years - not so with DP. Diamond Plate was introduced as a trademark by Williams in the late 80s when they experimented with it on a few games of a series, producing a limited number of playfields with Diamond Plate on it while the majority of games still came with mylar. Of course, these rare DP playfield are sought after! Terminator 2 was the first game to feature Diamond Plate on the full production run. The Diamond Plate coat on late 90s playfields is said to be of lower quality than that from the late 80s till the mid 90s.
 
When a playfield is Diamond plated, that just means its clear coated right? Is the only advantage to a clear coated playfield that nothing will get worn? Why weren't all pinball machines clear coated? Cost?

DiamonPlate is a clear coat. Clear coat extends the life and look of the playfield, especially in a home environment.

I think mylar was the preseravation idea before clear coat. Seems like most were not cleared or protected in some way until the late 80's - early 90's....

Perfect example is my Bride of Pinbot. I purchased a Diamond Plated BoP, and luckily, whomever had it, mylared it! I removed the mylar several weeks back, and it looks like a new playfield.
 
When a playfield is Diamond plated, that just means its clear coated right? Is the only advantage to a clear coated playfield that nothing will get worn? Why weren't all pinball machines clear coated? Cost?

All playfields had some kind of clear coat. The advantage of diamond plate is it's harder than coatings that were used previously.
 
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