Demountable copy is a term describing the method of manufacture of some signs in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Demountable copy signage is built by attaching mass-produced sheet-metal characters (and graphics, such as

route shield A highway shield or route marker is a Signage, sign denoting the route number of a highway, usually in the form of a symbolic shape with the route number enclosed. As the focus of the sign, the route number is usually the sign's largest element, ...

s and arrows) to the sign face, through means such as screws, rivets and adhesives. Because of the ability to remove the preformed metal characters from the sign, demountable-copy signs can be easily altered to change their message by removing unwanted sections of the legend and installing new elements. However, newly manufactured characters must be stored until their use, which could potentially take up much more space than the rolls of

retroreflective A retroreflector (sometimes called a retroflector or cataphote) is a device or surface that reflects radiation (usually light) back to its source with minimum scattering. This works at a wide range of angle of incidence, unlike a planar mirror, ...

sheeting required for direct-applied copy. Some states formerly applied their demountable characters to non-retroreflective sheeting but phased out the process when the glue used began to leak and damage the signs.

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