Home Forums Sign Making Discussions Vinyl 3M 1170 traffic management film.

  • 3M 1170 traffic management film.

    Posted by David Rogers on 26 May 2014 at 21:36

    Got a few metres of this material to do some ‘heritage/tourist’ signs.

    Weirdest stuff ever. Didn’t so much weed as crack and split along the cut lines. Adjusted the pressure until just cutting through to mark the clear liner but no joy. Thankfully only 2 signs to do.

    Claims to be " a transparent, acrylic, colored film used for application over 3Mâ„¢ Reflective Sheeting to produce durable sign backgrounds, copy, and logos. Series 1170 film has pressure sensitive adhesive and was developed to provide optimal cutting, weeding, lifting, and transfer features when used with electronic cutting machines."

    Can only really agree that it lifted and transferred well!

    Anybody else used this or had similar issues.

    David

    Vic Adair replied 11 years, 4 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Robert Lambie

    Member
    27 May 2014 at 00:21

    I have used it Dave, 3 years ago now if i remember right.

    is it the Brown transparent coloured film your using?
    It does do the job very well and i think there’s an 8-10 year UV stability life in it. However, I did not weed it. one of our lads did, so i cant comment on how that went.
    what i can add is, I worked for several years with allot of stained glass films which have pretty much the same characteristics you describe. by that i mean brittle, easy to tear etc. it maybe just your room is too cold for it or where it was stored previously before you bought, but i would think more how its made up.
    when i say that I mean, stained glass films had something like 6 layers of UV filters to protect the transparent colours from deterioration. they had same warranty on them too on colour fade and the like.
    The film was optically clear and these filters appeared to be more of a polyester feel to them which did make them more brittle feeling when handling and cutting. Frustrating really as its not cheap!

    ironically enough, i have same customer wanting more signs, so i will probably be using it again soon. 😀

  • Vic Adair

    Member
    27 May 2014 at 12:08

    Hi Dave,

    Used this stuff years ago when i worked at Dee Organ in Paisley making road sign, for some reason we called it ECOF, think it was called electro cut overlaminate film.

    It was not the easiest films to use if i remember rightly and was quite brittle and had a mind of its own when putting it through the laminator.

    We tend to use Oracal reflective vinyl for the brown tourist signs and looks just as good. Unless you need a high reflectivity film like VIP Diamond grade or the like then just use Oracal.

    …and a warning, Oracal reflectives are very sticky.

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