Activity Feed Forums Printing Discussions General Printing Topics Biodegradable vinyl for coffins

  • Chris Wilson

    Member
    September 15, 2020 at 6:00 pm

    I don’t do them. But we print for a local wrap shop that does.

    We just print on SLX or whatever is knocking about. Overkill in my view but that is what they want. Also don’t laminate.

    I don’t enjoy seeing it coming off the printer. Had to do a paw patrol themed one once. Was a bit upsetting.

  • Martyn Heath

    Member
    September 16, 2020 at 4:41 am

    Hi chris. SLX! thats crazy. even a cheap monomeric would do the job surely.

    So its never been discussed regarding the environment etc?

    • Chris Wilson

      Member
      September 16, 2020 at 7:50 am

      100%. But I just price and print and do am told haha.

      Not to my knowledge. I was never asked if it was possible anyway. But then I don’t deal with the end user. I was asked for a air release wrap and I wasn’t ordering in something cheap just to use 5m and have the rest sitting. That’s said about 4 or 5 of them have been done now.

  • Robert Lambie

    Administrator
    September 16, 2020 at 12:30 pm

    there are biodegradable materials, but am I missing the obvious?
    what part is actually being wrapped? I can only think its possibly decorative mouldings, but they shouldn’t be “wrapped” as such, but folded or fed in and out of curves and shapes.
    do you have a picture of typical mouldings you are having to apply to, at all?

    • Chris Wilson

      Member
      September 16, 2020 at 6:22 pm

      Not a clue. I get given the sizes and brief for the artwork and off we go. Could just be a preference thing. But I wasn’t ordering MDX for little to be used and it to sit for a while. Am not loosing out of it. Same price for the SLX for a coffin or a van wrap from me.

      Anyway as far as I understand it they were never asked for a bio degradable film or I would of been asked (I get asked a lot of questions from these lads) and were told not to bother about laminating as it was only going to be on show for a few hours. Which is fair enough. No scratches and all good I suppose.

  • Graham Scanlan

    Member
    September 16, 2020 at 3:24 pm

    Hi Martyn

    Going back to you original request, your asking for a bio degradable self adhesive that you can wrap with? So you can discount out all of the conventional PVC based products that can take upto a 1000 years to break down and they don’t de compose, PVC just gets smaller. There are alternatives available that are more environmentally friendly. The only true green product in my opinion is self adhesive paper. If you would like more info on the alternatives let me know

    Graham

  • David Stevenson

    Member
    September 19, 2020 at 9:22 am

    We’ve done a few now Martyn and just used Oracals 3651 for digital print and 651 for cut vinyl. One was for a lasy who loved gardening so had the sides and top wrapped with gardening themed graphics. We got the coffin without the handles fitted with made the job quite straight forward. Another had pictures of tattoos printed and applied ramdomly to it for a tattoo artist. The first one however was the saddest. It was simply angels and butterflies cut from black vinyl and applied to a white coffin. The girl passed away suddently before we’d time to get them applied so I put on my best suite and applied them in the persons house after the undertakers closed the coffin for me. The family came in afterwards and were quite upset (in a good way) when the seen it finished. I wear my heart on my sleeve so had to make a quick exit before I was in tears too. One of the simplest but most rewarding jobs we’ve ever done.

    One thing to rembember Martyn if you start this is the turnaround time is always very fast. We didn’t bother de-gassing before laminating, just print – laminate – apply. You wouldn’t even need lamiate but freshly printed vinyl is like jelly and a pain to install. You could always use a sticker paper if you want something biodgradable.

  • Martyn Heath

    Member
    September 19, 2020 at 12:05 pm

    Great info and thoughts guys. I have plenty to talk to them about in the coming weeksThumbsup

  • Robert Lambie

    Administrator
    September 19, 2020 at 3:49 pm

    The family came in afterwards and were quite upset when the seen it finished. so had to make a quick exit.

    I’ve been in that position before mate, luckily I got into my van and out of there before being caught! CowboyNerdRofl Sorry… couldn’t help myself. Wink

    Like Graham says, if you want something biodegradable you will have to use something like a paper with a waterbased adhesive. I think a liquid coating or spray laminate would be needed as you will most likely have finger marks with lifting and laying etc if you don’t.

    Non-PVC viny is available from the likes of 3M and Avery Dennison. But i think the breakdown of the product will be a long time considering the actual product life of these non-pvc is 5+ years.
    However, I doubt any of the opti
    ons above are truly eco-friendly because they all require a silicon-coated release liner to separate the vinyl from the carrying paper, which doesn’t tick the eco-friendly boxes.

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