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Drytacs, Protac Anti-Scratch Gloss now available in the UK and Ireland
Protac Anti-Scratch Gloss is available from UK and Ireland distributor Antalis, which signalled that it would be taking on the product for distribution last week (1 December).
It is a 100µm clear PET laminating film, with a scratch-resistant hard coat and high gloss finish, and it is designed to add “depth, detail and protection” for printed graphics, according to Drytac.
According to Bristol-headquartered Drytac’s new global product manager, Shaun Holdom, the film is well-suited to applications expected to weather harsh environments – such as billboards. Its resistance to moisture, touch, dust and UV light reduce fading and image degradation.
Holdom said: “Protac Anti-Scratch Gloss is very durable thanks to its scratch-resistant hard coat. Its formulation ensures that the final printed output has zero shrinkage, high clarity and is resistant to chemicals.
“The adhesive is a solvent-based permanent acrylic, which means it has good moisture resistance, and additionally, the siliconised polyester liner ensures a smoother finish.
“We have sent a lot of the product out to our UK and Ireland customers now. Feedback is slowly coming back and it has been very positive.”
The new product has been developed for application through cold- and heat-assisted laminators, meaning “nearly anyone with a laminator can apply it," according to Holdom. Its high-performance adhesive allows for lamination from solvent, latex and UV printers.
“Customers seemed to be moving away from lamination because of UV,” added Holdom.
“But we feel that this latest product, and the rest of our portfolio, has shown that laminates are very much alive.
Holdom moved to Drytac from wide-format printing kit supplier CSL Digital and hopes to apply his knowledge of printing technology to the development of new Drytac products.
“I only started at Drytac in October but am very much enjoying it so far. Because we have factories in the UK and Canada, there are still plenty of people I am yet to meet and get to work with," he added.
140-staff Drytac has bases in the US and Canada, with UK sales around £12m. It recently added the SpotOn White M50 opaque film to its SpotOn range and the Protac Anti-Bacterial film to its Protac range, and is looking to target the décor and fabric printing markets in early 2018.
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3 Replies
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Hi All
Some positive feedback on this product;
We had to re-visit a job on internal glass office partitions that were finished with regular clear laminate over the prints. Unfortunately the surface scuff marks left by our squeegees looked really obvious, unsightly, and didn’t fade out as you would normally expect after a few days. Think it was because the office was unusually warm upon installation and the other laminate was very soft and was prone to deeper marking even from new felt squeegees. The lighting in the office really highlighted the marks.
We stripped it and did it again with the Protac anti-scratch laminate and it really does do what it says on the tin – no matter what pressure you apply there isn’t the slightest application mark on the material surface, and in tests at the workshop it was hard to make any mark whatever you tried attacking it with. It is very surface hard and we are pretty sure it will be very scratch resistant on more demanding installations than the office partitions we completed.
It’s quite thick and rigid – we did it dry and this thickness made it very easy to get excellent results with only the slightest hint of application marks / silvering in the adhesive.
The only down side was having to order a 100m roll from the distributor as they didn’t have any shorter rolls in stock, although I’m sure we will use it.
Also when we were laminating the prints with it we had to make sure that everything was 100% tensioned and straight as vinyl laminate can accommodate a little skewing and correction through our machine whereas the Protac being a polyester and thick it couldn’t without causing a wrinkle. Not a problem to sort and we should be making sure the laminator is always loaded correctly anyway!
Overall very impressed, you get what you pay for.
Anyhow just thought I’d share.
Cheers
Dave -
Sounds like a very useful material, I’m guessing this will be quite expensive to buy?
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Thanks for the feedback David, it is always great to get unbiased views and opinions from site members. Even better when the feedback is pretty much in-line with the editorial above.
Thanks for taking the time to make the post David!
I have been using some drytac cast and laminate over the past few weeks on various vehicles. So far so good!
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