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Etched glass films
I was working for more then 20 years with the etched glass film(ST771) of the Italian company Apaspa and the last 2 years with the German company Aslan (E300). These 2 films look similar and for me they look like the most on real etched glass. The disadvantage of the Apa film was that the width of the film is 122 and that gave sometimes some problems with cutting, because the pinch rollers are too close to the edges of the film. The disadvantage of the Aslan film is the water-based adhesive layer, because that causes sometimes white marks in the film. Does someone know an etched glass film that look likes the same as these 2 films with a width of 126 cm and no water-based adhesive layer?
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4 Replies
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Metamark M7-CR Crystal Etch is my standard frost.
I don’t know how close M7-CR Crystal Etch with your mentioned vinyl but it’s very good vinyl. I used since 2006.
Do not use the air release version, use only standard M7-CR Crystal Etch.
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Thanks Pane, I tried the silver of Metamark once, but that looked too light for me.
I will try the crystal soon, I like the prices of Metamark and that they also sell a film
with a width of 160 cm.
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Whilst it was in demand, I used to sell stained glass windows. Some with crystal bevels and glass etch film.
It was important to have the etch looking authentic alongside the Ledawork and colour-marbled films. Most of the etch films today just don’t look right, side-by-side. I am going back over 15+ years now, but the one I preferred using was an etch by Mactac, which has since been acquired by Avery. So the ranges may have changed over time. The marble and colour films that I used were not a sign industry brand of vinyl and had a 10+ year life and the Etch was something like 5-7 years which was a gripe of mine, to mix them. But as there wasn’t a colour stability concern as such and the film was sealed by lead, I used it regardless.Back then, I remember Mactac also launched one of the first ranges of coloured etch and transparent colour-tinted films, so they appeared to be going in pretty heavily on decorative glass products.
Anyway, my point is that it might be worth requesting some colour swatch cards or swatches from the distributors to see if any suit your needs.
For me, the flat etch finish without an air-release adhesive or special effect is the best match you will get to the real thing. all these sparkle ranges doing the rounds, just do not look authentic, in my opinion.
Just for the record, I am not saying there aren’t others out there that are authentic-looking, better priced or have a longer life expectancy. I just mean back in the day when it was vital for me to get authentic-looking etch, Mactac ticked the boxes, back then.
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Thank you Robert for your answer. I think I have seen almost all the colour swatch cards of the etched films, but probably not from Mactac., but I also prefer a longer lifespan than 5-7 years. Specially for private houses I want to deliver a great quality product. My experience with the etched film from Apaspa is that the quality of our first projects of more than 20 years ago are still ok. I use the film in 99% of the cases on the inside of the windows. It might be possible of course that the films with a lifespan of 5-7 years also still looking good after 15 years when applied on the inside of the windows, but I cannot say that to customers, because I don’t have experience with them.
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