Gassing off

[Matt Boyd]

they say you should leave for at least 6hrs..we leave overnight to be sure.

[Gary Birch]

I was always led to believe it was a minimum of 24 hours but alot will depend on how you leave it to gas off. On some occasions we have taken it straight off the printer and laminated it and (touch wood) have never had any issues, at least none that we are aware of.

Cheers

Gary

[Matt Boyd]

depends on ink saturation, the more ink you lay down the longer you should leave it. we’ve always been told that 4-6 hrs should be ok, but we always leave over night to be safe. roland say you should leave 24 hrs, but their covering themselves incase of any issues.

[David Rowland]

it is important to gas-off prints for a very long time, I still don’t know how we get away with a few hours without complaints 😀

[Chris Wool]

quote Dave Rowland:

it is important to gas-off prints for a very long time, I still don’t know how we get away with a few hours without complaints 😀

change hours to mins, but you know it makes sense to have a good gasoff

[Ruairi O'Boyle]

thanks guys I should be ok in the morning then!

I am extra concerned as I have been asked to replace a competitors work after only 1 year. The laminate has blistered and shrunk and ruined the sign. One of my guys believes that it is due to the gassing off period.

Need to make sure this job is right this time!

[Robert Lambie]

unless they have out-gassed properly then you are open to problems occurring. depending on where the graphics are being fitted, those problems can become nightmares! I accept that in some cases were the vinyl is not heavily covered or covered with light ink saturation then 6+ hours you will get away with… but not something i would advise on.

To be safe…

Overnight is the minimum you should leave full colour printed graphics.

Vehicle wraps definitely over night, but if possible 48hrs.
Even when you laminate, leave as long as possible to allow the adhesive of the laminate to bite onto your prints.

allot comes down to how the prints have been left to "out-gas", not simply a case of "time".
many will leave the printed coiled roll "loose" on its side. personally, i have never thought this way is good way of doing it. so much so, my thoughts "as far as i am concerned" were confirmed only today.
we printed 2 truck wraps on Friday and left to out gas in this fashion over the full weekend, simply because we had no space to allow proper ventilation of so many truck panels at once. that was Friday… Monday we began laminating and finishing… i began fitting this afternoon. the result was a soft very tacky vinyl with a bloody high grab!!! the humidity in the air doesn’t help matters. but still…

ideally your prints should be left to "hang" on their shortest side.
i.e. truck wrap panels are approx 92" by 52"
so ideally, these panels should be hung horizontal, so the drop is 52"
this is because solvent is heavier than air. so rather than it evaporating up into the air… it drops.
hanging it on its shortest side allows the solvent to pass down the length and off the bottom.
to test this for yourself. next print you dry… hang it up. after a few hours smell the top of the panel then smell the bottom. you will find the solvent smell is stronger lower down the panel.

we all know that solvent prints are like chewing gum if you try and apply too soon… so what makes us think laminating them to soon is going to help? all we are doing is trapping the solvent and prelonging the out gassing time.
in many cases, the gas is trapped if the ink coverage is too heavy. this will result in "blistering" of the laminate "some time" after application has been made.

lamination on vehicle wraps can result in major problems if ink curing time is not followed by the book. lamination of the prints in recessed areas is the most common problem. but also vinyl in the recessed areas pulling back and failing, is another. this is because the adhesive is still under attack by the solvent. (so to speak)

as i said, yes, part, light ink coverage can in many cases be laminated 6+ hous after printing. but rule of thumb and particularly for your staff, is 24hrs/next day minumum on everything. will keep you right.

[Jason Xuereb]

Rob if your going to loosely uncoil the roll and leave it on its side its important for the coil/roll to be off the ground. Not simply placed upright on the ground and uncoiled.

[Ruairi O'Boyle]

Cheers guys, from reading previous posts I had thought that the general consensus was to leave them as long as possible. The prints have about 16-18hrs now so should be fine all being well.

I am still getting the new workshop read out and set up so I must get myself a decent washing/print line.

[Robert Lambie]

i agree with you raised off the floor will "help" when the roll is loose coiled jason but loose coiled rolls of anything more than a few metres means the majority of vinyl will be in contact with vinyl wrapped around it preventing proper ventilation. so yeh, parts will outgas fairly well, but there will be parts that havent, which isnt good.

[David Rowland]

we have a problem with dust before lamination in our environment, so unrolling can cause a lot of wipe downs during lamination.

we changed inks, from ss2 on colorific and with either ink and a daily production, our outgassing is possibly 20minutes to 6 hours max (or next morning) and we dont experience complaints or see prints that are in a bad state. We try and leave prints as long as we can and most of the jobs are under 1-2 day pressure.

Tbh, ink on the print is never excessive, the more outgassing might mean you have lots of ink going down and ink limits are not right in your profile.

[Ruairi O'Boyle]

Guys what do you define as excessive ink? I am printing 1.3m x 1.3m wide photograph of a truck and a faded logo in reds and yellow but I am not sure if this warrants the term excessive inks?[/img]

[David Rowland]

well is it pooling/drying okay? within 1-2 minutes after printed you can touch it?
are you cooking to 40-50 degrees?

[Ruairi O'Boyle]

Yep it is drying fine but I am cooking it to about 40 deg.