Gerber Edge Ribbons

[Tim Shaw]

I am no expert on the ribbons, everyone who sells the duramark and other copies say their ribbons are just as good. The gerber people say the copies are’nt as good and the print is not as resisitant to chemical abuse.

I am not sure what we are paying for gerber original, but it works out somewhere in the region of £1.48 / metre.

ADP (leeds) inivited me to a trail of new ribbons they were going to stock, they were saying these ribbons, along with some new software were every bit as good as originals and they would also allow you to print CMY and get equal if not better results than CMYK !!!. Unfortunatly I was too busy to get to the demo, and when they took us to lunch on Wednesday we were too busy eating to talk shop!!!.

When we print from the MAC we can usually let the image go without using process black on some images.

I also belive Duracoat cartridges cost approx £90 ther are also 100m long,and they are availble as refills.

We were also told that the copy cartridges were also more vulnerable to snapping, but we have had this happen with original cartridges too. Also the copy ribbons are not availble in the full range of Gerber colours, so you end up buying from two sources to be abel to use Spectratone colour matching.

[Graham.Scanlan]

I guess all the manufacturers of thermal ribbons, claim they have the best products,

not all of the above make ribbons for the gerber edge, it seems spandex are losing the monopoly on ribbons and they are bound to say they have the best ribbons, just like all the rest,

just think about the following, the thickness of the clear carrier, is it the same as the gerber cartridge?

the print should last 3 years, but there are so many variables involded in this, you will find it hard to pin a supplier down for a guarantee,

is the cartride refillable? save pennies next time and buy a re fill

just test whats out there and keep an open mind, some are as good as gerber and some are not, test and see

as for the signlab software and printing 3 colours, i visited a beta tester and he was made up that he saves 1 colour,
im not sure it works on all prints tho

[Tim Shaw]

We have used Gerber 100%, we have had more problems with the prints suffering from abrasion than fading, although one van we did over three years ago looks fine, except for the bonnet which has faded really badly,

Spoke to a Spandex guy and mentioned it in passing while we were chatting and he said horizontally applied prints are more prone to fading than vertically applied.

[Fat Bob]

Hi guys
I am not a gerber user but have had problems with digi prints on bonnets and metalic vinyls after a lot of disscusions with various people we decided that it was probably the heat of the engine.

This seems to be bourne out as one we are having a look at now which is a silver metalic which has been on a vehicle fo 32 months is looking really dogeared and has funny marks in the vinyl on the bonnet which we thought might have been induced by bird poo or the owners rabid cleaning, while part of the design on the roof is still in good condition
so this may be down to heat over a period of time.

….FB

[Henry Barker]

I have been using Gerber foils, Sign Foils http://www.codingproducts.com they don’t have such a big range of colours, but compliment Gerber with theirs, as do some of the duracoat colours, Zeronine also have quite an extensive range all I believe cater for Gerber and roland http://www.zeronine.com

FB I was always advised against putting digiprints on bonnets, and from using metallics on vehicles

That said I used avery’s metallic vinyl on Charleys top fuel dragbike this season, he’s European Champion, and travels quite quickly, but not in the rain 🙂 http://www.karlingracing.com

I thought the biggest problem with different foils and substrates are all the varying settings compared to using Edge ready materials with Edge foils. In practice I haven’t seen to many problems.

[Robert Lambie]

i agreehenry… foils are a headache on vans… not impossible to have on one but too many draw-backs.. curling is a big one & then the shine goes…
the best way to protect a print on a bonnet is to cover it in clear vinyl. maybe even leave an extra 2mm all round the edges just to seal it…
if you can get your hands on uv stable clear then youve won a watch 😉

[Fat Bob]

hi boys

Sorry to mislead you when I reffered to metalics I was referring to vinyl metalics and not metalic polyester or foil films. Most makers usually do them in gold – silver gunmetal or charcoal as partof thier range. and we did have a uv screen on the digi but it was not overlapped as you suggest ( I will give it a try next time thanks)

…FB

[Henry Barker]

FB,

My broadband connection went down for awhile!

I am even more interested in your points about metallic vinyls…like for instance Avery’s Silver, Gold, and Grey metallics.

We use alot of Avery 800 vinyl, I have just sent pics of vinyl failures on a Ford Windstar hood, a Chevrolet G20 van bonnet, and a VW T4 transporter, mainly silver, but also gold on the Chevy, sitting on an Avery 823 dark blue sat OK, not had failures with other colours, and this is vinyl and not polyester or foil.

Might have some pics I can post.

[Fat Bob]

Hi Henry

The Vinyls I used were intercoat range 9600 5-7 year this is an American product that I have used for past 11 years and found to be realiable stuff. When I first encountered this problem I was refered back to the speck sheet which does state that the mettalics in this range were not to be expected to have a life of more than 3 years.

Pity the Salesman Does not tell you things like that. But this Bugged me as the rest of the vinyl metalic silver in this case, was fine. So I Stripped the whole job and did it again
its been on there for 32 months and its starting to break down again but only on the bonnet.

Since this we have had 2 digi prints comeback through loss of colour 1 had a uv sheet on 1 did not again the same design on other parts of the vehicles are fine.

This added to a small problem we are getting around a rear vent on a smart car( the vent is directly over an exhaust and the engine Leads us to Belive that the constant heat from the bonnet or other sources combined with the cooling off overnight has possibly cotributed to the break down of these vinyls. This would probably be compounded by a vehicle with a dark paint fiinish as this would absorb more heat.

I have not yet tried avery vinyls for normal application but would advice close scrutinny of the specification sheets of all vinyls you use.

Regards..FB

[WP_Graphics]

Rob,

I have been told that Gemini are the best aftermarket films for the Edge’s and can be bought at http://www.thermalproducts.co.uk. I also buy all my PC600 cartridges through, might be worth approaching them, it’s Paul North that owns the company and is a very friendly guy!

Gav

[Martin Pearson]

Robert its easy to get your hands on a uv stable laminate. There are quite a few manufacturers of the stuff. Its used more in the printing industry I think, I got a roll to do some prints we had done but have since used it on all sorts of things both internal and external. The only problem with it is it is quite a bit more expensive than clear vinyl.

[Tim Shaw]

Martin, I think you have just fallen into Robs little trap………