Help needed with air bubbles in vinyl?

[Adam Hilson]

Hi Brian

Did you lay it wet or dry

[Robert Lambie]

I am guessing this is an illuminated sign and your flooding the acrylic a colour with the white letters weeded out to allow the white acrylic to be seen?

flood coating acrylic is never easy and can be made much harder by things like room temp being warm. the vinyl loves acrylic and can stick to it on initial contact. it also generates allot of static charge.

once you have stripped the protective sheet off it.
wipe your bench down and all around it. make sure your clothes
do not have dust, acrylic fragments etc sticking to them.
using a wet cloth wipe verything down.
place your clean acrylic on the table and repeat the process with the wet cloth.
better with a cloth as the paper towel disintegrates when wet and can leave bits here and there.

now you have clean work station, your clean, acrylics clean etc.
take the vinyl and before approaching the bench wipe down the front and rear with a damp cloth because any particles of dust on the vinyl will jump straight to the rear when you remove the film, due to static charge when you seperate the two.

your now ready to start, BUT what method you use here is down to your ability to apply the vinyl. if your not very confident on such a large application i would advise you trying Rapid Tac 1, simply spray a mist of this over the "complete" surface of the acrylic and slide the graphic into place if out a little. rapid tac allows you to manoeuvre the vinyl into place, lift and relay. then squeegee from the middle to the nearest exist. do this repeatedly in overlapping strokes. getting firmer with your squeegeeing once you have covered the full surface and repeat.

DO NOT take your time doing this. try doing it at a moderate rate and keep at it till finished. this is because rapid tac has stimulants in it that helps activate adhesion. so as much as you are using a wet method of application, over time it is promoting the adhesion also.
dont use rapid tac 2 on this because it has a faster adhesion time and should be used on very cold surfaces like metal and glass in low temps.
you can get it from All Print Supplies.

failing that you have the old water route but not something i care to promote. 😉 :lol1:

the above seems long winded and unnecessary but really does help when applying to the likes of acrylic with a squeegee.
best of luck mate…

[Brian Carey]

Thanks Rob for your help, im using clear acrylic with the writing looking through the acrylic, but there seems to be alot of bubbles in it, not dust just air bubbles, I assume because its the glue side of the vinyl showing it shows up any bubbles worse than the normal application? Will these dry out after some time? Thanks again Brian.

[Brian Carey]

oh and i applied it dry.

[Martin Pearson]

If it’s air bubbles then it is more than likely down to technique Brian. Could also be damage to the edge of the squeeggee but technique is normally the main cause.
I know Robert doesn’t recommend it but if your having problems then I would do it as a wet application. Acrylic is the worst substrate I have come across for applying vinyl to.

[Robert Lambie]

Apply to the rear of the clear can be worse mate, by that i mean. sometimes you dont need to get bubbles, just the direction and pressure your squeegee is flowing can show impressions of this on the face side. a bit like a lawnmower effect, so to speak. it can and often does disappear on the likes of glass, but i dont know if thats more you stop noticing it or it actually goes. also glass is very different to acrylic. difficult one for me to give an honest view…

that said, even applying wet will show this on the rear. however that’s more forgiving as there’s actually something to "dry out" in this case.

[Brian Carey]

thanks again Rob for your help, will see how i go with this, Brian.

[Robert Lambie]

any time mate, hope all works out for you.
please let us know how you get in.