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I need to find a vinyl that is printable and heat resistant?
Hi all.
After speaking with Andrew from paper graphics, he has given me some food for thought. I need to find a vinyl/pvc media that is printable and quite heat resistant.
My problem is that I plan on printing onto the white vinyl/PVC, lay it down onto 0.5mm HIPS sheeting and vacuum form it.
The problem I am stuck with is the fact that most of the media will burn up before the HIPS reaches its formable temperature.
Does anyone have anything in mind??
Im sorry to be so vague, but I’m a Nooby….Thanks
Paul -
11 Replies
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Why not try print onto some wrap vinyl and apply vinyl to vacuumed shape, if the shape isnt too hard to wrap. As you say most vinyls will melt under extreme temperatures.
Just another option.
Andy 😎
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I dont want to wrap it, Its a bit too complex and Im not too hot at that.
I’d rather just form it with the vinyl on it. there must be a soloution… grrr its so hard! -
what temperatures are you taking the hips up too?
most of Oracals Digital media has a “Temperature Resistance” of 212 °F.
Andy 😎
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quote paologray:I dont want to wrap it, Its a bit too complex and Im not too hot at that.
I’d rather just form it with the vinyl on it. there must be a soloution… grrr its so hard!I think andrew has a good idea here. Print it on the 3951 vehicle wrap material, lay it on the hips, then vac form it.
You’d have to lay it on the outside I suppose, and make sure it is laminated of course
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Im not sure what temperature the HIPS gets up to, but the heat applied is about 300 degrees. Now Im pretty sure the HIPS doesnt actually get up to anywhere near that temperature, maybe about 90-120 degrees…
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if the vinyl is applied properly to the substrate, and gradually taken up to the temperature needed to vacuum form then the vinyl maybe OK, if you use a good wrap vinyl.
i think whatever you do, you may need to lay the ink down darker than usual as i see the biggest problem you will have (doing this blind) but everywhere you over stretch to form a shape/recess the print is going to whiten. if it was something like a shallow dome you could be fine but sharp corners etc will white depending on how sever they are.hope that made sense… 😕
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Well, what im forming is basicall like up-turned dinner plates, so I cant see there being a problem with whiteing and losing colour…
I understand what you’re sying robert, as long as I dont fry the stuff, a bit like slowly cooking chicken, rather than burning it! -
Its almost impossible to vac form plastics with vinyl applied , you will end up with huge problems like bubbling , delaminations distortions and the like , the way to do this is print directly on the hips and then vac form. There are flexible screen inks that are used for this.
The problem with forming and temp and vinyls is the glues are not heat resistant , albeit the vinyl might stretch the glues tend to become viscous with the temps and the vinyl “slides” when being formed. Can easily be demonstrated in terms of vinyl removal , you use a heat gun or hairdryer to soften the glues , not the vinyl itself. I would just try normal screenprinting inks first and see how they hold up under forming , you can go for flexibles if that doesnt work.
We use our roland soljet digital printer to print DIRECTLY on abs and styrene up to 1mm thick and then vac form it with very acceptable results , the prints dont quite have the resolution and fine detail that can be achieved on vinyl , but are still very good and a lot cheaper than a cmyk screenprint on the material , espcially for smaller runs. -
Hi Rodney, where can I find some more info on that soljet?
I may need one of them… look out… -
…or does anyone know of another printer that can print directly onto the sheet plastic???
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or ANY plastic that is vac-formable?!!?
Im at my wits end! Im losing sleep over this 🙁
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