Laminating and UV

[David Rowland]

yep, your quite possibly correct but so far so good.

[Robert Lambie]

Gavin, i recon there is far too many things to take into consideration to have a "who is wrong and who is right". i personally think it boils down to the media and ink used. by that i mean one set of digital media, ink and laminate is different to the next. so properties are all different. tests/examples of fading will all be different… if you see what i mean?

what i have found is that when printed vinyl is used outdoors it is open to all kinds of chemical, abrasion and UV attack. minimising this this as much as possible is what i try and do, and would advise others doing same.
I know what you mean about laminates having UV stabilisers in it that really only protects the laminate itself, but there are laminates that contain UV absorbers (I think that’s what its called) and do protect the ink, or should i say slow down the fading process.

i also recon that ink quality will also play a big part in this. i would imagine cheaper inks will have less UV qualities than the higher end of the market. again, speeding up the fade process.

As i said though, many different types of scenario…

[Gavin MacMillan]

I agree with all of that Rob. Interesting about the UV absorbers!

On a similar note, all digi vinyl life quoted by manufacturers is ‘unprinted’ and depending on how aggressive your solvents are this could be lowered considerably. This being the explanation why Avery DOL laminates are a shorter lifespan that the MPI vinyls they are matched to.

I personally find it difficult to get to the bottom of things on the digital side. It seems to move so quickly everyone is at least a few steps behind.

G

[Stuart Taylor]

Hi Gavin

Obviously all inks, vinyls and laminates offer "different" qualities but from a suppliers point of view I can add that from our experience a laminate that has been designed as such should offer UV resistance as well as abrasion protection.

To back this up we had several inks (inc Vutek and Mimaki) tested onto digital print media with and without laminate and then put through intensive UV acceleration tests. In particular the Mimaki ink faded without laminate but on the samples with a laminate there was virtually no colour shift – The acceleration tests cannot create exactly the same circumstances as real weathering due to variances in UV intensity, North/South facing, acid rain, temperature changes etc etc but certainly comparing samples with a laminate showed a significant improvement when tested to the same accelerated test.

In addition to this the laminate will obviously offer better abrasion resistance in particular on vehicles where mechanical washing takes place.

[Shane Drew]

I tend to agree there is more to the situation than just deciding what works and what doesn’t.

I use the moer ‘expensive’ UV inks (TechINK) which I can look back at over 4 years, and I still have laminated work that looks very good, in the market.

In terms of stock, I have had a contract here over the last 4 years. I started using Oracal 3551, but as the prices kept going up, I changed to a cheaper product, Rijet75. Initially, the jobs looked the same, but over time I noticed the results didn’t go the same distance. The client started making comments.

My 3551 jobs done 4 years ago look as good, if not better than my Rijet done 2/1/2 years ago.

I recently went back to Oracal 3551.

I used the same ink, but the laminate for Rijet was considerably cheaper the Oracal 215, as was the Rijet75 versus the 3551.

If I had of used ‘tedlar’ 10 year laminate, I would probably got an even better result over time. But, its twice the price of 215.

I guess you get what you pay for.

Whether its ink, with cheaper pigment, material with less plasticizers or laminate with less UV protection. End of the day, it all comes down to quality V price.

Thats my take anyway.

[Mark Dempsey]

There are two types of UV protection in laminates:

1.0 In the film
2.0 In the adhesive

I used to sell Seal Pro at Robert Horne. It is expensive but worth the money.