Laminating prints – manual or laminator?

[George Kern]

Dawn, I wouldn’t say what would be best for that model printer, I would say what would be best per the application. Temporary applications less then 6 months wouldnt even need an overlaminate (they say a year but I have seen them go in less then 8 months depending on conditions, ink used, and materials used. There are a bunch of factors that would determine what kind of overlam to use.

[Shane Drew]

I’m with George on this one.

I don’t laminate any temporary signage, but anything that is needed for anything longer than 4 or 6 months, I’ll laminate with a cheap (oracal 210 or 551 clear if UV is not a factor) laminate just to keep it looking fresh for longer.

Anything that needs to reflect a professional result for longer than 12 months, I’ll laminate with Oracal 215 high performance laminate.

Laminate not only protects, but it can give the colours a real lift (gloss) or it can stop reflections and finger prints showing (matt).

Each job and budget should determin the job required IMO.

Liquid laminates are good too, but I’ve gone up against some jobs that have been liquid laminated, and they have scratched when they have been washed with a dirty or old brush/broom.

I use a liquid laminate on Banners tho if the client wants some longevity, hard to hide the dust in the finish if you are looking up close though.

[George Kern]

The companies over here that wash fleet trailers are animals. I seriously think they are washing their trucks with wire wheels or brillo pads. We were installing the other day and one of the guys noticed one of the guys powerwashing one of the trailers with an industrial powerwasher with 0* angle nozzle (which is for high pressure applications only e.g. removing oil from pavement. . .) not only that, but he was going against the seams which worries me because we caught them this time, but how many other trucks have been washed like this. We told the contracter who cleans the trailers how to properly clean them to ensure the lifetime of the decal will stay in good shape; I can only hope they listen to us.

[John Childs]

I think that the performance of materials, including inks, is improving rapidly. For a trial I put some unlaminated prints (JV3 full solvent) onto a Land Rover and more than six months later I was amazed at how little they had faded. More so when the owner told me that they had been through four sand storms in Morroco and been steam (as opposed to merely pressure) cleaned countless times.

Nevertheless, I agree with the boys here and anything with a life expectancy of more than six months gets laminated.

I would recommend that you speak to your supplier and ensure thaat the laminating film you use is matched to the vinyl you are printing on.

[Phill Fenton]

I use clear vinyl in most cases. Applied wet (much easier to do than dry) to prints that have been left to dry overnight. This works fine for me most of the time though the cutter struggles with 90 degree bends when contour cutting due to the combined thickness of the print vinyl and the clear vinyl laminate (It’s fine for simple shapes and gentle curves though). You can use a much thinner laminate material but this is more expensive than regular calandered clear vinyl such as 3651 or 651 Oracal.

Not sure what I would use for vehicle wrapping though, I’ve never tried it – as it looks very difficult to get it right 😕

[Graeme Speirs]

phill,

just so I get this right, you first of all print the graphics, let them dry and then apply the laminate wet by hand ?

do you then contour cut by hand? or re-feed the material back into the cadet? how do you ensure that the cut lines up correctly?

sorry if I sound a bit thick on this!!!

regards,
graeme

[Robert Lambie]

quote smedia:

do you then contour cut by hand? or re-feed the material back into the cadet? how do you ensure that the cut lines up correctly?

when you print the machine will print special registration marks.
take out laminate by whatever method.
put print back into machine and set the machine to auto detect the reg marks. it will then proceed to contour cut the graphic.

you will either have to already have a countour trace line (i.e. vector path) or you will have to digitise one before hand.

[Phill Fenton]

Wot Rob said 😀

[Graeme Speirs]

thanks guys I’ll have a play about next weeek.

cheers
graeme

[Gordon Forbes]

I use Oracal 3651 for printing onto with a cadet then laminate with the proper laminate 290F I think it is. I tried the clear vinyl method hated it and its results compared to the proper laminate. Also apply wet saves a mountain of greif aswith the prper laminate you only get one chance.

Goop

[Graeme Speirs]

cheers guys, is that all available from europoint forbie?

[Gordon Forbes]

Yup the lam in 10 m lengths tho.

[Marekdlux]

Is laminating by hand used by others? I’ll have to give it a go.
-Marek

[Martin Oxenham]

We have a 54 inch laminator but use 30" film more often than not and once the laminator is set up we can go through a whole roll with no problems but its a pain to change to a 54" roll just for one job, so was thinking about this hand laminator. anyone have one ?www.handlaminator.com

[Marekdlux]

I just "laminated" something really quick with some clear vinyl we had here. Works great with Rapid Tack. I’ll be ordering a roll of laminating material on Monday.
-Marek