Liquid laminate for printed posters

[Martin Pearson]

What sort of printer are you running ? Don’t know if it is still the same but at one time what liquid laminate you used would depend on what type of inks you were using.

Obviously not true for all internal prints but I would have thought that posters were generally a short term type of sign so quite possibly an expense that isn’t really needed.

[Peter Johnson]

Thanks for the reply Martin.

I thought I’d mentioned it was a latex printer, but obviously not.

The reason I’m asking about this is that I have been producing some wall stickers printed onto vinyl and I was concerned that the customer might scratch the surface while applying them. So I just wondered if there was any quick way of protecting the print, but without actually applying a sheet of laminate.

[Martin Pearson]

I thought latex wasn’t suppose to scratch that easily, if yours is then might be worth experimenting with different vinyls to see if you can find something more scratch resistant.
I am not convinced that you will gain much by applying a liquid laminate, most are more for uv resistance rather than scuff resistance. If you just want a bit of extra scuff resistance then a liquid lam may be an expensive way to achieve that & something like a spray lacquer or varnish might give just as good results at a reduced cost.
Someone on the forum talked about using mr sheen for canvas prints but con’t remember if that was to help with scratch resistance or not :lol1: :lol1:
worth a search on the forum though.

[Robert Lambie]

There are many methods and machines to liquid laminate. Though none are as good as a vinyl laminate which should have things like UV Absorbers, stabilizers which also protects against chemical and abrasion damage. However, liquid laminators have been around a long time. The machines are steadily being phased out in the UK, but still can be found.

Personally, I think if you are coating anything large, it is best to use at least a coating mechanism.
Sprays and roller-on for maybe poster size printers and the like.

Some ways to liquid coat:

Pull through mechanism

Spray Mount Liquid

Liquid coat machine

Roller Apply Liquid

[Kevin Flowers]

Hi
won’t say that this will work with latex but have done with solvent prints to help avoid scratches, basically polish with a bit of Mr Sheen (furniture polish) helps the squeegee’s to glide over them minimising scratching of the surface, use to do a lot of car dealer & radio promotional stuff and would never pay for cost of laminating. With poster a little bit of hair lacquer seals the print as well, but has i said don’t know about on latex so make your own mind.

Kev