making signs using 250 micron polycarbonate film

[David Hammond]

Not familiar with polycarb, but we’ve produced some POS boards printed on a 440 mic PVC. Cut them on our graphtec, took a few over cuts but it did it, and we scored the outer shape to keep the sheet in one piece when feeding in and out, then tore along the score.

May be worth experimenting

[Steff Davison]

You can cut it with a laser, but it doesnt half make some smoke, not my favourite material.

[Robert Lambie]

As you say, reverse printed clear, backed in white vinyl and mounted to the clear shape is easily doable.
if in volume, it may be easier just outsourcing to have them flatbed printed and contour cut.

any shapes etc we would CNC router but haven’t needed to do anything so thin, but cant see it being an issue.
that said, we have the vacuum bed so if intricate, it may give you some issues.

Your issue will be alignment when you reverse print, flood in white then contour cut. various ways to get your alignment "blind" when the print has been flooded, depending on software/hardware etc.
where you may find it more tricky is aligning the odd cut shape onto the odd cut shape of the polycarbonate.
again, various ways to do this, but by hand it can be tricky unless the shape is something like a box or rectangle.
i would suggest ever having an over-spill bleed or a slight inline on the clear to compensate for alignment issues.

like acrylic, your polycarbonate will attract a lot of static, so its best having your work area wiped shortly before with a damp cloth. same applies with the polycarbonate. then apply the graphics.

If applying dry, be careful of squeegee marks/lines showing on the face. this is common applying to a clear.
the same applies applying it wet, just that the lines arent as obvious and tend to dry out. still, i would apply dry over wet. :smiles:

if you have a flatbed roller / applicator then the alignment and squeegee lines are not an issue as such because it will allow you to clamp/pin in place and roll evenly.

[Jamie Wood]

quote Phill Fenton:

I have been asked to produce a some signage made from clear 250 micron polycarbonate sheet. The signs are to be reverse printed to be read through the clear sheet material. Whilst I am confident I can make these by printing onto clear vinyl, then backing this with white before finally contour cutting and applying to the polycarbonate, my main concern is how easy it would be to cut the polycarbonate. There are a range of sizes to be made, some quite small and none no bigger than A4.

Has anyone any experience with producing this type of signage and what advice would you offer for cutting ?

We do quite a lot of these. Can be cut on a CNC or Zund type machine. You can do it on a normal plotter, but if you’re not careful, it’s easy to scatch the surface as it goes back and forth. If you get the matt backed material, it can be printed on a solvent machine, you just have to slow the pass rate down, and keep a fairly low temperature. Otherwise, as you say, print and mount, or if you have someone with a flat bed, they could do it.

[Phil Davies]

Polycarb will not cut nicely in a laser, the edge denatures and goes brown. So you are stuck with a mechanical cutter of some description.

[Phill Fenton]

quote Jamie Wood:

You can do it on a normal plotter, but if you’re not careful, it’s easy to scatch the surface as it goes back and forth. If you get the matt backed material, it can be printed on a solvent machine, you just have to slow the pass rate down, and keep a fairly low temperature

Thanks Jamie – are you saying that a normal vinyl cutter should be able to contour cut .25mm polycarb? I’ve ordered a few sheets and will give it a go :thumbsup:

[Jamie Wood]

quote Phill Fenton:

quote Jamie Wood:

You can do it on a normal plotter, but if you’re not careful, it’s easy to scatch the surface as it goes back and forth. If you get the matt backed material, it can be printed on a solvent machine, you just have to slow the pass rate down, and keep a fairly low temperature

Thanks Jamie – are you saying that a normal vinyl cutter should be able to contour cut .25mm polycarb? I’ve ordered a few sheets and will give it a go :thumbsup:

You can do it on a normal plotter, but you have to be very careful not to cause scratching as the sheet moves backwards and forwards. We’ve done Lexan and mark resist PVC in this manner. The Lexan does tend to blunt the blade quickly though.