Matching vinyl with laminates

[David Hammond]

You’ll probably be better using a Polymeric Laminate, with Monomeric vinyl, rather than Mono Laminate with Poly Vinyl, as I believe this is where the issues arise when the laminate shrinks quicker than the vinyl.

I agree it’s a pain having to stock various rolls of laminate, we’re currently trying some Orajet vinyl & laminates, which are compatible together.

[Martyn]

Yes I was thinking the same. At the end of the day your just using a higher quality lam than needed which can only be a good thing.

Understand the reasons why it doesn’t work the other way around.

Orajet sounds interesting

[David Hammond]

Yes the rep from Europoint was telling us about, 3641, and their 3651 films. He reckons the 3651 whilst a mono film doesn’t shrink like the 3641, and come with air release adhesive. As they’re both Mono’s they use the same laminate.

Both print well, although we won’t know about the shrinking for sometime.

[Jasper McEwan]

My personnel view is never to mix polymerics and monomerics.

The main problem is that issues won’t occur straight away. It could be 12 – 24 months after installation.

Probably equally importantly though – the manufacturers are extremely unlikely to support you if you have any issues mixing, potentially leaving you with a hefty mess to sort out should an issue arise.

A number of our customers are now just using polymeric for everything, although it might be in the region of £40 a roll (1370mm x 50m) more expensive than a monomeric, that actually equates to just 60p per sq meter more. Isn’t a lot when you look at it like that.

Additionally, because they stick with the one film for everything it also means that mistakes are less likely to happen when printing – e.g. putting a monomeric on when it should be polymeric and vice-versa.

Just a few thoughts…

[Martyn]

Thanks for your thoughts Jasper.
Ye understand where you are coming from. However where i am monomeric is nearly half price to polymeric so it really does make a difference on the wallet.

I was going to speak to the rep about it but assumed they would give me similar thoughts to yourself. Hard to work out if its the honest truth or they just wonna shift more products, not saying i dont trust reps or anything 😆

[Robert Lambie]

I mostly agree with Jasper on this one…
I only stock high branded polymeric and cast digital. Both using equivalent laminates.
When you break down you linear metre cost of the polymeric, against same in monomeric. the saving falls into insignificance unless your selling 100’s of metres at a time.

This is a common argument by sign makers, printers and even wrappers to their suppliers, My opinion here is that if this margin of pennies plays a big part in your choice of media, I think you should take a closer look at your own pricing structure/ profit margins.

On a side note, I sponsor various local clubs, events etc so i keep a roll of budget short term monomeric for "this case alone". These signs are so short term they do not even get laminated and never mounted onto anything but Correx sheet. These are cheap short term signs and an area where budget monomeric media fits in just nicely, but again, these signs go out in large quantity. Had they been only for budget signs now and again, i would still print them on the polymeric before i would stock yet another roll of digital media to wait to be called off.

[Jasper McEwan]

Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying sign makers don’t stock two variants of vinyl and equivalent laminates. I just thought some inside knowledge of how other sign makers approach this situation might help. :thumbsup:

The number one priority on this whole issue is to never mix polymeric and monomeric vinyl and laminates. The risk is to high for the sake of stocking an extra roll or two of film.