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Metamark MD5 / MD3 or Orajet 3551 / 3164, what will you use if price is the same?
Metamark MD5 / MD3 or Orajet 3551 / 3164?
Have you used both brands?
What will you use if price is the same? -
8 Replies
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There’s a reason MD5 is the material most suppliers benchmark against.
If by some miracle they were all priced the same, I’d just stock and just use MD5.
In reality, that’s no the case.
MD3 is a polymeric, solvent adhesive. We used it for years, but is overkill for some jobs. So we use 3164. Cheap and cheerful. Do 1000’s of stickers on the stuff, mounted to foam, and correx. Yes it will shrink, but it has it’s use.
Anything above that, MD5. If it’s going outside, or long term, MD5 all day long.
We’ve tried MD-I, but went back to MD5 for a few reasons.
I haven’t used 3551, but we’ve had no complaints using other Oracal products.
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Hi David,
Interested to know the problems you’ve had with the MD-I?
We’re on our second roll and think it’s prints excellent and colour really pops but I’ve heard a few people saying it isn’t what it’s meant to be hence wondering the problems you’ve had before we get too deep in with it.
Thanks in advance
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A few things to consider when Comparing digital vinyls
Monomeric shrinks (Orajet 3164, MD3, Avery MPI3000, and I believe MDI
Monomeric blends like 3651 perform better (maybe this is MDi ?
Polymeric shrinks less (Orajet 3551, MD5, MPI2000)
Cast shrinks the least. (3951, MDC, MPI1104)A cast, is a cast, is a cast. There is no such thing as a hybrid cast. It’s either formed from a liquid. its calandered.
Some suppliers / manufacturers have claimed some of their range is a 5 year film and its assumed by the user its a polymeric and this isn’t always the case, you just need to ask or try and decipher the data sheet.
Adhesives are the other thing to consider. Most Monomeric and some polymeric films have water based adhesives , this tends to come apparent when applying clear film onto a window using water. And when trying to apply when cold. Most big name polymeric films have solvent adhesives.
Then there’s the backing sheets PE lined backing sheets tend to perform better in higher humidity and Kraft liners work well most of the time depending on the printer.
The more they take out of a product the cheaper it becomes. If it’s full fat it’s rarely cheap.
I’m up for being corrected on any of the above. And yes there are tons of brands out there and they will fall into the above remit somewhere.
Over the last few years I’ve come across a small number of suppliers using smoke and mirrors to up market the specification on some films to help their products to hit a golden price for the customer and get them buying.
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If MD5 performs identical as Orajet 3551 I’m considering swap.
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quote Pane Talev:If MD5 performs identical as Orajet 3551 I’m considering swap.
Why I’m I asking this question here?
Reading what manufacturers say and what is reality is two different things.Used Metamark perforated vinyl with optical clear laminate for years.
Changed to Oracet perforated with its own optical clear.
On the Oracal bundle, application marks are seen many months after the application.
On Metamark perforated with optical clear film, these application marks disappear after a week or so.
Before I do another migration, want to do some research.
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md 5 does it for me for general use.. i know the price difference adds up at the end of the year but one warranty job could wipe that out.
we do use other materials for dedicated work but arlon and oracal just never cut it for us -
We have used MD5 for years.
Of course, every rep came in claiming their vinyl was just as good, and cheaper.
I think Metamark responded, with MDi, filling the gap between MD3 & MD5.
In the 8+ years of using MD5 I don’t believe we’ve had one failure.
Switched to MDi and had several in the space of 1 month. The worse one we had was a customer calling to say the graphics had blown off their van. I laughed, until I saw it.
All the cut vinyl (M7) was fine, but the half of the large colour logo had come away. This was within days of it being fitted.
When removing some of the MDi, I noticed that it looked like the vinyl had shrunk a fraction of a millimetre, leaving a fraction of a mm of laminate exposed.
Had another customer return where we’d rolled a graphic around a door edge, and it started lifting. Never had that happen with MDi.
In reality the saving moving manufacturer is minimal, same with using 3rd party inks.
Saving £20 on a 50m log, is 40p a linear meter.
The difference between a cheap mono and decent poly is about £1.70. Unless you’re selling at silly cheap prices it’s marginal, there’s bigger things you could be doing to save money.
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Big thank you to everyone who took time out to write me answers. Appreciate it!
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