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  • Photoluminescent vinyl – glow in the dark – any help or advice?

    Posted by Peter Cassidy on May 28, 2025 at 8:18 am

    I need to buy in a fair amount of photoluminescent vinyl but it must be a decent grade and the trouble is, i do not know anything about the material or the grades. minefield alert! 🤯

    this is the glow in the dark stuff, any help or advice would be great.

    Robert Lambie replied 2 days ago 6 Members · 20 Replies
  • 20 Replies
  • Jamie Wood

    Member
    May 28, 2025 at 12:14 pm

    We buy FG600 from Grafityp, but it’s very expensive.
    It has 20 years of indoor life and 7 years of outdoor life.

    So if you are quoting against another company, make sure that it’s a like-for-like quote.

    Tried a few others, but none were comparable. It is printable, but a bit fiddly – you need to use a lot of heat, and a high pass rate, otherwise, you are likely to get fisheyes in the print. The alternative is to print on clear vinyl and mount this to the photoluminescent.
    https://www.grafityp.co.uk

  • Paul Stenning

    Member
    May 28, 2025 at 6:09 pm

    I use ImagePerfect 2570 from Spandex, much shorter life than the one Jamie mentioned, though (5 years unprinted according to the data sheet!)
    Not had too much trouble printing it, we’ve run about 15 rolls this year, but they’re only 10 metres long and used a generic polymeric profile at 16 passes on our SC80600.
    https://shop.spandex.com

  • David Wilde

    Member
    May 29, 2025 at 9:36 am

    We use Metamark’s offering and have tried pretty much all of them over the years as we supply a lot of safety signage. They’re all a bit of a pain on short runs from our experience, as the thickness of the vinyl can separate from the backing sheet and scuff. Even when stored correctly. Long runs are much better. We find the final metre to be a write-off a lot of the time, as it is coiled so tightly.

    As mentioned above.
    It’s very pricey. We’ve missed out on work previously, only to a competitor has printed the job on reflective, not Photoluminescent.
    https://www.metamark.co.uk

  • David Wilde

    Member
    May 29, 2025 at 9:37 am

    We’ve also printed onto clear vinyl and mounted it to the Photoluminescent, as Jamie says, this is definitely an option on short runs.

  • David Hammond

    Member
    May 30, 2025 at 8:32 am

    All that stuff does is remind of when we used to get the trainee’s in the Navy to go around the boat, and “recharge” all the photo luminescent signs with a flash light 😂

  • Peter Cassidy

    Member
    June 4, 2025 at 8:37 pm

    thanks for all the replies guys!

    just so that i am 100%. are we all talking about adhesive backed photoluminescent vinyl?

    i have saw that some suppliers offer a sort of thin photoluminescent PVC sheet. is this what you mean or is it like vinyl we can print and mount onto a rigid board? i am asking because you are saying that you sometimes print onto clear and mount it?

    • David Wilde

      Member
      June 5, 2025 at 6:29 am

      That’s correct. Self-adhesive printable vinyl.

      The material is more than twice the weight of most standard vinyl. When rolled around the cardboard core, it can have a tendency to lift in places and stuff during the print process. Extra heat usually helps, but on occasion, I have needed to manually push out the bubbles, especially when at a roll end.

      3M do/did a version which was unbelievable and just like standard vinyl; however, it was north of £160 per metre and guess what, our customers didn’t really want to pay that.

      Another issue is how ‘green’ you are prepared to go. The Metamark version is a lot darker than the Grafityp version, which is more on the yellow side. Also, Metamark is matte, whereas nearly all of the other materials I have come across are gloss.

      We are required to laminate ours with anti-graffiti lam, which worked better with the Metamark material. It was also printable on UV, which was a bonus.

      • Peter Cassidy

        Member
        June 5, 2025 at 10:16 am

        Wow, £160 per metre??? I am already finding the cost of this extreme, but £160, imagine then laminating it with anti-graffiti film. The costs to make these signs just keep adding! 🤯

        • Jamie Wood

          Member
          June 5, 2025 at 10:34 am

          Yes, but don’t forget that with 3M material, you can think of a number, and then add at least one zero….

    • David Wilde

      Member
      June 5, 2025 at 6:33 am

      The print on clear method was something we used to prevent us damaging expensive material, scuff and head crashes are a real issue with most of this stuff so we countered that by printing on to clear vinyl and mounting it to the PL roll. We don’t really do this now, but it has been an option in the past, especially on roll ends.

      • Peter Cassidy

        Member
        June 10, 2025 at 8:19 am

        Thanks David. did you then have to laminate the printed laminate or was laminate not needed?

        • David Wilde

          Member
          June 10, 2025 at 8:22 am

          Yes. Its not a great solution really. The self adhesive vinyl is about an inch thick by the time the layers are all complete 😄

  • Peter Cassidy

    Member
    June 4, 2025 at 8:57 pm

    My next question is, how do you judge, or should I say compare, for the fire rating?

  • Robert Lambie

    Administrator
    June 9, 2025 at 1:24 am

    My next question is, how do you judge, or should I say compare, for the fire rating?

    Hi Peter
    I would ask your customer if they have stipulations on the Grade/Class of the Signs. Because I would guess that your customer hasn’t asked you for something so specific, if the cheap ones from B&Q or Online, off-the-shelf type will do!

    Costs for this type of safety film can rise sharply, as previously mentioned by others. However, ensure that whatever grade of photoluminescent film you use is mounted to a backing material with an equal compliance rating otherwise, the entire sign will fail to meet the class standards.

    i.e.
    Most types of aluminium composite are not Class B compliant. But they do have a high fire rating in certain building types and locations. (yes, confusing)

    I have a bit of a gripe with the Photoluminescent vinyl spec sheets, similar views on composites, but not limited to just those. The spec sheets provided often do not give you a clear fire rating, some give no indication, while others list jargon, numbers, and codes that make little sense to an uneducated person in this field.
    It is a similar story with polymeric “car wrap” when it really shouldn’t be classed as a “wrap”, just because it can be used to wrap some vehicles. It is very misleading and can be a costly mistake! However, back to Photoluminescent. Conveniently missing ratings or confusing data will not only be an expensive mistake, but it could also cost lives. And mark my word, in a legal courtroom, it will fall on the shoulders of the signmaker for using non-qualifying materials to manufacture the signs, not the supplier of certain elements of the sign.

    I have attached a copy of the 3M photoluminescent. I haven’t used it myself, I am just adding it for reference, as you have attached some others that have been commented on.
    https://www.3m.co.uk

  • Peter Cassidy

    Member
    June 10, 2025 at 9:34 am

    Thanks for your reply Robert i have sent them an email asking if the signs must be a certain class.

    has anyone used oracal photoluminescent?

  • Robert Lambie

    Administrator
    June 11, 2025 at 7:53 am

    Peter,

    I use Oracal Photoluminescent, and it’s my preferred version of the material for general safety signs in the workplace, however, it is not qualified as a Class B Photoluminescent.
    I like it because it is the whitest photoluminescent I have seen and it prints, weeds, cuts and installs like a good quality film should. It is also 1370 mm wide, whereas most are only 1000mm wide.
    Unfortunately, it falls short of Class-B requirements on its after-glow performance once the lights are out!

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