Polycarb Supplier Needed

[Rodney Gold]

Nigel , print on thickish white sprocketed vinly , or or thick clear sprocketed and overlaminate with a thick matt , wheat grain or frosted sparkle type cold lam (150 mil should be available) missing the sprockets then die cut thru both , you get a totaly protected graphic with a matt face and an adhesive back (I assume you want it adhesive backed)
The other alternative is to get 250mil lexan frosted sheet and take it to someone with a laminator and apply crystal clear adhesive (meant for mounting front printed graphics inside windows without seeing “glue marks” ) and apply it to the clear or white sprocketed if the the ovelam isn’t thick enough.

[Nigel Fraser]

Thanks for the tips Rodney, my customer wants a 3M 467 adhesive on the back of these panels and so I reverse print on the clear std vinyl and apply this wet to the lexan material (both complete with holes already cut) and the customer applies their own 467 adhesive to the back (they are a trade customer who cant do the printing) I cant justify die cutting because they only have small quantites of 10/15 of these things. It’s just the cost of the lexedge material which is a problem for me really 😕

Thanks anyway,

Nigel

[Lorraine Buchan]

I’ve been on the lookout for the same stuff.

If I come across anything i’ll let you know.

Thinking on Rodney’s comments, the ploycarbonate doesn’t need to Sprocketed, as long as you missed the holes you could just use the holes on the clear vinyl.

I think i have an idea on something i’ve seen, I’ll see if i can locate it.

[Nigel Fraser]

quote lorraine:

Thinking on Rodney’s comments, the ploycarbonate doesn’t need to Sprocketed, as long as you missed the holes you could just use the holes on the clear vinyl.

Hi Lorraine, I don’t understand what you mean by this ?? I wanted it sprocketed so I can run it through the edge plotter before I apply the printed vinyl to it – i.e. to cut out the overall shape of each panel and also the holes where the various knobs stick through it. Then I reverse print and cut the clear vinyl to match exactly the shape and wet apply on the non frosted side of the polycarb sheets. Does that makes sense??

Thanks anyway 😉

Nigel

[Lorraine Buchan]

Nigel,

Am i right in saying you would:

1) cut the polycarbonate to shape

2) print onto the clear in reverse and cut to shape

3) apply the clear print to the polycarbonate

My plan was as follows:

1) Print to clear in reverse

2) apply the polycarbonate

3) load into the cutter and cut polycarbonate with print applied

My plan was going ok until I thought about it a bit more 🙄 , in order to stick the polycarbonate onto the clear printed vinyl you would have to remove it from it’s backing paper, then you loose your ability to reload it into the machine for cutting. As Rodney said:

quote :

The other alternative is to get 250mil lexan frosted sheet and take it to someone with a laminator and apply crystal clear adhesive

You could then print on the vinyl the right way up, stick the polycarbonate on top of the vinyl while still on the backing paper allowing you to run it through the machine again to cut.

The normal adhesive would still be on the back of the panel, but the customer could maybe add their 3M adhesive to this!

Oh I don’t know *hair*

[Nigel Fraser]

Yes thats exactly my plan ! I works fine but is a little fiddly getting exact registration between the polycarb and the vinyl when applying but if you do it wet then theres time to move it about.
I can see exactly what you/Rodney mean now, this would be great except for two things – 1) I wouldn’t be very happy about applying the 3M adhesive to the existing vinyl adhesive and 2) When you cut the polycarb out you only “score” cut it as it has no carrier so you would be left with the face scored and the clear vinyl untouched on the reverse which would make it tricky to say the least to make a neat job of getting the holes out etc.

Nice idea whilst it lasted thought 😀

Nigel

[Rodney Gold]

Why not laser cut the cheaper ploycarb and do the other via the plotter and apply. Or even better , apply and then laser cut
Registration in the laser might be an issue , but we used to print and then die cut inkjet vinyl in our laser with a registration system. If you print a square around the multiple labels and cut the sheet on the printed square outlines , you can then you could make a 3mm perspex template with that square cut out , where that square is registered from your laser home (Ie will always be in the same position relative to home on your laser) drop the cut square in and send the dielines to be cut.
We used to do this in corel , send a print to the printer and group the outlines and send it to the laser. We often had a “test” file , one shape printed in the upper left and one in the lower right , to see if registration was indeed correct (IE the laser cut on the printed lines) before cutting the whole sheet.
Im not sure how your cutting/printing and laser package works , but you could most likely kludge it with importing and exporting. Corel 11 is a boon in this regards , inputs and outputs most anything without buggering it up (mostly:)

[Nigel Fraser]

Thats a good idea Rodney, registration would be fairly easy to achieve. I tried cutting some 2mm polycarb sheeting in the laser before and it all went a bit burnt/sticky deposits round the cut edge, so I assumed it wasn’t a good material to use and never tried it again. I don’t know if different brands maybe would react better or if it would cut better because it is only 250mic thick ??

Nigel

[Rodney Gold]

The 2mm thick is a bit of a problem , not so much that it is not laser friendly , it “oxidises”. If you feed nitrogen or an inert gas thru the air assist , it cuts clean. But 250mil should not be a problem at all , try at about 20 -30 % power and 100% speed. Cut as fast as you can, you can also try some wet tissue paper over it (I haven’t tried it , but often it cools enough to avoid “burning” – works well on glass to give a far smoother almost sandblast effect rather than the chiped effect the laser often gives)
In essence you shouldnt engrave PVC (the vinyl) in a laser as it releases chlorine gas (the chlorine is toxic and it combines with the moisture in the air to form hydrochloric acid which isn’t that great for bearings , rails etc – but thats assuming you do it all day , die cutting releases such minute quantities it’s not an issue)

[Nigel Fraser]

Thanks Rodney, I will give it a try with a sample. I found the “wet paper” method on the web somewhere after failing to make a neat job of a glass engraving job and it works absolutely brilliantly !

Nigel