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Printing onto reflective?
Hi guys, wonder if ayone can help.
I’m relatively new to the printing side and have only done the basics so far. I am looking to print some reflective flames for a lorry and not sure if it can be done? if so whats the best film to use?My machine is mutoh 1614 ecosol.
thanks
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30 Replies
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Hi Martyn!
Orafol do a range of printable reflectives, if you look for the Oralite 5400 & 5600 grades these would be a good place to start.
Both of these films are suitable for eco-solvent printing
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Or print onto clear then ‘laminate’ the reflective with it…works a treat.
Dave
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3M have a new printable, controltac reflective out.
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Oracal is a great reflective film to print too.
it also comes with with CE Certified water mark on the surface, which in my opinion, all films should come with. -
Thats great guys, thanks for the fast response!
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Use the Oralite 5200 a lot for latex printing giving great results, for something longer lasting the 5400 and 5600 are great products, Allprint sell the range along with a few others that probably have some.
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I print a lot or reflective vinyl for myself and customers vehicles / signs.
Orafol 5600 is specified as printable (and is), though I probably print more 5400 than anything else. You need to remember that if it’s going on a vehicle that is likely to be replaced, ie. it’ll need to come off again in a few years, I always laminate the reflective onto some 5yr oracal film (any colour will do but normally clear or white), the laminated the print, it does make it very thick and harder to cut & weed, but when you have to take it off you’ll be glad you did it this way!!
5400 & 5600 are supposed to be removable adhesive but I still think they stick like the proverbial to a blanket!!
New boy on the block is the 3M Scotchlite Print Wrap Film 780mC from William Smiths, basically a control-tac reflective wrap film, while it will be an easier process and much thinner than regular reflective, the end cost to the customer won’t be any cheaper as it’s VERY expensive!! at only 1220 wide, it’s just cost me over £37 per meter for the film and then about £8 pm for the laminate.. so per mtr before printing it’s around £45 +vat!
As I do a lot of printed ‘flective it I figured it worth a punt to get some in and have a play with it – it had better be good as a few weeks wages could be at stake :yikes: !!!
ps, once I decide what to print on the super expensive 3m flective, I’ll post up my thoughts and results.
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quote Kevin Busby:Use the Oralite 5200 a lot for latex printing giving great results, for something longer lasting the 5400 and 5600 are great products, Allprint sell the range along with a few others that probably have some.
That reminds me, I’ve got a couple of mtrs of the 5200 to sample on the latex, wasn’t aware there was a 5200 until a few months back.
Allprint used to sell a reflective range called 5R, I think it was cast.. pretty thick but very conformable for a reflective and the black reflective was the best on the market by far – when they dicontinued the range I tried to buy as much as I could of the black – I had a branded product made from it, but they wouldn’t do any deals to clear the lot, was expensive compared to the likes of orafol but omg.. so nice to apply!
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Once again guys great info thanks a lot much appreciated!
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quote Hugh Potter:I print a lot or reflective vinyl for myself and customers vehicles / signs.Orafol 5600 is specified as printable (and is), though I probably print more 5400 than anything else. You need to remember that if it’s going on a vehicle that is likely to be replaced, ie. it’ll need to come off again in a few years, I always laminate the reflective onto some 5yr oracal film (any colour will do but normally clear or white), the laminated the print, it does make it very thick and harder to cut & weed, but when you have to take it off you’ll be glad you did it this way!!
Hi Hugh, Just wondering if you laminate over the 5600 reflective once printed & if so what lam do you use?
Also how well does the reflective work through the ink & do you ever apply opaque sign vinyl over the top? i.e. to have some non reflective text/logos etc. as a contrast. -
Hi Myles,
Yes, usually just lam with a 3yr mono if short term or a 5/7yr poly if longer term, don’t recall any issues.Haven’t applied vinyl over it but often print black, still allows light through but much less than lighter colour, works a treat!!
I also make my own ad boards in indoor arenas reflective – spectator uses a flash and boom, there’s my board in the background while others are dark!!A few examples..
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Followed Hugh’s advice on some vans we did, worked a treat, no problems at all :thumbsup:
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Just seen your other post Myles.. 100% magenta on oralite 5400..
Not as dark as it looks in the first photo.
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quote Hugh Potter:Just seen your other post Myles.. 100% magenta on oralite 5400..
Not as dark as it looks in the first photo.Wow!! that’s quite impressive how well the reflective comes through. Especially following the comment from a supplier earlier saying that ink on reflective stops the reflection!!! It did seem to defeat the purpose of printable reflective! :bangshead:
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quote Hugh Potter:Hi Myles,
Yes, usually just lam with a 3yr mono if short term or a 5/7yr poly if longer term, don’t recall any issues.Haven’t applied vinyl over it but often print black, still allows light through but much less than lighter colour, works a treat!!
I also make my own ad boards in indoor arenas reflective – spectator uses a flash and boom, there’s my board in the background while others are dark!!A few examples..
Love the look of your van. Is the black in the dragon printed or is it contour cut?
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Printed, bugger contouring all that [emoji23]
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quote Hugh Potter:Printed, bugger contouring all that [emoji23]
Ha Ha! The joys of owning a printer hey!! I have to say since I got mine I seem to be getting very lazy with sign vinyl & print most things unless it has to be cut.
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quote Myles Brewer:quote Hugh Potter:Printed, bugger contouring all that [emoji23]
Ha Ha! The joys of owning a printer hey!! I have to say since I got mine I seem to be getting very lazy with sign vinyl & print most things unless it has to be cut.
It does get like that! Any more than two colours and it’s printed!!
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You may have already answered this, can you print reflective black? From reading through the post, yes but how well does it work? Customer wants black reflective flames on his lorry
thanks
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Simply.. yes, I did it on a previous van layout, reg marks are the hard bit! If I recall.. a weed box and cut file were made, then manually sent to cut using the corner of the weed box as a start point.. long time ago now and a colleague printed it for me!
Black reflective reflects a whitish light so colours are illuminated when the film is..
The illuminated photo here is lit only with the sun behind me when I took the pic, better at night, more holographic looking by day. They won’t be totally invisible as colours will still be seen to some degree.
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Thanks hugh. I think i will just print a large black box onto the reflective and cut with the plotter as they are simply solid black.
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If they’re solid, why not just buy in some black reflective, it will make for a better job.
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i had thought of that :smiles: but none of my suppliers do it. Was sure it wasnt available off the shelf
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It’s readily available try Hexis or Sign Trade Supplies (Oralite) for online ordering.
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Black reflective is available off the shelf.
Oracal do one, we got some from Europoint a few weeks ago. :thumbsup:
From memory it’s their 5600E
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Martyn,
I miseread your original question!! I thought you asked "can you print onto black reflective", not "can you print black onto reflective"!
As others have said, Orafol 5600 comes in black (hexis do the orafol films too).
consider that reflective is also hard to remove.. ignore the claims that it’s removable blah bah blah, with the exception of the wrap reflectives they all just varying degrees of foul language filling the fitting bay. I often lay the reflective onto a clear (though anything polymeric will do) film before cutting it out, it’s thick but when the customer brings it back for you to remove in a couple of years, you’ll be glad of the extra £10 worth of film you used!
H
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Just out of interest, if you print black on red or yellow reflective.. would it reflect the colour at night instead of the white that black reflective tends to reflect?
..probably not, thinking about it or temporary road signs wouldn’t work, would they? -
Thanks guys!! now found a supplier :thumbsup:
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Justin,
The black would illuminate to a degree but not to the extent that the red / yellow would.See the photo of my van, that’s printed on reflective white, the black areas are printed and don’t light up much at all.
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I thought as much Hugh. I think your flame coloured dragon looks very impressive.
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