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Printing to wall paper
Hi all.
I have a good customer that I do a lot of installing for & they often supply me with wallpaper that they print themselves to install at various pubs etc The quality is very good print wise (I think they use a HP machine) but the ink doesn’t seem to be water stable. Basically, what happens is that when I apply the paper, as with any wallpaper, I have to wipe over the edge to remove excess paste, but in doing so, it smudges the ink & often waters down the colour.
What I want to know is, how can they or I get over this? Is there a special ink available that is stable, or a coating that can be applied during or after print that would stop this?
Has to be said, as much as I love my customer, they don’t seem to be up to speed regarding their machine, so any input I can give them that will make my job easier would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
Gwaredd.
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3 Replies
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I have a HP Designjet and if using the dye inks these are water based and can be washed off the media, if using the uv inks these are a bit better and will tend to fade rather than disapear, however with out some form of protection nethier are that suitable for wallpaper.
I also have a Soljet II pro thats prints using full solvent inks, once dry these are both water and fade proof without any protection.
Regards
Russell.
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Thanks for the reply Russell. I wasn’t aware that a Soljet type machine could print to wallpaper.
So the definitive answer would be to use solvent inks, any water based or ‘eco’ inks will run or smudge?
Cheers,
Gwaredd.
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There is a range of wallpaper medias you can buy over here that prints extremely well on a solvent printer. It comes in a range of textures and often will print well with little or no profile tweaking.
The biggest problem I have heard of is the edges curling once its applied, I’m guessing this perhaps has something to do with the media shrinking after application.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Pauly
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