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printing on reflective, does it stay reflective?

VicoDrive

New Member
A police officer came in today inquiring on pricing to decal up some new vehicles they have coming. I looked at his current car with graphics and saw what I havent come across before. The star is a type of yellow/brown with black outlines. The center is white (i assume unprinted) with the county seal. I figured it was all printed except for the white area but when I looked closer, I could tell it was entirely reflective. But it had to be printed right?

Im guessing its either white reflective material that was printed on with reflective ink (assuming that exist), or its reflective material that was printed normally but the reflectiveness shines through?

Any tips or suggestions would be welcome!
 

SqueeGee

New Member
It's likely reflective white that's either been Edge printed or inkjet(likely solvent) printed. Can you tell if it has an over laminate?
 
I've printed on some Oracal with my Mutoh ValuJet and laminated it. So far so good, no complaints.
I have my exit signs in my shop printed with it and it reflects better than I thought.
 

VicoDrive

New Member
It's likely reflective white that's either been Edge printed or inkjet(likely solvent) printed. Can you tell if it has an over laminate?

What do you mean by edge printed? Inkjet is what I would do, does reflection shine through inkjet? I really couldnt tell if it was laminated or not. I would assume it is
 

SightLine

║▌║█║▌│║▌║▌█
It is more than likely solvent (or eco-solvent) inkjet printed. Works just fine and is the intended use of printable reflective. Try printing on some clear laminate - then hold that up to some light - your inks are highly translucent. We print on reflective at least weekly (always laminate it). Oracal, 3M, Avery, Nikkalite, or private branded from a merchant member here Bigfish are all options. You will pay out the nose for the big brands. The best is 3M 680CR but it is ungodly expensive. We use Nikkalite and Bigfish has an excellent printable reflective which is also very cost effective.

Edge printed means printed on a Gerber Edge is all. Just a totally different print technology. We have an older Edge LE - great little machine. Has its limitations but can do many things an inkjet printer is simply not capable of.
 

VicoDrive

New Member
It is more than likely solvent (or eco-solvent) inkjet printed. Works just fine and is the intended use of printable reflective. Try printing on some clear laminate - then hold that up to some light - your inks are highly translucent. We print on reflective at least weekly (always laminate it). Oracal, 3M, Avery, Nikkalite, or private branded from a merchant member here Bigfish are all options. You will pay out the nose for the big brands. The best is 3M 680CR but it is ungodly expensive. We use Nikkalite and Bigfish has an excellent printable reflective which is also very cost effective.

Edge printed means printed on a Gerber Edge is all. Just a totally different print technology. We have an older Edge LE - great little machine. Has its limitations but can do many things an inkjet printer is simply not capable of.

My inks are Eco-Solvent and I have printed on some clear window cling before and was translucent. So I guess this should work out! We use a Roland Soljet which seems to do everything we like except for printing directly onto foamcore or corrugated which is fine. Gonna look into our catalogs and see what reflective material we have access to, thanks!
 

Mosh

New Member
Do it all the time with my Roland eco sol ink. I make some street signs this way when in a pinch.
 

2B

Active Member
we print using Eco Sol onto Reflective. there are a few points to be aware of though.
the more ink you lay the more of the reflective is diminished, ALWAYS laminate printed reflective.
be careful when doing gray scale, as the light when it is dark will turn the reflective "green" if not printed correctly.
 

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
From another popular thread here some reflective does not remain reflective very long even if it is not printed at all......
We did some grayscale prints on top of 3M 680 (with lam) for a few security vehicles that came out nice and lite up fine at night.


wayne k
guam usa
 
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VicoDrive

New Member
we print using Eco Sol onto Reflective. there are a few points to be aware of though.
the more ink you lay the more of the reflective is diminished, ALWAYS laminate printed reflective.
be careful when doing gray scale, as the light when it is dark will turn the reflective "green" if not printed correctly.

Does that got for 4 color black or just pure black as well?
 
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