18' trailer wrap - wadded up by laminator piece by piece

[pixel_pusher]

I printed the whole thing on my Roland VP 540 using Avery EZ apply and let it outgas for 24 hours. When I tried laminating with Avery DOL 1060, everything went south after a few feet. The printed vinyl surface was rubbing against the feeder bar of the laminator, and it sounded like a guy in a 3 piece leather suit walking around the shop. Three panels have suffered the same fate.

As a test, I tried reprinting a panel on 3M ControlTac, and it ran through the laminator just fine. I only wish I had more leftover 3M vinyl on hand. The installation is scheduled for Monday-Tuesday.

Please tell me there's a way around reprinting this whole wrap.
If that's what I've gotta do, can anyone recommend a supplier in Knoxville, TN where I can buy more 3M vinyl tomorrow morning?

 

[luggnut]

i have laminated both 3M and avery wrap vinyls and never had an issue... are you sure the avery was set up wrong or crooked?

 

[Jillbeans]

I can't help you, but I had to say your description about the 3 piece leather suit was hilarious.
I don't know if I could have held on to my sense of humor like you did, if facing a similar situation.
Hope it works out OK.
Love.....Jill

 

[Charlie J]

What kind of laminator?

 

[TheSnowman]

I've never had great luck laminating, so if I ever print anything like that, I sub it. That way I don't have to stock a ton of expensive vinyl and laminates that I only use for that job, and there is 0% chance of error since it's someone else's problem.

If that's an option, you may look into subbing it. If you print it all again, and your laminator chews it...you will be out even more. Unless you know you solved the problem.

 

[Jester1167]

Do you have a picture of how its webbed and what's rubbing?

 

[pixel_pusher]

I don't have a photo, but I'm running a Royal Sovereign with heat assist on the top roll. The webbing is the same I've used for every other lamination job: Film feeds off the bottom of roll in back, goes under the steel tension bar, where the release liner separates from the film at about a 60 degree angle. I tape the liner to the take up roll, open the nip all the way and use a box flap to evenly push the film between the rollers, then close the nip enough to hold everything in place. Next, I turn the take up roll manually until the release liner is pulled tight against the bar with no slack on either side before replacing the safety cover and paper guide.

Once I run a few feet of scrap behind the sled while adjust the tension knobs to remove any wrinkles, I start laminating the actual job. In this case, the printed surface of the wrap panels started to catch and rub on the metal paper guide, eventually causing the unfortunate three piece leather suit path to ruin by first starting to ripple on the feed table surface before hitting the rollers and then wrinkling something awful.

Could there be something about the media itself that causes the ink to remain tacky enough to stick to the paper guide even after a day's outgassing? I ran the 3M test panel through the lam just minutes after printing and all was well. Same file, same media profile, same quality/speed settings, same laminate film.

Hemlock, anyone?

 

[ProWraps]

man that sucks. im sorry you are going through it. wish i could help but it sounds like you are doing everything a-ok.

possibly another reason why avery sucks?

 

[GAC05]

Can you remove the guides and other things that are causing the problem and manually feed the print through the laminator just to get though this one job?
Or break it down even simpler by cutting the lam to just what is needed for each panel and doing them one by one without the lam being webbed through the laminator?

Being a small shop that does not do a large volume of printing all we have is a simple 63" hand cranked laminator with no reels for the lam or take up.
Not a great way for a high production shop but it is almost error free - after a few practice runs. Longest single panels by hand have been about 25ft of 54" IJ180.
Might be worth a shot over tossing all those prints into the trash and reprinting.

good luck with it

wayne k
guam usa

 

[ProWraps]

good point GAC. our guide just pops right off (usually on its own). try to remove yours if you can.

 

[pixel_pusher]

When I take off the guide, the laminator shuts off due to some kind of safety feature. Any way to override that?

 

[pixel_pusher]

The tip about disabling the paper guide's sensor worked, but the lamination is still a little iffy. I think there's just something inherently wrong with this media. Sigh.

 

[laserman70]

I printed the whole thing on my Roland VP 540 using Avery EZ apply and let it outgas for 24 hours. When I tried laminating with Avery DOL 1060, everything went south after a few feet. The printed vinyl surface was rubbing against the feeder bar of the laminator, and it sounded like a guy in a 3 piece leather suit walking around the shop. Three panels have suffered the same fate.

As a test, I tried reprinting a panel on 3M ControlTac, and it ran through the laminator just fine. I only wish I had more leftover 3M vinyl on hand. The installation is scheduled for Monday-Tuesday.

Please tell me there's a way around reprinting this whole wrap.
If that's what I've gotta do, can anyone recommend a supplier in Knoxville, TN where I can buy more 3M vinyl tomorrow morning?

When we first started we usedAvery 1000 and 1060. We had nothing but issues, ruining many different prints. We switched over to 3M and we have not had an issue since(knock on wood) I am not sure what caused the issue, but nothing was changed on the laminator, just changed media. Sorry to hear you issue, wish I had some advice for you. Good Luck

 

[Mikeifg]

turn off the heat.

 

[btropical.com]

use other medis and dont waste your prints when testing

 

[TresL]

The new Avery RS EZ & 1060 is tacky on the front even without print.
Like it's VERY soft.

I just received a roll of it and the 1060, so far, I'm not too impressed.

Prints did look good.
Getting ready to install some.
I didn't have these issues with the lam, but I did have a lot of silvering.

 

[beyondgraffix]

Are you using craft paper while laminating? If you are, try laminating without it. Use a sled at the beginning and end of the print job. This only works if your using the same size overlam as the wrap media.

 

[pixel_pusher]

I switched to a calendered vinyl for the reprint (since there are no curves or rivets), and about 20' into lamination, an indented line showed up in the overlaminate. It's about 6" from the right end of the roll, and it's perfectly straight. It looks like the film actually ran under a scoring wheel for who knows how many feet. I'm at my wit's end here, because the install is Tuesday, and I only have usable panels for the front and back of this trailer and no way to get more film in time to finish the two 18' sides.

There have been two or three completely random problems with this job that I never could have prepared for. It's almost like there's a cosmic reason for this wrap not to happen. Maybe it would be the start of a butterfly effect that would result in the destruction of the space/time continuum.

 

[Dejohn]

Pixel,
I have the same Roland and My laminator is the same One as yours only Its the model without the heat asist. I'm not sure if i can help but I can try...All My Laminating is done on the top end, When I Print I run an extra 4 inches or so past any cutting marks for the printer or any image this gives me room to stop on scrap instead of the image I never stop in the middle of an image when laming..It puts a impression of a line across the graphic where you stop...I also use feeders and I feed my Printed Piece under the Feeder..I have had few when I first got my laminator that I fed on top of my feeder that looked like a wrinkled mess..When I feed My Piece in I push it in as far as it will go and then put hardly any pressure on it and then start it going...Since doing it this way I havent had any problems...I hope This Helped...Dennis

 

[dolce05]

just explain to the customer your having some equipment issues and there will be a delay on the completion of the job. Get yourself more film when you can and move on. Whether the customer believes you or not, its the truth and you did everything in your power to try and correct the problem. I'm still waiting on a tow truck to wrap that was supposed to be here thursday. The customer said its getting something done with the brakes, and the brake shop is waiting on a part. Nobodys stressing, it is what it is. And trust me I'm all about holding to a schedule. But I will tell you when the truck does get here he's going to wait until we can squeeze him in. Its not like thats all we have on our plate. good luck, I'm sure you'll be fine.