3M IJ180Cv3 sun exposure---looks burned

[signsourcetx]

Has anyone ever seen this before? The print is 3M IJ180Cv3 w/ 8520 over laminate. Was only installed about 2 years ago. Has a good amount of sun exposure but I have never seen it actually change the color so drastically. All of the brown looking area is originally white...

Any feedback is much appreciated!!

 

[DougWestwood]

brown?

Wow. I have never seen 3M and Lam go brown like that.
Has some kind of mold or grease gotten between lam and vinyl?
Does their kitchen exhaust blow directly on the sign?
- Doug
Vancouver

 

[gnemmas]

What laminate was applied?

This is similar to a a post month ago regarding Oraguard 210 laminate.

 

[Gino]

Why do you suppose the white areas remained white in the pricing sections ?? Why didn't they burn, too ?? Also, I presume the selections with prices are patches, so what is in the corners of all of them ??

 

[signsourcetx]

The laminate is 3M 8520.
That is a good question whether their exhaust fan blows directly onto it, I'll check on that.

Gino- I didn't even notice the corners until you said that, I have no idea what is going on there. I haven't actually been onsite yet to look at it, one of my coworkers took the photo. I do know that the individual dollar prices were separate decals given to them but I believe the boxes were in the overall print.

Thanks for the replies all!

 

[kropz]

wow 2 years only? I recently had to re-do a trailer that had oraguard 210 on it it because of this issue but even that made 4 years,
can't imagine the 3M going south that quick

 

[jfiscus]

Never, ever, ever seen this happen with 3M, and we run a LOT of rolls. I'm betting that someone grabbed the wrong lam by mistake.

 

[tylercrum]

You can see at the top where the shadow from whatever is above it has shaded it from burning. My money's on bad/wrong laminate.

 

[SightLine]

That big shadow is the biggest clue. Thats just straight up, never moves, never gets a good synthetic waxing, etc hardcore sun exposure every single day hitting on a poor batch of laminate that is defective in that is has essentially no UV resistance OR someone used the wrong laminate. Always seems to affect unprinted areas the worst and you can see where the piece above give it a good bit of shade - still nice and white there.

 

[signsourcetx]

Thanks all for the replies!

 

[MikePro]

I've only seen "scorching" issues like this on vertical surfaces like hoods/rooftops of cars.
only thing i can think of, aside from western sunlight exposure in Texas, is a possibility that there are stainless steel panels surrounding the area of the graphic installation: mirroring sunlight and amplifying sunlight exposure & temperatures.

a nearby exhaust is a good theory as well ....either way, its being cooked.
like a waterbottle sitting at the edge of a campfire, plastic will usually change color when exposed to high temps.