Arlon 3220 Cast laminate - suitable alternative to 3M 8518??

[White Haus]

Anyone have experience with using Arlon 3220 for permanent outdoor vehicle graphics? Would you trust it for fleet graphics?

We would usually use 3M 8518 for this but can't get our hands on any and need to find an alternative.

3220 seems to be readily available at a much better price point than any other cast gloss laminates, including 3M 8518, Avery DOL 1060Z, Oraguard 290G.

Any thoughts/feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[LarryB]

When covid started we started using Arlon SLX+ along with 3220 lam and have had zero issues.

 

[rjssigns]

Anyone have experience with using Arlon 3220 for permanent outdoor vehicle graphics? Would you trust it for fleet graphics?

We would usually use 3M 8518 for this but can't get our hands on any and need to find an alternative.

3220 seems to be readily available at a much better price point than any other cast gloss laminates, including 3M 8518, Avery DOL 1060Z, Oraguard 290G.

Any thoughts/feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

3220 is a nice laminate. We've been running Arlon products for years and like the gloss of 3220. Lays down well without silvering. Over the years we've run them all and kept coming back to Arlon.

 

[White Haus]

Works for me, thanks guys. Ordered a couple rolls to test out.

Definitely better priced and easier to find than the 3M stuff these days!

 

[Patentagosse]

I have a roll of about all major brands here (their top-of-the-line cast) and my choice remains 3M 8518 for gloss and clarity. I was used to buy Oracal's combo 3751GPS + 290G but the laminate was not as glossy as expected. Tried 1060z, not bad but shorter durability. Got a combo of SLX+ with matching laminate 3220 and worked great but the orange peel and overall gloss was not as good as 3M's. Don't know why but surprisingly, the 8518 cost me less than all others here in Canada and we have 'em available at Grimco (ordered 1 last week) so for your question, Yes Arlon is a great product and you can use it with confidence.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I have a roll of about all major brands here (their top-of-the-line cast) and my choice remains 3M 8518 for gloss and clarity. I was used to buy Oracal's combo 3751GPS + 290G but the laminate was not as glossy as expected. Tried 1060z, not bad but shorter durability. Got a combo of SLX+ with matching laminate 3220 and worked great but the orange peel and overall gloss was not as good as 3M's. Don't know why but surprisingly, the 8518 cost me less than all others here in Canada and we have 'em available at Grimco (ordered 1 last week) so for your question, Yes Arlon is a great product and you can use it with confidence.

I'd have a hard time switching from 8518

 

[White Haus]

I have a roll of about all major brands here (their top-of-the-line cast) and my choice remains 3M 8518 for gloss and clarity. I was used to buy Oracal's combo 3751GPS + 290G but the laminate was not as glossy as expected. Tried 1060z, not bad but shorter durability. Got a combo of SLX+ with matching laminate 3220 and worked great but the orange peel and overall gloss was not as good as 3M's. Don't know why but surprisingly, the 8518 cost me less than all others here in Canada and we have 'em available at Grimco (ordered 1 last week) so for your question, Yes Arlon is a great product and you can use it with confidence.

Thanks for your feedback. I do prefer 8518 over all the other options but it's just getting so hard to get on a regular basis, and 3M's never-ending price increases don't help.

Grimco must be giving you some good pricing - they used to have the best price on 3M but I've been getting better pricing elsewhere.

Either way, I can get 3220 for $150 less than 8518 so it's worth a try.

We'll still pair IJ180cv3 with 8518 and Avery 1105 with 1060z as needed, but I think this 3220 will be good for more cost effective decals/vehicle graphics etc.

We don't use any calendared gloss so we've been using 8518 for anything that needs gloss, but it's overkill a lot of the time.

 

[Elwood "Woody" Smith]

Great product, We use 90% Arlon for wraps.

 

[signdepot12]

We use Arlon 3210 and SLX+ for all of our wrap jobs, they come out great and we have never had a complaint. I like the SLX+ over 3M.

 

[CanuckSigns]

We use 90% arlon here, I love their products, we use 510MT for our temporary stuff like coroplast, 4600lx for our midrange or long term indoor stuff, and their slx+ is a great film for the small amount of wrapping we do.

 

[CanuckSigns]

I tried this stuff once years ago, for some reason I just had to plot letters out of it and apply. When weeding it, I noticed the backer had a higher white point than the film itself. I just went back to ij35c after that roll.
How's the white point these days?

I've never had an issue with the white point, definitely better than the oracal vinyl we used before it which was very blue.

 

[Johnny Best]

I've used the 3220 matte for a long time and like it better than 3M, especially the price.