Fred Weiss
Merchant Member
What would be the best method for printing a durable image on a school desktop laminated with Formica? Screen printing, sublimation, other?
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Best Method for Durable Printing on Desktop Laminate?
- Thread starter Fred Weiss
- Start date
Bill Modzel
New Member
One desktop or a bunch of them? A small image or the whole desktop?
A catalyzed screen ink will adhere and hold up fairly well if your doing something like a one or two color image on formica. If your doing a multicolor image and using most of the desktop, a digital print with a 5mil lexan overlam will hold up very well.
A catalyzed screen ink will adhere and hold up fairly well if your doing something like a one or two color image on formica. If your doing a multicolor image and using most of the desktop, a digital print with a 5mil lexan overlam will hold up very well.
sfr table hockey
New Member
For a Pizza shop they had a vinyl laminated menu on the counter and taped down and looked like crap and showed wear easily being on the counter.
I used some (pet film) plastic sheet stock which was a bit thinner than credit card thickness and it came in 4 x 8 sheets for about $20. This stuff had a protective film on both sides. Removed one side and reverse printed onto it with my old Roland with ecosol max inks. Once dry I back it with 751 Oracal so the white shows the color better from the other side. Secure the white side down with banner hem tape and the front is now almost indistructable. In time it shows scratch marks but ends up looking like a matte finish and yet the graphics are un touched.
Not the quickest but lasts a long time.
I used some (pet film) plastic sheet stock which was a bit thinner than credit card thickness and it came in 4 x 8 sheets for about $20. This stuff had a protective film on both sides. Removed one side and reverse printed onto it with my old Roland with ecosol max inks. Once dry I back it with 751 Oracal so the white shows the color better from the other side. Secure the white side down with banner hem tape and the front is now almost indistructable. In time it shows scratch marks but ends up looking like a matte finish and yet the graphics are un touched.
Not the quickest but lasts a long time.
sfr table hockey
New Member
Again using Ecosol max ink it dried in a normal time. You could touch it 10 15 min later without issue. I tend to let dry over night and then apply the layer of 751, or any white with a clear adheasive can work.
One thing the pet sheet stock causes is a lot of static when you remove the one side protective film so I try to wipe down with Iso propal (Alcohol). I use a made profile for a banner material so nothing special on the profile end but static and lint can show up more easily in the print.
As a follow up, I tried to remove some ink off a piece with Rapid Remover (as that stuff will take ink off of almost anything) and I was surprised it took a lot more rubbing to get ink to come off so it seems to bite well on the PET film.