Best setup for high volume signs/decals

Have you looked at an ironworker?

 

20 hours for one 4x8???

 

Would it be possible to buy these in pre cut? If it’s the same size all the time it may be worth just getting in blanks?

that being said, even if a CNC takes a while to cut these out, it’s still pretty much automated. Load a sheet and off you go, leaving you time to do other jobs.

 

Buying precut and punched wouldn't seem to save much time if you had to apply vinyl to them and trim.

 

Buy the blanks precut with the holes and corners already done, than look into flatbed printing them using a jig, if they are all the same size it should be very easy to set up a jig for this.

 

Yeah, it's a much bigger investment but a flatbed printer and a good supplier that can get you sheets already finished will be the better "high volume" combination.

The automation of the flatbed will allow one of your people to go between running sheets and other tasks in between.

You just need to be aware that flatbed inks won't last as long as laminated vinyl (up to 3 years outdoors for most UV inks). Most of our clients are okay with this considering the price difference.

 

We make a lot of 3" x 7" plaques out of 3mm aluminum composite. We flatbed print them on 4' x 8' sheets and then put them on the Multicam router to cut out. Takes about 45 minutes a sheet to cut out.

 

How many colors? If it's 1-3 colors screen printing is way quicker than roll to roll.

 

Are most of these signs going inside or outside? Intermediate or cast vinyl and lam? In my opinion, if you think you could make use of a CNC router you absolutely could. It opens up all sorts of things for your shop. The machine doesn't care if you are cutting a square with sharp corners or a totally abstract shape with radius corners and mounting holes. We have a flat bed Mimaki printer and would print these on aluminum composite with registration marks, cut them on the CNC, put them on sticks and shoot urethane clearcoat on them if going outside. They would all be identical and have the same mounting holes with no vinyl to lift on the edges. If they were simple signs on white we might consider screen printing like ikarasu mentioned but would still be cutting blanks on our CNC. Its hard for us to screen print any more, takes up space with racks and making sure they stay clean while drying and we don't have any people with that experience any more other than supervisors. Sometimes its just easier to use the standard work flow even if its not the ideal setup.

 

Flatbed UV direct print will last just as long or longer. We direct print QTY 15 4x8 Sheets an HR, and it takes about 6 minutes per sheet to CNC out.

 

Urethane will outlast any PVC product exposed to UV. With UV ink you have raised ink properties and it makes it harder to film laminate, so a self-leveling liquid is most ideal, plus with film laminate, you are dealing with multilayer products that have multiple failure points.

 

No it does not. We explain the life span and process, and sell the material as is, printed with UV inks that last a damn long time.

 

The urethane clearcoat is definitely a superior coating over laminate. I’m personally not a fan of vinyl and laminate for long term signage. Maybe because we are in Arizona and I can’t tell you how many brown burned delaminating signs we have replaced over the years lol. This is one of the harshest environments when it comes to printing materials with the year round UV. Also we are just recently getting into roll printing have haven’t seen the advantage of changing our techniques at this point.