Colorado 1650 Printing Stickers ?? Laminate or Not ??

[GC Decor]

Hey Guys,
We are running a wide variety of products on our UV printers. We have had several customers asking about die cut stickers & sheet stickers . Small batch orders but we like to handle all of our commercial customers needs in house for fast turn around.
Since our Colorado is up and running, do you guys think we still need to laminate or is the UV gel ink good enough for the finish. We run mostly matt finish and the quality of the samples we did have looked great.
Only had our Colorado for a few weeks, still trying to find the limitations on the product offering.

 

[ikarasu]

Depends on what your clients are doing with them.

The main reason I laminate is to make the material thicker. It also adds abrasive resistance as well as chemical resistance. I'm sure the UV gel would last a few years, but not laminating does produce an inferior product.

Print a sticker and put it on your phone... Then print a laminated one and put it right next to it Then keep your phone in your pocket and see what it looks like after a week.

But it all depends on what the customers using it for... I have a few customers who use it as product labels and they don't want any laminate on them so they turn out cheaper. Lots of diff use cases, I'm sure some stuff is fine with no lam... But most I'd keep laminated, it's cheap.. so why sacrafice quality to save a few bucks, bake it into your pricing.

 

[GC Decor]

That's a Great point,
Never thought about stickers being used on an iPhone. They do feel thin without laminate, as you stated. Over looked that part,
That's why I always try to come here to get first hand experience
Thanks Ikarasu.

 

[victor bogdanov]

I use 6 mil material with no laminate for small stickers, printed on the Colorado. Never any issues. The 6 mil material comes out a little cheaper that cal vinyl + cal lam and the thickness/feel is exactly the same. I would say without lam feels even nicer since the uv ink is raised a bit

 

[victor bogdanov]

Now with eco solvent I would always laminate as no laminate would guarantee edge curl no matter how long you let them dry

 

[Pauly]

Colorado 1650 inks are one of the most durable inks ive came across. wouldn't hesitate not laminating it

 

[GC Decor]

Thanks Victor, Ill give 6mil a try today - I really like the matt finish and feel. I hate to cover it with a plastic laminate so 6 mil we be something we try.

Thanks Pauly, That's how I feel but was looking for some reassurance - I like the Colorado ink more than our flatbed & I though our flatbed ink was extremely durable.
Gonna be working on more samples this morning - Most of my customers are using them in ecommerce packaging so hopefully the thicker vinyl will be a good fit.

 

[zspace]

Prints off the Colorado are pretty durable. We don't typically laminate them. Victor mentioned that the ink from UV printing sits on top of the vinyl so there is bigger possibility of silvering from air under the laminate.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

If you're going to laminate with matte laminate, print the job in gloss mode. Some brands of material don't stick properly to Colorado matte mode prints.

 

[Pauly]

If you're going to laminate with matte laminate, print the job in gloss mode. Some brands of material don't stick properly to Colorado matte mode prints.

and it's faster that way.