Decals curling on edges

Why are you spray laminating?

 

Print, then laminate like normal with a laminating machine, then cut

 

Its curling because its very difficult to do no bleed graphics with a solvent machine if they have not properly outgassed. How long did you wait before cutting?

 

You have to let it sit before you cut it, the official rule book says 24 hours and 48 hours by the not so busy crowd here. If you do it sooner, try and let it sit overnight before you weed it.

 

HP latex won’t curl, so worth looking into that down the road if you find yourself needing fast turnaround. Otherwise you can wait 24-48 hours before laminating and cutting to combat the issue on solvent.

 

Good Afternoon Binki,

I hope your day is going well outside of having this issue.From the limited information that has been provided it would appear as though in this case the print was not allowed to out gas fully before it was cut. I can make a few recommendations that can help prevent this type of issue in the future. First I would recommend going to our website and downloading the proper profiles for your printer setup and rip software(you can find those here https://www.orafol.com/en/americas/support), next allow the material to sit for a minimum of 24 hours after printing there will need to be room around the material for air to flow for the solvents to be able to escape, for heavier saturated prints or darker colors we would recommend extending that period of out gassing to 36-48 hours, once the material has been allowed to out gas then you can laminate if you are planning to laminate the graphic. Depending on the print media you can use Oraguard 210 for most of our calendared media, and then you can proceed to cutting the vinyl. We do not recommend using spray laminates with our material. If you have any further questions or if you would like to discuss this further please feel free to send us a direct message.

I hope you find this information helpful, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

 

If the spray laminate helped, I’d maybe check the tension on your laminator. If it’s too high, all your prints will curl.

That and use a compatible laminate.

That’s if the above doesn’t work, anyway. It’s likely an outgassing issue.

 

We print and cut on Oracal 3641 everyday unlaminated without any issues. If you are using Oracal Rapid Air vinyl then it will curl if ink goes to the edges.

 

We do full bleed cuts on Oracal 3651 Rapid Air with fair regularity. Only time we get curls is if someone gets ahead of themselves and cuts without allowing for out gassing. Get curls pretty much every time (Rapid air or not) when someone tries to cut full bleeds without waiting.

 

Agreed. We don't have curling issues even if we break the golden 24 hour rule as long as it is laminated, full bleed cal or cast.

 

+1 to both of the above posts. No curling issues when laminated. I'm guessing either you don't have a laminator or the customer doesn't want to pay for it.

 

It's natural for it to curl when left on a table sometimes before but every time after you weed it. The backer is wax and the adhesive doesn't stick to it, so when you give it an edge, it lifts right up.
Do not use a spray on laminate or a brush on, you won't be happy with the results.

Once you apply it to the final surface such as aluminum, it will not curl. It just needs something to stick to. Also you can transfer tape it to prevent the curling.

 

So are you saying you let it outgas before you LAMINATE it or before you CUT it? The way your post reads it sounds like you're printing and laminating and then waiting 24 hours or so to cut it but that doesn't make sense to me. Wouldn't it have to outgas BEFORE you laminated? I get edge curl with 3M IJ35C and 8508 (and 3165GRA w/210) when I run ink right to the cut edge but not when I have a white border. Normally, I take a print out of the printer, send it through the laminator, and then put it right in the cutter. Between which steps should I be outgassing?

 

If you are getting curling I would also look at your profiles and ink limits and even the artwork itself. More ink = more curling.

A lot of artwork is rgb or has rich black up to the edge/bleed. This amount of ink on the edges of the decals doesn't help.

 

No, I meant to say that about laminating rather than cutting. Always best outgas before laminating.

 

Okay, thanks for the clarification. You had me second guessing myself there for a second!

 

We had the same issue and lowered the ambient temp of the room which fixed it for us.