Dry Erase Magnetics

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

I am looking for some recommendations if anyone can offer any, for some dry erase magnetic signs. The customer brought in some that they are already using with great success and would like something similar to these, if possible. The only thing that I thought was odd, is that I'm only finding 2 mil dry erase laminates through my typical suppliers. These magnets look like they have a thick, maybe 6-12 mil laminate on them. The reason I say that is because you can see silvering around the heavily printed areas of the magnets, as you will see in the attached photos, that is typical of a thicker laminate. The magnets measure about .033" thick overall.

Does anyone know this mystery dry-erase laminate? Aside from that, does anyone have experience with a tried and true dry erase laminate that works well on magnetic signage? Since this is a new product for us, I just want to make sure we put our best foot forward and not use something that will cause edge curl or other potential problems.

 

[eahicks]

That second photo really looks to me like they laminated over cut lettering. Normal dry erase laminate should work just fine on prints or directly to blank magnet. And your .033" makes sense.....030" magnet with 3 mil laminate; adds up.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

That second photo really looks to me like they laminated over cut lettering. Normal dry erase laminate should work just fine on prints or directly to blank magnet. And your .033" makes sense.....030" magnet with 3 mil laminate; adds up.

It's definitely printed. You can see the same silvering along the top edge of the green, not to mention I can't imagine anyone in their right mind putting vinyl lettering on a printed magnet unless perhaps if it was variable data, which this is not. I've generally seen this occurrence when a very thick or rigid laminate is applied over a densely printed surface.

You know you make a good point. I actually thought this was a vinyl print with thick laminate applied to .025" magnet. I guess it could be printed directly to the magnet and then laminated over, but the side profile, which I did not get a photo of, looked like it had vinyl and laminate applied to a slightly thinner magnetic sheeting.

 

[Robert Armerding]

A little caution. Ask your client what brand of dry erase marker they plan to use. Get a set yourself and test them on the material you might be using. To do that, you will somehow need to get a sample of the laminate.
Why is this an issue? Different brands of dry erase markers work differently on various types of dry erase surfaces, especially the black marker. In some cases the dry erase mark does not come off very well. Avoid as you say, "...potential problems."
Hint: the manufacturer of the dry erase laminate might be a good place to start to see what they recommend for the marker and the cleaner. Some cleaners are not suitable for some laminates.
Due diligence.

 

[Boudica]

That second photo really looks to me like they laminated over cut lettering. Normal dry erase laminate should work just fine on prints or directly to blank magnet. And your .033" makes sense.....030" magnet with 3 mil laminate; adds up.

I was about to say the same thing - but you beat me to it
And if I was asked for this - I would probably print on vinyl, lam with vandalgaurd anti-graffiti lam, then mount to 30mil magnet. I've tried direct printing, then laminating with the anti-graffiti, but the UV ink is raised a little and it doesn't look as good. kind of like image 2. Vandalgaurd is awesome - you can get sharpie ink off of it with ISO alcohol and a little elbow grease.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

A little caution. Ask your client what brand of dry erase marker they plan to use. Get a set yourself and test them on the material you might be using. To do that, you will somehow need to get a sample of the laminate.
Why is this an issue? Different brands of dry erase markers work differently on various types of dry erase surfaces, especially the black marker. In some cases the dry erase mark does not come off very well. Avoid as you say, "...potential problems."
Hint: the manufacturer of the dry erase laminate might be a good place to start to see what they recommend for the marker and the cleaner. Some cleaners are not suitable for some laminates.
Due diligence.

This was already discussed with the client and this is one reason why I'm really not a big fan of dry erase jobs in general. He's going to let me know what type of markers and erasers they currently use so I can check compatibility.

 

[iPrintStuff]

Second photo to me looks like that’s just vinyl + dry erase lam mounted to a magnet. That graininess in the print is a dead giveaway.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

That second photo really looks to me like they laminated over cut lettering. Normal dry erase laminate should work just fine on prints or directly to blank magnet. And your .033" makes sense.....030" magnet with 3 mil laminate; adds up.

So, after looking at my work order again, it says it is .038". Obviously, I need to work on my handwriting. This is definitely a thick laminate. It looks just like a Convex 12 mil laminate, but for dry erase use. So yeah, essentially I'm looking for a thick dry erase laminate, or so it would seem.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

Second photo to me looks like that’s just vinyl + dry erase lam mounted to a magnet. That graininess in the print is a dead giveaway.

That it is but the laminate is thicker than 2 mil. Much thicker.

 

[Johnny Best]

Digikote makes a 10mil thick dry erase laminating film

 

[eahicks]

So, after looking at my work order again, it says it is .038". Obviously, I need to work on my handwriting. This is definitely a thick laminate. It looks just like a Convex 12 mil laminate, but for dry erase use. So yeah, essentially I'm looking for a thick dry erase laminate, or so it would seem.

I guess I don't understand your need for thicker laminate. Thicker material does not mean better.

 

[Proofread People]

It's definitely printed. You can see the same silvering along the top edge of the green, not to mention I can't imagine anyone in their right mind putting vinyl lettering on a printed magnet unless perhaps if it was variable data, which this is not. I've generally seen this occurrence when a very thick or rigid laminate is applied over a densely printed surface.

You know you make a good point. I actually thought this was a vinyl print with thick laminate applied to .025" magnet. I guess it could be printed directly to the magnet and then laminated over, but the side profile, which I did not get a photo of, looked like it had vinyl and laminate applied to a slightly thinner magnetic sheeting.

Could the text have been "flatbedded", DTS? I found that if you lay vinyl over a DTS piece you will see an impression from the text.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

I guess I don't understand your need for thicker laminate. Thicker material does not mean better.

I'm trying to match the specs of the magnet that they brought to me, rather than say "Here you go, this should work just as well...RIGHT?" Don't most people do this, or do you just substitute with whatever's clever and not worry about it? I mean, that would surely be much easier, but I try to give people the exact product they're looking for, especially when they are a multi-billion dollar international corporation seeking a large number of said magnets. If it was some guy down the street asking for one or two of them it would be a different situation and I wouldn't even be here asking.

Also, if I can match the exact laminate, it will be less likely that I will have to worry about compatibility with their existing markers/erasers.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

Digikote makes a 10mil thick dry erase laminating film

That sounds about right. Thank you. I searched everywhere and only turned up 1, 2, and 3 mil thicknesses.

 

[Proofread People]

I'm trying to match the specs of the magnet that they brought to me, rather than say "Here you go, this should work just as well...RIGHT?" Don't most people do this, or do you just substitute with whatever's clever and not worry about it? I mean, that would surely be much easier, but I try to give people the exact product they're looking for, especially when they are a multi-billion dollar international corporation seeking a large number of said magnets. If it was some guy down the street asking for one or two of them it would be a different situation and I wouldn't even be here asking.

Also, if I can match the exact laminate, it will be less likely that I will have to worry about compatibility with their existing markers/erasers.

Over the years, technology changes and so do materials, while it's not always possible to replicate the "exact" same materials, you can produce a product which yields the same result. I usually suggest running some test samples and let the customer decide, "this is what we can produce for..." and go from there.

 

[wleong]

Digikote makes a 10mil thick dry erase laminating film

DigiKote requires 185F heat. Do most people own heated laminators? I didn’t think that was a required feature. My AGL only goes up to 100F. Sigh...

 

[Jeremiah]

I have Never seen a Dry Erase board that is worth anything. Every one that I have seen look crummy. They never really clean up even close to original again. I just had a custom order for 40 of them for a grocery store. I could not tell him that it was a good value for his money for 40 of them. We did a bigger order for cut vinyl changed out weekly