Easiest way to make these?

[G-Artist]

I do not know how you are going to make these without tape! Once the green is cut how do you plan on getting the cross and circle to stay when placing on the white

You sort of missed the point. I need the end user/installer to not have
to wrestle with tape. It should be applicable like a plain printed decal.

 

[G-Artist]

Print green on 3M white reflective!!!!!

Won't work.

The colored vinyl must be reflective. At a min. Engineering Grade.

I could just provide the cut vinyl taped as a background is not really necessary
(if push came to shove). I was looking for a way to eliminate the tape
on the final product.

 

[G-Artist]

I do it all the time. All you have to so is print or somehow get the registration marks in the media. Then use the plotter's auto sense feature. It will read the marks and will then map the plot data into that region. Make sure the job has 0 margin and no weed box in the the cut dialog, thus making the rectangle described by the registration marks the largest object on the panel.

When the plotter finishes sensing the marks it displays the X and Y distances it read and allows you to adjust these to their logical values. This being the case it behooves you the setup the registration marks at the corners of a known rectangle. Then you can adjust the dimensions sensed by the plotter to the actual dimensions of that rectangle.

I do this with larger contour cut jobs that I think might have a real possibility of not properly sensing using Flexi's internal methodology.

It has the added charm that if the plotter's auto sense feature might fail, you can do it in manual mode and position the blade manually at each mark.

One way or the other, it works every time.

I'm saving and printing this out. I have never used the registration option
on the Graphtec. We normally just use Corel Draw and dump via CoCut for
everyday work. In multi-color I apply my own preferred reg marks manually
where it is feasible to do so (not waste a lot of vinyl).

My only wonder is after weeding the reflective color and leaving the reg marks
and applying all that to the base sheet will the Graphtec read the vinyl marks
as it would ink print marks?

Time will tell.

Thanks everyone. This has been enlightening.

 

[gbarker]

Won't work.

The colored vinyl must be reflective. At a min. Engineering Grade.

I could just provide the cut vinyl taped as a background is not really necessary
(if push came to shove). I was looking for a way to eliminate the tape
on the final product.

The colored vinyl will be reflective if you print. Solvent inks are translucent thus letting the reflective material do it's job. Kinda the same principal as road signs using 3M Electro Cut film or screen printed.

 

[gbarker]

I do it all the time. All you have to so is print or somehow get the registration marks in the media. Then use the plotter's auto sense feature. It will read the marks and will then map the plot data into that region. Make sure the job has 0 margin and no weed box in the the cut dialog, thus making the rectangle described by the registration marks the largest object on the panel.

When the plotter finishes sensing the marks it displays the X and Y distances it read and allows you to adjust these to their logical values. This being the case it behooves you the setup the registration marks at the corners of a known rectangle. Then you can adjust the dimensions sensed by the plotter to the actual dimensions of that rectangle.

I do this with larger contour cut jobs that I think might have a real possibility of not properly sensing using Flexi's internal methodology.

It has the added charm that if the plotter's auto sense feature might fail, you can do it in manual mode and position the blade manually at each mark.

One way or the other, it works every time.

I'll have to mess around with this. I've always let the printer put down the reg marks.

 

[gabagoo]

I think it was posted earlier but you are best to print an opaque white onto 3M reflective using the Edge. Not sure about using engineering grade though as it could tunnel going through the Edge.

 

[Mosh]

+ on print and cut. Everything I have printed on refective has reflected just fine. We do alot of police and emergency vehicles and they all reflect great at night!

 

[G-Artist]

If I get into this, and after reading all the replies, I am thinking that the simple solution
is to get whatever color reflective I need (per the spec) and use a Gerber/Summa type
machine to print the interior white areas and maybe add some white on the outside for
appearance and just do a single outline cut.

 

[cdiesel]

Just screen print 'em. Stouse can knock them out for you quick and cheap.

This sounds like a government job.. From my experience, most bids that go out spec a "3M or equivalent", so printing a transparent color over white reflective is perfectly acceptable.