Elevator Door Graphics

[Marie]

Has anyone printed and installed graphics on elevator doors? The elevators are inside, and we would be printing using our Mimaki JV33. The graphic would completely cover both doors on the outside of the elevator. I am looking for recommendations for material and lamination - and any tips or warnings. The graphics would be up for 4 - 6 months. THANKS!

 

[J Hill Designs]

I can't see why anything wouldn't work, obviously taking removability into account.

 

[lgroth]

Agree, just about anything would work, it's flat & smooth, as long as it'll remove easy... The only recommendation I would have is use a good tough lam, lots of things get banged into doors, even elevator doors, especially along the bottoms as places usually mop or vacuum around elevators more than once a day... I use a polycarb lam for doors and high traffic areas if it's in the budget, withstands a beating plus chemicals from cleaning.

 

[Colorpro9]

Yes I have done a set of elevator doors in a hotel... WARNING!! Lol make sure they shut it down completely!! when i went, they said they would keep people away, and no one would use it...3/4 of the way done, the doors suddenly tried to move (it seems someone upstairs pressed the button) it has a lot of force, so it ended up tearing the vinyl and the doors jerked up!...scary and i almost got hurt! i was able to salvage, but make sure!!!

 

[Chasez]

Yes I have done a set of elevator doors in a hotel... WARNING!! Lol make sure they shut it down completely!! when i went, they said they would keep people away, and no one would use it...3/4 of the way done, the doors suddenly tried to move (it seems someone upstairs pressed the button) it has a lot of force, so it ended up tearing the vinyl and the doors jerked up!...scary and i almost got hurt! i was able to salvage, but make sure!!!

Agreed, and make sure that you get the elevator shut off key. That's the only way that we will do elevator doors now. Also a tip, at the centre where the doors meet, wrap the edge a 1/4" and use edge sealer. This will prevent anyone from just grabbing the edge of the material and pulling on it. Edge sealer is pretty cheap, 3m has their 3950 edge sealer which is what we use... works great, can still pull print off without damaging door edge.

Chaz

 

[d fleming]

Phototex. Laminate isn't going to stop a gurney from damaging a print. When it is time to remove it will be clean and easy instead of a nightmare. With elevators it is all about being fast unless you plan on installing in the middle of the night when it's just you and the night watchman.

 

[bigben]

I do this kind of work for several elevator company and I use phototex wihout laminate. Never had any problem/complaint. And yes, make the elevator shut down for work. It make me jump at several occasion when the people ''call'' the elevator.

 

[SightLine]

We have done a ton of them as well. One example was in a major hospital, did the outside of the doors on each floor for 4 elevators on 10 floors. Yes - you need a key to stop the elevator at the door you are working on as mentioned. On this particular hospital one this was the main front "public" facing elevators which are not used by hospital staff for gurneys, cleaning carts, maintenance stuff so we used gloss laminated 3M 180CV3. 6 years later and they are all still up and all still look great for the most part. Been a couple of small dings but really no problems at all.

Had another hospital see that one and they wanted us to do the same but on the inside of the elevators. I tried hard to talk them out of that but they insisted. I reasoned that they are giving people a nice small private place to vandalize the graphics and in the confined space the odds of a cart, wheelchair, etc hitting the walls a very high. They insisted on doing the inside anyways so I changed it up to a heavy duty laminate but they balked at the price and did not give us the job. That hospital had some other shop do the job with typical soft gloss laminate. Within 6 months every one of them had moderate to severe damage and all had to be removed.... lol

 

[player]

I would laminate in case someone uses an alcohol based cleaner and wipes off the ink.

 

[CanuckSigns]

We did about 15 for a local hospital about 4 years ago, printed on AutoMark, laminated with a 2 mil semigloss laminate, they are still holding up great, they are a bit banged up from the gourneys and wheelchairs on the bottom, but not too bad, there was some vandalism on one of the doors in an "inner city" hospital.

If you are quoting the job, dont forget to account for all the time d**king around to get the elevator shut down. We found it was taking about 30 minutes per elevator to have the maintenance guy find the right key and lock it down properly, install was only about 15 minutes after that.

Oh and if you don't like installing with a crowd of people standing around making comments, this is not the type of job for you!