Full bleed edge to edge

[person'ize it]

Question

We in the past have not done much edge to edge cotour cut, are we correct in thinking if your going to have an edge curling problem due to bleed it will start curling whilst still attached to backing paper or is it only going to be a problem when applied ?


Thanks

 

[GAC05]

In my experience (eco-solvent) it all depends on the type of material and how heavy of an ink load you lay down.
A full dark colored background will curl. The longer you let the print dry (a day or so) the less it will curl when you go to run the contour on it.
Material with air release (IJ180 and 35C) seems to let go of the release sheet and curl up more than regular vinyl.
Cheaper intermediate vinyl curls badly - at least for me.
We do monthly sets of window decals (40"x40" full bleed with the lower 3rd solid black to the edge) here and the one time I tried a lower cost material (they only need to last 30 days) it did not go well.
The curling on the bottom edge caused issues before the install during transport to the stores with the edges sticking to each other in the stacks and issues with the edge coming back up after the installation.

If you are printing latex maybe there it is not an issue - I don't know if the instant dry also means no curl.
Best practice is to add a white border if you can talk the customer into it.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Brink]

I agree with Wayne. I also use ECO ink and find that it depends on how much ink saturation and how long you let it cure before cutting. Also you won't have as much trouble if you use cast vinyl as you do when using calendared.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Eco Solvent has an issue with edge curl due to the mechanics of how that inkset works. We use latex and have no edge curl issues on full bleed, but when I ran Mutohs at my last job we had curling issues all the time.

For your Roland you should leave a 3mm(1/8") or greater white border around your image for best results.

 

[person'ize it]

Thank you for the replies so far i don't think i am making myself clear ...
We understand the reason for curled edges with full bleed and wish we could leave a little border but some jobs cannot so we are trying to find out if there is a way to tell if the vinyl is going to curl on the edges before we fire it off to the customer.

So we print and cut in the same process and weed the vinyls and they look great, over night they are left and we come in the next morning and they are all looking nice still with no lifting off the backing paper etc, does that mean they are going to be good to go and ok at the customer end ?

The question is being asked because we have ordered some various samples to try out and wondered if they stay flat like we are saying above does that mean they are ok or will they only show problems once it has been removed from the backing paper ?

Sorry its long winded but we don't want to be buying full logs that will not do the job nor send our customers bad items


Thanks again

 

[Brink]

You can't predict the future with certainty if you are just handing them a decal. You have no control over what substrate it will be installed to. How will it be installed? (wet/dry) Was the surface freshly waxed? (like an automobile) How clean was the surface? Did they use some cleaner that left a residue? Did they touch the adhesive during the install? Were their hands greasy? Did they use an edge sealer? How much sun is it exposed to? etc etc ...

These things all contribute to edge curling. If you must contour cut in the ink, you should use cast and you should let it cure overnight before you laminate it and then cut it. Then you can be reasonably sure that the edge won't curl if they install it right.

Other folks on here say that latex ink prints do not have edge curling problems. I don't have a latex machine so I can not back them on this but it sounds reasonable. It's the solvent from the eco-solvent ink that when applied soaks into the PVC (vinyl) and then shrinks upon drying due to loss of volume. The solvent has evaporated thus the ink spot now takes up less physical space but it's only soaked into the top half of the vinyl so when it shrinks the top has more tension than the bottom and you get the curl. Lamination will apply a top layer of even tension so that the tight part (the ink) is sandwiched between two layers of even tension. I hope that makes sense and does not insult your intelligence.