Going to try to print on cast laminate...it should work...shouldn't it?

[gabagoo]

I have a sign face to replace and instead of printing a massive sheet to cover the entire face I can print, laminate and cut the different sections. It is a widely spaced sign with logos in 3 different areas plus I need to cut some black vinyl as well. I was about to order 2ml clear to print on and then though, wait a minute, you have 30 yards of 54" clear cast laminate, why not print on that and then laminate it with itself. Sounds too good to be true.

 

[J Hill Designs]

never had an issue printing on lam - but to make sure it looks correct day and night I would put a mirror print second surface

 

[Baz]

I have printed on laminate before. Nothing large but it did print nice and after lamination i assume it would last just as long as regular printing media.

I wouldn't want to start to have to stock 2mil. clear vinyl.

 

[x2chris7x]

We have printed on our laminate as well... We've found that matte laminate takes the ink a little better than gloss. It will look washed out when the lights come on, but we've set up a profile that double strikes each pass with a couple sec. drying time between passes and it seems to work well. Only negative is the colors tend to be darker than intended during the day without the lights on...

BTW I did something very similar to this by printing on lam then re-laminating to create some "faux" stained glass at my home. Overlayed with matte black vinyl to make it look more realistic. Only I doubled the ink, and also printed a mirrored version, so it is applied to both sides of the glass... just to make the colors more vibrant.

 

[gabagoo]

I am printing and it looks amazing. I have to slide some white paper underneath to see the color properly. very cool.

 

[RyanFelty]

We did this once when we had to put logos on apple crates for our local apple festival. Looked awesome, just like it was painted. With a little heat, it stuck better than any other material we tried.

 

[eahicks]

Works fine on most lams...3M always has that yellowish tint so I avoid printing on that if I need to print on lam.

 

[MrWrightNow]

printing on laminate?

Any of you guys have recommendations for the brand/type of laminate that you print on? We're using thermal technology and want a thick vehicle decal that wont require the production time of applying a separate laminate. I can't seem to find very many thick vinyls and thought that printing on laminate might be the solution. Does anyone have experience printing on laminate using any type of thermal technology (Gerber, Summa, etc)?

 

[Stormyj]

never had an issue printing on lam - but to make sure it looks correct day and night I would put a mirror print second surface

I saw this on another post. Do you print on the front and back? Can you explain mirror print on second surface.

 

[J Hill Designs]

I saw this on another post. Do you print on the front and back? Can you explain mirror print on second surface.

make a second print that is mirrored - also on clear - apply the the 2nd surface of the acrylic/polycarb (backside) so that when lit up the extra layer of colors adds color density - making it appear similarly dense both lit and unlit - without doing it, the print will appear washed out when lit.