issue with laminated coroplast signs printed on HPFB750

[dasigndr]

Hello all,
Hoping someone knows what is happening here.
I have a client who is having issue with laminated coroplast signs printed on HPFB750.
See photo attached.

How can moisture get into the other side of the laminate?

We were thinking it has to be a lamp curing issue but our lamps are almost new. Only 250 hrs on them.

any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Pauly]

Why are you laminating corrugated plastic signs that are flatbed printed?
if you want longer lasting corrugated plastic signs, print and lam on vinyl and stick it to the corrugated plastic.

You can clearly see the laminate is not sticking properly, especially in the low areas of the flutes.

 

[White Haus]

Why are you laminating corrugated plastic signs that are flatbed printed?
if you want longer lasting corrugated plastic signs, print and lam on vinyl and stick it to the corrugated plastic.

You can clearly see the laminate is not sticking properly, especially in the low areas of the flutes.

Agreed. I've never understood laminating flatbed prints. If you want durable exterior prints, use vinyl and laminate.

Whatever's happening there is really odd, you can clearly see the reverse image. Were the double sided signs packed super tight and somehow transferred to the next sign?

 

[MarkSnelling]

I'm guessing your pressure is too high on your laminator...and it is difficult for the laminate to get into all those "hills and valleys"....might want to run with some heat. As a guy who sells laminate to put shoes on my kids' feet, even I would question why laminating a cheap sign like this? You'll have more success with a truly smooth sheet if you need to lam. If you have to continue to lam, then use a laminate with a higher adhesive coat-weight to get into those channels...Treck Hall has a good one.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Time for your client to stop cheaping out and to get ACP or etc. Roll/Spray on liquid lam

 

[DL Signs]

Coro is the cheapest substrate in existence, print em' & be done, no warranty against fading or warping. Materials and labor to laminate has to cost as much, if not more than the piece of coro. It's a gamble to laminate and get it to seal properly in all the flutes, it's a materior for temporary, short term use outdoors. If they want something durable, good looking, that'll last, they need to shell out a few bucks more up front for something like ACM with printed/ laminated vinyl.

Realtors... I love sending em' to the competition to deal with

 

[gnubler]

Realtors... I love sending em' to the competition to deal with

You're a horrible person. Have some mercy, man!

I always direct cheap/nuisance customers (aka realtors and politicians) either to a bigger city 75 miles away or tell them to look on the internet.

 

[DL Signs]

You're a horrible person. Have some mercy, man!

I always direct cheap/nuisance customers (aka realtors and politicians) either to a bigger city 75 miles away or tell them to look on the internet.

We have no bigger cities close by, and we're over-saturated. less than 100,000 people in the metro area, nine legit sign shops, twenty print shops, and probably fifteen or more additional trying to compete out of their basements and garages with worn out old printers they picked up on market place. I like to think of it more as giving a little free survival training. Now... If I was horrible, I'd refer them all to Stacey K, she's only 100-ish miles away

 

[ikarasu]

Are you using laminate designed for UV prints? UV prints are raised.... And regular laminate doesn't like it. And our hp UV ink wasn't the best on Coro... If you laminated it, it'd lift the ink off the Coro.... Most people who laminate Coro / UV prints use liquid laminate.... As flatbed printing isn't really meant to be laminated with a vinyl laminate.

 

[dasigndr]

Appreciate ALL the comments! I do know that coro is cheap and should not and does not need overlaminate but sometimes these realtors want this and we have done it a few times in the past with no problems. Funny thing is, the client calls me and says I went to look at the signs that were affected and all of a sudden they all look nice again. LOL

FYi; i have been in the business going on 30 years and I do know EVERYTHING everyone of you have commented on.

 

[cwinmadison]

were they laminated immediately off the press? Even though those flatbeds claim minimal/no off-gassing time, I've definitely seen otherwise with some of the HP machines (closest equivalent an FB10000) I've worked with. Black ink in particular was notorious for needing more cure time.

 

[bdw99]

Tell Realtors if they want something laminated buy an ACM sign with a frame. No point in wasting your time bc they are cheap.

 

[RabidOne]

We had one Real Estate agency that wanted their coro signs laminated.
We found the best way to do that was wrap about an inch around the back, never had any problems doing it that way
No idea why they wanted the "Cheap but Expensive" way of doing it.

 

[BigNate]

Appreciate ALL the comments! I do know that coro is cheap and should not and does not need overlaminate but sometimes these realtors want this and we have done it a few times in the past with no problems. Funny thing is, the client calls me and says I went to look at the signs that were affected and all of a sudden they all look nice again. LOL

FYi; i have been in the business going on 30 years and I do know EVERYTHING everyone of you have commented on.

well... I see the issues with the ridges - but my bigger question is where is the reverse image coming from? it would be too easy to just say "off-gassing..." but can you tell if the reverse image is the same effect as the ridge silvering? Or is it possibly a surface effect from being stacked?