Laminating ucjv300 print without heat

[willkho]

Hi all,

Need help or advice here.
I got a ucjv300 and a flat applicator with no heat assist.

I heard that UV print is hard to be laminated.
Wondering anyone know the trick to do it with the flatbed applicator? Probably there is a laminate that work better with UV ink that no requires heat assist?

The vinyl I'm using is Arlon 4600.

Thank you

 

[victor bogdanov]

Laminate it and see how it goes, probably won't have any problems. Little bit of silvering around the raised ink will go away overtime

 

[Ronny Axelsson]

You might need a laminate with a little more aggressive adhesive.
Not familiar with Arlon's laminates myself, but this is what they say about it.

And here is some information about silvering, and here.

 

[White Haus]

We've been running and laminating prints from a UCJV for almost 5 years now. Heat assist is suggested/probably a good idea, depending on what you're doing. Our printer came with a Mimaki laminator w/ heat assist, probably because they knew it required it. I take it they've abandoned that program by now.

Silvering will be present/obvious on any dark areas of print, and around any edges of vector print lines/shapes. Silvering on dark print areas does go away over time, but doesn't look too good at first and will show pressure points from rollers, pneumatic feet, fingers, rulers while processing/finishing prints.

We mainly use a cast gloss (3M 8418G) on prints from this machine but occasionally use Avery DOL 2080 matte, and we usually use a bit of heat assist.

Long story short, I'd suggest figuring out a way to add/use heat assist for laminating prints of this unit if you're counting on shipping prints shortly after finishing.

If you're mostly doing small decals however, it shouldn't be a problem. Do some testing, and make your own observations.

Alternatively for small decals, you may find that laminate isn't even required. The prints off those things are pretty scratch resistant.