liquid laminate

[crny1]

I printed a 4 x 8 banner for a customer that I knew would be put up and taken down alot so I decided to laminate it with liquid laminate. I used spray cans on frog juice. I put a light coat on and let it tack up and then a thicker coat. The banner has been done for 2 weeks now and the laminate is still sticky if it touches itself. If you roll the banner up and unroll it you can here it un sticking if you will as you unroll it. It doesnt damage the laminate when doing so but I am afraid its going too one of these times. Today the customer laid it on the ground and one of their employees stepped on it and now it has a footprint embedded into the laminate.
Is this normal for liquid laminate? Should I be doing something different? I need to redo this banner for him and don't want this to happen again. Thanks in advance.

 

[ams]

Why do you want to laminate a banner?

 

[crny1]

The customer wants it glossy for one and also they will be taking it up and down all the time. This way its protected also.

 

[bob]

Frog Juice? Wrong choice.

You needed to use a water soluble liquid laminate. Something like Clear Shield or one of the others. Not a solvent based product like Frog Juice, which isn't much good for anything anyway. As you noticed, it has a nasty habit of never drying in certain, often unpredictable, environments.

Liquid laminates are chameleons when it cones to gloss. They tend to mimic the gloss of whatever substrate to which they're applied. Gloss liquid laminate won't, usually, make a matte finish glossy. Just a wee bit less matte.

Why laminate a banner? It provides abrasion resistance, needed if a banner is going to see any violence. Like repeated putting up and taking down. It makes the colors noticeably more vibrant. Liquid laminate provides the same level of UV protection as a vinyl laminate. Lastly, it makes a far more finished and professional looking job than a similar banner right out of the printer.

Every banner that leaves my shot gets a coat of Clear Shield [gloss original formula]. Just like every banner gets rolled up and put into a brand new tube with actual real live tube end caps, and a small vinyl print, 6" or so on the long side, of the image of the banner inside applied to the outside of the tube. Along with a decal with my name and phone number. It's the professional way to do it.

 

[jdejesus]

Every banner that leaves my shot gets a coat of Clear Shield [gloss original formula].

Sorry for being a noob, but how long does it take to dry?

 

[Nuagedesigns]

Frog Juice? Wrong choice.

You needed to use a water soluble liquid laminate. Something like Clear Shield or one of the others. Not a solvent based product like Frog Juice, which isn't much good for anything anyway. As you noticed, it has a nasty habit of never drying in certain, often unpredictable, environments.

Liquid laminates are chameleons when it cones to gloss. They tend to mimic the gloss of whatever substrate to which they're applied. Gloss liquid laminate won't, usually, make a matte finish glossy. Just a wee bit less matte.

Why laminate a banner? It provides abrasion resistance, needed if a banner is going to see any violence. Like repeated putting up and taking down. It makes the colors noticeably more vibrant. Liquid laminate provides the same level of UV protection as a vinyl laminate. Lastly, it makes a far more finished and professional looking job than a similar banner right out of the printer.

Every banner that leaves my shot gets a coat of Clear Shield [gloss original formula]. Just like every banner gets rolled up and put into a brand new tube with actual real live tube end caps, and a small vinyl print, 6" or so on the long side, of the image of the banner inside applied to the outside of the tube. Along with a decal with my name and phone number. It's the professional way to do it.

I applaud your efforts to provide quality, professional products. However that seems like an awful lot of time and money for the cost of a banner. If the job requires longevity of the banner we too use clear shield and package properly. However it seems a little overkill for every banner. We have simply become more efficient with our printing and outsource 95% of all banner printing to a wholesale printer that we have had great success with 24hour turn around on fully finished products. We can simply be more profitable printing and manufacturing other items.

To each their own.

It is good to hear people still taking pride in their work and turning out good quality work, not just cheap cookie cutter volumes of garbage. Keep up the good work!

 

[player]

Just like every banner gets rolled up and put into a brand new tube with actual real live tube end caps, and a small vinyl print, 6" or so on the long side, of the image of the banner inside applied to the outside of the tube. Along with a decal with my name and phone number. It's the professional way to do it.

Thanks Bob. What kind of tubes are you using?

 

[ams]

The customer wants it glossy for one and also they will be taking it up and down all the time. This way its protected also.

They make glossy banner material.

 

[ams]

Frog Juice? Wrong choice.

You needed to use a water soluble liquid laminate. Something like Clear Shield or one of the others. Not a solvent based product like Frog Juice, which isn't much good for anything anyway. As you noticed, it has a nasty habit of never drying in certain, often unpredictable, environments.

Liquid laminates are chameleons when it cones to gloss. They tend to mimic the gloss of whatever substrate to which they're applied. Gloss liquid laminate won't, usually, make a matte finish glossy. Just a wee bit less matte.

Why laminate a banner? It provides abrasion resistance, needed if a banner is going to see any violence. Like repeated putting up and taking down. It makes the colors noticeably more vibrant. Liquid laminate provides the same level of UV protection as a vinyl laminate. Lastly, it makes a far more finished and professional looking job than a similar banner right out of the printer.

Every banner that leaves my shot gets a coat of Clear Shield [gloss original formula]. Just like every banner gets rolled up and put into a brand new tube with actual real live tube end caps, and a small vinyl print, 6" or so on the long side, of the image of the banner inside applied to the outside of the tube. Along with a decal with my name and phone number. It's the professional way to do it.

I've used clear shield and it made the eco-sol run, never trusted it again. But on the side of why to laminate, I've heard of people run banners through their laminator which makes no sense because it's not a flat surface.

 

[rjssigns]

I've used clear shield and it made the eco-sol run, never trusted it again. But on the side of why to laminate, I've heard of people run banners through their laminator which makes no sense because it's not a flat surface.

Used the wrong one. Clear Shield Original formula is for Eco-Sol ink. I think it may be called Clear Shield Classic now. Not absolutely sure though.

 

[tbullo]

We clear shield any banner that is used long term. Especially pole banners. Makes them outlast all the one that don't do it. You can tell the ones not laminated, they start getting ate up on the top pole faster. I know of 1 large banner we put up that still looks great and pushing 4 years now.

 

[bob]

I applaud your efforts to provide quality, professional products. However that seems like an awful lot of time and money for the cost of a banner. If the job requires longevity of the banner we too use clear shield and package properly. However it seems a little overkill for every banner. We have simply become more efficient with our printing and outsource 95% of all banner printing to a wholesale printer that we have had great success with 24hour turn around on fully finished products. We can simply be more profitable printing and manufacturing other items.

To each their own.

It is good to hear people still taking pride in their work and turning out good quality work, not just cheap cookie cutter volumes of garbage. Keep up the good work!

It takes maybe 5 minutes to mop on a coat from start through clean-up. The material cost is negligible, lost in the grass.

Do it right or don't do it.

Sorry for being a noob, but how long does it take to dry?

Depending on the time of year, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or so. Faster in the summer, slower in the winter. Most likely more to do with humidity that air temperature.

Thanks Bob. What kind of tubes are you using?

The vast majority of banners are 3' or less x whatever. I buy 3"x37" tubes from Uline in boxes of 25. Each box comes with 50 end caps but a while back I bought a bag of 100 extra.. You end up using more end caps than tubes what with smaller banners, sheets of decals, etc. when you use good vinyl cores instead of a new tube. If a banner is larger than 36" I cut an extension piece from another tube and tape them together.

 

[crny1]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I am going to order some clear shield.
Do you normally spray it or do you brush it on banners?

 

[player]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I am going to order some clear shield.
Do you normally spray it or do you brush it on banners?

I use a roller.

 

[bob]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I am going to order some clear shield.
Do you normally spray it or do you brush it on banners?

4" foam brush. Far simpler than spraying and well as actually pushing the laminate into the substrate rather than having it just sit there on top. I've had some banner material, rarely, that for whatever reason didn't want to accept the laminate as well as it might. A couple of passes with the foam brush works the laminate into the material and straightens that out quite nicely. Moreover, it's a whole hell of a lot easier to run a bit of water and squeeze out a foam brush than to clean up any sort of spray rig.

As for technique, just mop it on with overlapping strokes. Mop it on like you mean it. Make sure you cover the entire surface and try not to leave any pools of liquid. The stuff is self-leveling but there are limits even to that.

With Clear Shield thin it until it's about the thickness of whole milk. I have a largish Cool Whip bowl into which I make a goodly quantity of properly thinned laminate. I pop the apparently air tight lid on when not in use. It's never, ever, dried out although sometimes I need to thin it a wee bit more before using it. This bowl hasn't been empty n well over 10 years.When it gets low, I add more laminate, thin it to were I like it, and put it back on the shelf.