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Material used for service decals that can withstand being wiped with degreaser...

White Haus

White Haus

Not a Newbie
Has anyone ever come across a need for service decals that get filled in with a permanent marker/sharpie and then get wiped down with a degreaser?

Customer mentioned that the writing wipes off after their techs wipe the units (including decals) down with a degreaser...................... go figure.

We've always used 3M 8518 over their decals but I've also tested Arlon 3220 and Avery 2080 matte....no matter what laminate we tested you can still fairly easily wipe off the writing with isopropyl alcohol. (Don't have have any degreaser/spray nine in the shop to do a true test at the moment) I also tried the vinyl unlaminated (GF HTAP 201) and the sharpie seems to bite a bit into it and leaves a bit of a ghost image behind, but still not ideal.

Short of going with a 3M foil decal that leaves an imprint when you write with a pen, are there any other options out there that might work for this?

Common sense approach would be to ask the techs NOT to wipe the decals w/ chemicals.....but I told the client I'd look into it for them.

Looking to see if anyone has ever come across this and if they found a solution. I guess the gloss laminates are kind-of acting like a dry-erase laminate and matte doesn't seem much better.

Thanks for looking.
 
I

ikarasu

Active Member
8518 is pretty close in composition to 8528, and is a little bit mildew/ant graffiti resistant. We wiped off some spray paint with just isopropyl with it, so I'm not surprised markers wipe off.

You will need something that absorbs ink, most vinyls in laminates the ink just sits on top. some type of paper. Last time we looked into it I believe Roland had a sa paper, it worked good but it is like any ink.. if you get chemicals on it it can smear, so it's always hit or miss.

Your cheapest option might be to test the degreaser resistant pen from above, and even though it seems counterintuitive use a cheaper shittier overlam
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
What is the application? They do make service labels with an overlam attached, used for things like oil changes and inspections. You write on the decal and peel the backer from the lam to cover it up.
I used to give a decal to write the a/c charge weight and a separate piece of pre-cut laminate for them to put over the label once the system was installed and charged.
 
White Haus

White Haus

Not a Newbie
ikarasu said:
8518 is pretty close in composition to 8528, and is a little bit mildew/ant graffiti resistant. We wiped off some spray paint with just isopropyl with it, so I'm not surprised markers wipe off.

You will need something that absorbs ink, most vinyls in laminates the ink just sits on top. some type of paper. Last time we looked into it I believe Roland had a sa paper, it worked good but it is like any ink.. if you get chemicals on it it can smear, so it's always hit or miss.

Your cheapest option might be to test the degreaser resistant pen from above, and even though it seems counterintuitive use a cheaper shittier overlam
Click to expand...
Thanks, definitely leaning towards finding a better marker and telling customer they have to use those. I don't think paper would work in this case.
 
White Haus

White Haus

Not a Newbie
Notarealsignguy said:
What is the application? They do make service labels with an overlam attached, used for things like oil changes and inspections. You write on the decal and peel the backer from the lam to cover it up.
I used to give a decal to write the a/c charge weight and a separate piece of pre-cut laminate for them to put over the label once the system was installed and charged.
Click to expand...

They're service log decals being placed on compressors, with a bunch of rows etc. for maintenance log info. Sounds like the techs wipe the whole unit down with a degreaser (Spray Nine or similar) after they're done doing maintenance, I'm assuming to clean up any grease etc from regular maintenance. I guess another option would be to make a single use decal that they can apply after wiping the unit down.
 
White Haus

White Haus

Not a Newbie
Anyone have any leads on an adhesive-backed paper media? Doesn't need to be Roland/solvent-receptive as we'd likely print UV anyways.

Thanks in advance!
 
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