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Metallic Vinyl Stickers

G

Goatshaver

New Member
I mainly do custom cut vinyl stickers. it's approx. about 90% of the work I do. One request I get a lot is for metallic/holographic vinyl. I've struggled with Rtape and using it on my SP-540V. Sure I can print on it but limitations of having a 6mm clear edge if it's going to be cut is rather large if I'm doing 1.5inch size sticker.

Now I've seen Stickerapp and I cannot for the life of me figure out how they are printing to the edge on the holographic material they use. I know they have Epson 80600's but those are solvent as well. Maybe they have some proprietary material?

I'm trying to look into this because I'm trying to upgrade my equipment so I can improve the quality and be able to print to the edges on this metallic vinyl. The one machine I've been looking at is the Epson 40600 and a cutter, but being a new business It's incredibly hard for me to get financing.

Thanks everyone!
 
Greg Kelm

Greg Kelm

www.cheetaprint.com
What do you mean " print to the edge?" All they do is bleed the image; easy to do in most cases. Looks a lot better than leaving a border around the design and you can give them a 'true' size product of their design. The 80600 allows them to produce the special effects on various materials, with the use of white ink. A 40600 will give you high a quality print, but limits your product line. What are your plans for cutting? Epson doesn't have any print/cut units, but I think are bundling with graphtec for finish work.
 
G

Goatshaver

New Member
Greg Kelm said:
What do you mean " print to the edge?" All they do is bleed the image; easy to do in most cases. Looks a lot better than leaving a border around the design and you can give them a 'true' size product of their design. The 80600 allows them to produce the special effects on various materials, with the use of white ink. A 40600 will give you high a quality print, but limits your product line. What are your plans for cutting? Epson doesn't have any print/cut units, but I think are bundling with graphtec for finish work.
Click to expand...

Yes I do mean having the print bleed off. The thing with Rtape is solvent based you have to leave a 6mm unprinted gap between the print and the cut or else it will curl right up. Yeah I can can see they probably use it to print white and/or metallic on the 80600. I'm not too concerned with printing white or a metallic ink but I really want to be able to bleed work to the edge of metallic vinyl.

I was looking at a Summa D140 for cutting purposes.
 
Greg Kelm

Greg Kelm

www.cheetaprint.com
Let the material out gas completely and laminate, you should be able to print/cut all day long with most materials using solvent ink.
 
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I

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
Goatshaver said:
Yes I do mean having the print bleed off. The thing with Rtape is solvent based you have to leave a 6mm unprinted gap between the print and the cut or else it will curl right up.
Click to expand...

is this just a trait with metallic vinyls? I’ve been running a solvent for 6 years and never had to leave a 6mm unprinted gap on any SAV. (Though I don’t do any metallic stuff). If that were the case, solvents would be pointless. No problem with curling on laminated and non-laminated vinyls.
 
S

SignMeUpGraphics

Super Active Member
I've printed on RTape smooth silver before using a Roland VS-540, let it out-gas for SIX weeks, followed by laminating then cutting and it still curled where it was cut through the bleed.

We got around it by using a UV printer to do the print, instant lamination and cut and no more curling. I think the solvents managed to permanently affect the adhesive somehow despite drying for an eternity.
It may be possible that Stickerapp is using something like a Gerber Egde or Summa DC5 as thermal printers don't have these issues.

Haven't tried it with our S80600 but have some leftover material I might test for research purposes.
 
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G

Goatshaver

New Member
TomK said:
Link to an example of their work? Also what material have you tried so far?
Click to expand...

This is what I mean, the first time I tried it I was unaware of having to leave a gap. Printed some and came back next day and they were severely curled.
 

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G

Goatshaver

New Member
SignMeUpGraphics said:
I've printed on RTape smooth silver before using a Roland VS-540, let it out-gas for SIX weeks, followed by laminating then cutting and it still curled where it was cut through the bleed.

We got around it by using a UV printer to do the print, instant lamination and cut and no more curling. I think the solvents managed to permanently affect the adhesive somehow despite drying for an eternity.
It may be possible that Stickerapp is using something like a Gerber Egde or Summa DC5 as thermal printers don't have these issues.

Haven't tried it with our S80600 but have some leftover material I might test for research purposes.
Click to expand...

UV and screen printing is the only ways I can see doing them with bleeds and not having any curling issues.
 
P Wagner

P Wagner

--
Media profiles for HP Latex 300 Series printers are listed on the RTape web for RTape VinylEFX media among others. See attached.
 

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Saturn

Saturn

Aging Member
I don't have white ink, but I just today discovered that a workaround another shop in town is using on their Epson 80600 solvent is to print on clear vinyl, "laminate" onto their, glitter, holo, chrome, whatever, and then laminate again...
 
TomK

TomK

New Member
Saturn said:
I don't have white ink, but I just today discovered that a workaround another shop in town is using on their Epson 80600 solvent is to print on clear vinyl, "laminate" onto their, glitter, holo, chrome, whatever, and then laminate again...
Click to expand...
Expensive process for stickers.
 
G

Goatshaver

New Member
TomK said:
Expensive process for stickers.
Click to expand...

That's what I had thought about as well but, yeah expensive to do it that way.

I mean I could just laminate over the metallic vinyl and print on the laminate but kinda defeats the purpose of the laminate.
 
G

Goatshaver

New Member
TomK said:
So I tried the silver and holographic through my latex using the rtape profile, which uses heat of 199F. Talk about failure. Makes you wonder if anyone did any testing, considering all of the marketing material for the VinylEFX stuff doesn't list latex as compatible at http://www.rtape.com/M1492_VinylEfx_ProductOverview_8.28.18_PRINT.pdf
Click to expand...

I get tunneling with no heat. The stuff is very picky for printing on, but I've yet to find an alternative to it for printing.
 
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