Our largest source of business is truck drivers, and fleet graphics for trucking firms. The graphics applied on these trucks get more abuse from the elements then most signs do. For these types of jobs, we measure, design, print, apply, and sometimes pinstripe these trucks in a single day. If it's a truck belonging to a fleet where we have already done the design work, we can do up to four of those trucks in a day.
These types of clients will schedule weeks to months in advance, but can't afford to leave their vehicles at our shop for more than a day. Every hour those trucks aren't on the road they aren't making money. So they expect those trucks to be done fast, and they expect the highest quality, and they can get that here.
Contrary to Gino's opinion we don't cut corners here. We do the best work we can and because of that, these clients come back for more... multiple times. We like to create lasting customer relationships at our shop. We have yet to have a job come back to us due to a print failure and these graphics get a lot of punishment. So from our experience letting a print sit for less than 24hours has had 0 effects on the quality or longevity of our printed graphics once they are installed. Perhaps because we print with eco-sol inks. Perhaps it's our choice of materials, perhaps our printer prints in a way or dries in a way that allows us to do this. But it just does.
There is only one difference we have noticed between laminating and applying in less than a day after printing vs letting the print sit for a day or two. There is a noticeably difference in how the graphics install. The adhesive seems more aggressive if you don't let it sit. It's like working with normal high performance vinyl. In this case it's terrible for wraps because it's difficult to reposition the graphics. So for wrap like projects we do let our prints sit. But if repositioning isn't a concern, Once the graphics are installed they hold up great. We have yet to see evidence of print failure coming from our shop. Period.
Now that's just us thought. I'm not telling anyone how to do their job in this case. We may use a different combination of equipment and media than someone else. And what works for us may not work for everyone, hence the recommendations in the text that Gino posted.. However you all should note those are "recommendations" he took off of faq pages, not a part of the warranty.
Most of these suppliers look at reports of failure on a case by case basis anyway. and it's a crapshoot as to whether or not they will stand by their product the moment you do anything with their material.
I'm just telling you what works for us, not necessarily what I think you should do. I'm saying that is possible to produce a high quality product without waiting a day or two to apply or laminate that printed graphic and I'm defending my comments against those that believe making decisions about your businesses based on years of experience is somehow corner cutting.
Back to the original topic. A few years ago, we had toyed around with the mobile shop idea. When my brother and I buy out my parents, we could get a large RV. The front portion would be living are for my folks, and the back would be a place for my dad to store his pin stripping kit and equipment. They enjoy travelling, so they would be able to do that and go to meets. We would of course need to wrap the RV with some killer graphics promoting the business. But now with gas prices as high as they are. I don't know.
