New 3M Mystery Material?

[jfiscus]

Background: Our graphics/sign company is also the graphics division of another fleet sales company. We sell in 3 states, and do warranty work on the vehicles as needed. Yesterday, our CFO went to a shop in Northern OH, to procure them for warranty repair work up there (5+ hour drive from our shop to our customers' locations up there).

While he was there, they mentioned the graphics company they normally use and their capabilities. Our CFO did some selling of our services and prices and they seemed very eager to get us on board for their crash repair work..

However, the shop owner also had a request if we used a material that none of us have ever heard of here. He stated that it was a 3M Product that is printed reflective, that you stretch over the rough diamondplate surface (on the back of a fire truck), and then take a weed burner torch to and the material "heat shrinks" and conforms to the surface. ???

It sounds kind of like a "brick wall vinyl", but you have to roll them into their conformed shape, but they said they didn't do that. Anyone have any clue what material they were talking about?

 

[J Hill Designs]

my bet is on the fact that the guy didnt know what he was talking about and only saw parts of an install.

 

[NHuckaby]

the only thing i could think of would be 3m Scotchlite Removable Reflective IJ680cr-10 its pretty much like IJ180 but reflective

 

[jfiscus]

the only thing i could think of would be 3m Scotchlite Removable Reflective IJ680cr-10 its pretty much like IJ180 but reflective

We use that for curved surfaces and partial wrapping, but I can't see it conforming to diamond plate like the customer said. It is the closest material I know of though.

 

[ChadK]

It sounds like he could be talking about IJ680CR but the material wouldn't act like a "heat shrink" film. Some installers do use heat to help accelerate the adhesive bond to the vehicle; but using heat will not shrink the film similar to films used to seal windows.

If you want to get a better understanding, you can check out some videos showing common use of reflective graphics on our website http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Graphics/3Mgraphics/ToolsAndSupport/Videos/ or you can call 3M Technical Service at 1-800-328-3908.

 

[jfiscus]

It sounds like he could be talking about IJ680CR but the material wouldn't act like a "heat shrink" film. Some installers do use heat to help accelerate the adhesive bond to the vehicle; but using heat will not shrink the film similar to films used to seal windows.

If you want to get a better understanding, you can check out some videos showing common use of reflective graphics on our website http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Graphics/3Mgraphics/ToolsAndSupport/Videos/ or you can call 3M Technical Service at 1-800-328-3908.

I spoke with the owner of the company, they are just using 680CR and taking a whole day to conform it to the surface texture.