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Need Help Out-gas vinyl on polystyrene

S

ShawnE

New Member
Trying to apply printed and laminated vinyl to .006 polystyrene
Some of the darker prints get returned because of bubbles.
I read that I need to let it out gas, but does polystyrene play a part in this as well?
Chemical reaction of some sort?
Any help would be appreciated. thank you
 
U

unclebun

Active Member
Where are the bubbles? Between the printed vinyl and the laminate, or between the bottom of the vinyl and the substrate?
 
U

unclebun

Active Member
Polystyrene does outgas--a lot--when exposed to heat. That may be why your dark prints exhibit it more--they get hotter in sunlight. That's why it's not recommended as an outdoor substrate.

Unlike ink, you cannot outgas the polystyrene and keep it from happening. It will happen through the life of the polystyrene whenever it's exposed to heat.
 
MikePro

MikePro

New Member
hygroscopic substrate is most likely the issue.
...absorbing/sweating moisture, that gets trapped under vinyl that doesn't allow it to pass-thru & darker colors then heats-up in direct sunlight creating the bubbles from water vapor & vinyl expansion.

i never have much issue with cast transluscent vinyls, BUT every single time I've tried to include controltac/airegress vinyl into a tenant logo on polycarb.... it traps the moisture and bubbles-up.
 
MikePro

MikePro

New Member
cast or calendared is fine. Appears to be just that pesky controltac/airegress adhesive vinyl.
I've also taken the extra time to use a heat gun to post-application heat&softsqueegee to completely "wet" the adhesive to the surface and make sure there's no pockets of "lightly applied" vinyl to allow anything to work its way up underneath.
 
FireSprint.com

FireSprint.com

Trade Only Screen & Digital Sign Printing
We print polystyrene daily and have barely ever mounted printed vinyl so I personally have not seen a real issue with the material out gassing. I do know that it is really affected by the heat of our lamps which will pose issues on a bad day! You may try switching brands to test and see what runs the smoothest for you.

If you ever want to sub this out, we do a ton of direct printed styrene. We are Trade-Only.

We offer 5 stock guages.
015 translucent styrene
020 styrene
030 styrene
040 styrene
060 styrene
Any size, any quantity and we'll contour cut simple shapes.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Call me stupid, but why are you laminating vinyl and laminate to .006 anything ?? Til you're done putting the vinyl and laminate on, you're more than doubling the thickness. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of using such a thin substrate ?? Wouldn't it be better to direct print ??
 
S

ShawnE

New Member
FireSprint said:
We print polystyrene daily and have barely ever mounted printed vinyl so I personally have not seen a real issue with the material out gassing. I do know that it is really affected by the heat of our lamps which will pose issues on a bad day! You may try switching brands to test and see what runs the smoothest for you.

If you ever want to sub this out, we do a ton of direct printed styrene. We are Trade-Only.

We offer 5 stock guages.
015 translucent styrene
020 styrene
030 styrene
040 styrene
060 styrene
Any size, any quantity and we'll contour cut simple shapes.
Click to expand...

What is your website/ contact info?
Thank you
 
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