Print on aluminum technique

[Gwenofeve]

Good day all! This is my first post. Our company has our production team applying prints to aluminum and then filing all the edges after. I see this would seal edge for long term better than cutting but I have seen signs around the city where it's like 1/16" inlined so no filing or cutting would be required really increasing production time. What are your thoughts to pros and cons on this and what is your experience or your ways?

 

[Johnny Best]

Cut he aluminum without rough edges tat need filing. It has been discussed many times on here about cutting without getting rough edges, Shear, CNC, laser, etc.
Use the Search tab to find out.

 

[Gwenofeve]

Cut he aluminum without rough edges tat need filing. It has been discussed many times on here about cutting without getting rough edges, Shear, CNC, laser, etc.
Use the Search tab to find out.

Hi Johnny,
I meant the vinyl decal that we apply to the precut aluminum. It's full coverage decal but should we inline it or oversize and file after?

 

[ikarasu]

Hi Johnny,
I meant the vinyl decal that we apply to the precut aluminum. It's full coverage decal but should we inline it or oversize and file after?

Oversize it.

Those "inline" ones you see that are 1/16" smaller are ones hack sign companies did where they used cheap Callander vinyl and it shrunk.


It's very easy to oversize and use a knife to trim the edge, takes 5-10 seconds even with thick diamond grade to trim each Sign.

 

[Gwenofeve]

Ok, we'll just stick with filing. We find knife cutting it leaves room for dust to get under & lift if it's not a perfect cut. We use high performance vinyl too. Sometimes it's good to question in case there is a better way! Thanks for your opinions & experience.

 

[Johnny Best]

Are you using 3mmACM or solid aluminum?

 

[somcalmetim]

Can never get acp to a nice edge I like so I would leave 1/4" bleed, maybe try to get black acp for classy back side and/or wrap the vinyl neatly around/over the edges so I am less likely to cut myself.
Lately I get most of my outdoor signs custom laser cut in 1/8" aluminum or 1/16" stainless with 3m180/8509...the laser cuter works from our vector file so it all fits perfect.
Can have a nice perfect 1/8 or 1/4" contoured outline of stainless or aluminum, add tiny round corners on edges so its not as wicked sharp and pointy...usually looks pretty smart.

 

[ikarasu]

Can never get acp to a nice edge I like so I would leave 1/4" bleed, maybe try to get black acp for classy back side and/or wrap the vinyl neatly around/over the edges so I am less likely to cut myself.
Lately I get most of my outdoor signs custom laser cut in 1/8" aluminum or 1/16" stainless with 3m180/8509...the laser cuter works from our vector file so it all fits perfect.
Can have a nice perfect 1/8 or 1/4" contoured outline of stainless or aluminum, add tiny round corners on edges so its not as wicked sharp and pointy...usually looks pretty smart.

Hope you mean 8519, not 8509!

 

[somcalmetim]

Hope you mean 8519, not 8509!

Ya ya the good gloss lam with 180c for long term and we use 40c with 8509 for cheap shorter term golf course signs...I can never remember the lam numbers, thank god I can tell the rolls apart...

 

[Gwenofeve]

We're using 1105 Avery with Laminate and applying to .080 precut aluminum blanks. We do a lot of these for parking lots, stratas, etc.. So filing doubles the production time at least from just applying the vinyl. I don't want to decrease durability, just curious what everyone's doing & their experience to see if we could be more productive.