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Printable Vacuformable backlit

rfulford

New Member
A client of mine does vacuforming an wants me to produce a some adhesive vinyl to apply second surface to his material before he forms it. The end result is something like a gas globe. Does anyone have any experience with this? I have a few ideas but they are all based on conjecture. We produce all of our outdoor backlits on our flatbed but I have doubts about UV curable ink vacuforming.
 

rubo

New Member
two suggestions - maybe three - 1 - print on his material, let him form it after the fact. 2 - 3d sublimation - he'll do the whole thing on the vacuum forming machine. 3- water transfer printing. one of these should work - or maybe all of them. Good luck :toasting:
 

ForgeInc

New Member
We've tried it a few times on our flatbed and it's possible, but very tricky. Your inks need to be really flexible and the art needs to be forgiving. I think they make inks specifically for vacuforming, might wanna look into it. I seem to remember some threads about it, try a few searches.
 

rfulford

New Member
Update. We reversed printed the graphic to 3M 8518. We then applied 3M 7125 over the laminate reversing the normal process so to speak. Our client removed the release liner from the lam and applied it to clear CAB and formed it to shape. They seem to be happy with the process.
 

Moze

Active Member
I'm not sure where you're located, but Sign Systems in Arkansas can form pretty large faces and Sign Faces has a pretty huge facility as well. If you call Sign Systems, ask for Jeremy. If you call Sign Faces, there are two Brian's...they can both give you quotes or ask for Bill Uline. I used to work with Jeremy and I also used to get quotes frequently from Sign Faces. They're good people to deal with.
 
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