Printing Translucent to keep the reflective.

[trafficbarriersolutions]

Hi,
I am having trouble with my Roland TruVis VG3-540. I am printing on Avery Dennison T-6500 White High Intensity Prismatic and the prints are not making it translucent and cannot see the reflective. Is there a way to make the reflective translucent when printing on Roland? And does VersaWorks have something that can make the print translucent on Reflective like Avery Dennison?

 

[logotogogo]

You will see it when light hits it, in the dark. It is very hard inside to see the effect of any printed reflective material, but it is there. Look at your pic and you can see the shapes. It isn't something you can shine a light onto directly in a see it. Wait until dark and take it outside and set it down somewhere then go away a distance and shine light in its general direction. I think it will surprise you

 

[White Haus]

Hi,
I am having trouble with my Roland TruVis VG3-540. I am printing on Avery Dennison T-6500 White High Intensity Prismatic and the prints are not making it translucent and cannot see the reflective. Is there a way to make the reflective translucent when printing on Roland? And does VersaWorks have something that can make the print translucent on Reflective like Avery Dennison?

View attachment 167824

You can even see it reflecting in the picture..........not much else you can ask from a printed reflective sign.

Solvent ink is not opaque, so the reflective properties will still behave as intended when that sample is hit by a light source.

 

[2B]

go stand in a low light / dark room and take a picture with the flash on of the sign

 

[myront]

go stand in a low light / dark room and take a picture with the flash on of the sign

Or in darker room just shine a flashlight on it. We print to reflective all the time. Latex though.

 

[MrDav3C]

Is it ok to print onto reflective with a TrueVis? I was under the impression that this can burn out print heads? Perhaps this an outdated problem?

 

[White Haus]

Is it ok to print onto reflective with a TrueVis? I was under the impression that this can burn out print heads? Perhaps this an outdated problem?

How would reflective vinyl burn out print heads? I've never heard such a thing.

 

[DL Signs]

Is it ok to print onto reflective with a TrueVis? I was under the impression that this can burn out print heads? Perhaps this an outdated problem?

The only printers that have any issues like that are UV printers because the curing lamps can reflect back onto the print head and cure the ink on the head. Even with those it's more an issue with highly reflective materials like printing on mirrors and chrome surfaces, not reflective vinyls, and ways to get by. Solvent, EcoSol (like your Roland), and Latex inks are air cured and don't have that issue, and they work well on reflective vinyl, I print to them all the time for signs, emergency vehicle graphics, decals... They reflect just fine through the ink in the dark when light hits them.

 

[ChaseO]

Make sure you are printing with a reflective profile. The profile will lay down less ink than your normal profiles. Also, blue is a tough reflective color in general. I also agree with the others, its probably fine.

 

[MrDav3C]

The only printers that have any issues like that are UV printers because the curing lamps can reflect back onto the print head and cure the ink on the head. Even with those it's more an issue with highly reflective materials like printing on mirrors and chrome surfaces, not reflective vinyls, and ways to get by. Solvent, EcoSol (like your Roland), and Latex inks are air cured and don't have that issue, and they work well on reflective vinyl, I print to them all the time for signs, emergency vehicle graphics, decals... They reflect just fine through the ink in the dark when light hits them.

Thanks for this reply & the info. I suspect the information we were provided with years ago is outdated or even just incorrect but has always left me reluctant to print onto reflective in fear of damaging / degrading the print heads so great to have some additional info!

 

[Johnny Best]

You want the letters(message) to be reflective so not having the blue show up as much makes it look good for that sign.