Reflective digital print failure...cause

[landdesigns]

A customer ask me what made this sign fail so bad, Its a digital reflective print applied to aluminum 2 half years old. Could it be the laminate wasn't right for the vinyl?

 

[MikePro]

which reflective and which overlaminate, specifically?
never seen that happen before, but I would immediately assume that cheap-calendared overlam is the culprit.

...or maybe tried laminating reflective onto some economy airEgress vinyl for ease-of-install.

 

[landdesigns]

I dont know what brand the vinyl or laminate is, wish i knew.

 

[Gino]

Okay, so if you don't know, then evidently you didn't do it. In that case, tell them there's over a 100 ways this could happen from non-digital media being used to wrong combinations of materials to poorly prepped substrates to just plain carelessness. There's no way you can know what happened when inferior products are used by your competition or heaven forbid..... HACKS. However, make sure if you repeat the order, you use something that won't do the same thing.

 

[player]

Could the panel be getting hot and cooked the media?

 

[jfiscus]

Looks like the vinyl is THIN to me. Reflective is usually pretty thick, then adding a laminate would add more thickness.
Probably the last (cheap) company used the cheapest reflective they could buy and spray laminated it...

 

[yukon]

Looks like there's very little adhesion to the aluminum. Usually reflective is a ***** to get off cause it's so aggressive. I don't even see glue residue. Is it possible the original maker didn't remove the clear premask off the aluminum? I bet you they applied the reflective to the clear - that would explain the shrinking and cracking of the reflective.

 

[SignProPlus-Chip]

That photo is indicative of low end calendered laminate.

Se it all the time down here on wraps...same cracked pattern etc...