I am new to signmaking and was more or less thrown into it when the person who handled our large format printing quit with no notice. I have a general knowledge of how to run the equipment but lately I have been struggling with applying heavily inked vinyl to our corrugated plastic signs. We have a mutoh valujet 1304 (i think) and i am printing on orajet material. I am only having trouble with the heavily saturated spots. When the backing is removed, the vinyl stretches, thus leaving LOTS of wrinkles and skewed art. Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.
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Stretching vinyl while applying to corrugated plastic.
- Thread starter tposey24
- Start date
gabagoo
New Member
you could try premasking the first 6" of the print that goes into the laminator to give it some thickness.
I really like printing on the proveer house brand (true stock, but really Avery) with the grey adhesive for just that purpose. The stuff is very rigid when peeling back the liner, even on heavy ink.
I really like printing on the proveer house brand (true stock, but really Avery) with the grey adhesive for just that purpose. The stuff is very rigid when peeling back the liner, even on heavy ink.
Bigdawg
Just Me
If the print is stretchy, lots of time you'll see the line where the transfer tape was if you put a strip on to start the application. It works, but if the print is giving you stretch problems already, then you'll have 6" unstretched vinyl and then the same current problems on the rest of the sign.
We rarely (I'm trying to think of when we have) laminate corrugated signs and most of our prints are full coverage. What Orajet material are you using? I'd highly recommend switching over to 3165RA first of all for coro. The air release can become your best friend.
How long are you letting the prints set before you try to apply them? You really need to let them sit at least a few hours - if not overnight - before you try to apply. The vinyl will be much less pliable.
How are you hinging the print to apply? From a side? The top? Center hinge? If you are applying from a side, are you slowly rolling back the backing paper as you apply - keeping it as low as possible to the coro? It helps to keep as little room as possible between the substrate and the print.
How are you on the laminator? Is it feasible for you to run them through there? (Although you will still get some of the stretch problem if you try to do it too soon after printing).
just some thoughts...
We rarely (I'm trying to think of when we have) laminate corrugated signs and most of our prints are full coverage. What Orajet material are you using? I'd highly recommend switching over to 3165RA first of all for coro. The air release can become your best friend.
How long are you letting the prints set before you try to apply them? You really need to let them sit at least a few hours - if not overnight - before you try to apply. The vinyl will be much less pliable.
How are you hinging the print to apply? From a side? The top? Center hinge? If you are applying from a side, are you slowly rolling back the backing paper as you apply - keeping it as low as possible to the coro? It helps to keep as little room as possible between the substrate and the print.
How are you on the laminator? Is it feasible for you to run them through there? (Although you will still get some of the stretch problem if you try to do it too soon after printing).
just some thoughts...
Baz
New Member
Stacy got it ... Your prints are to fresh. If you must apply so soon after printing .. You should pre-mask the whole thing before aplying it to a substrate. But keep in mind .. Cheaper vinyls will shrink while they are drying. So if you have heavy coverage along the border of your sign. Print will probably lift along the edges.
dhamlett15
New Member
I use the 6 mil GF material for coro works good with full coverage prints without masking
http://www.cssignsupply.com/222-Series--6-Mil-Semi-Rigid-Matte-Digital-Vinyl-54x100_p_8.html
http://www.cssignsupply.com/222-Series--6-Mil-Semi-Rigid-Matte-Digital-Vinyl-54x100_p_8.html
Wow. This has been very helpful. I am new to this site and honestly didnt know if I would get any response at all. But this should do the trick. Thanks to everyone for help. Do you all know of any other resources available that can help me in learning this new side of our family business? I just graduated college with a business admin degree, so graphics and all of this was the last thing I expected and was prepared to do. I literally have had to google a lot of the terminology and things that I have found just to understand the basics.
Signed Out
New Member
We regularly print on oracal 3621 matte and apply to coro minutes off the printer. If you have a laminator, square the print on the coro, clamp or tape it down (we print from template with marks which makes squaring the print very quick), run 4" mask tape on the leading edge, pull back fold the backer under and squeege that leading edge down. Then just run it through the lamiantor. No need for air release vinyl or laminate, especially for yard signs. Use matte vinyl though, the ink drys better and you wont get the yard signs sticking to eachother and you can apply it sooner off the printer.
We ran into the same problems of the vinyl stretching when we started out, the 4" of mask on the leading edge made all the difference in the world.
We ran into the same problems of the vinyl stretching when we started out, the 4" of mask on the leading edge made all the difference in the world.
rjssigns
Active Member
Like Stacy said: Prints are too fresh. Let them sit. Another thing is you should never have a heavy ink load for anything going on coro. All the prints we put on coro are done at high speed. What I'm trying to say is you don't put fine art on coro. 360 x 360 is more than enough.
We apply all prints to coro with a Big Squeegee. Works a treat.
We apply all prints to coro with a Big Squeegee. Works a treat.
+1 Your prints need to outgass. I try to clip mine so they hang vertically to dry, you can also roll them loose and stand them in a 5 gal bucket. Biggest change for us was switching to the 'yard sign tool' by Big Squeegee a merchant member here on signs 101. Now we can mount a coro sign in under a minute I would guess with centering and taping in place... also we are able to do it without laminating or masking with application tape. Don't think about it just order it, it costs almost nothing. Also 'Big Fish' a merchant member here sells a thick callendared vinyl super cheap that is thick and works really well without lamination.