Vinyl on Corrugated Metal Building Peeling/Shrinking

[AllStarNow]

Hey guys, about 6 months ago we installed some vinyl on a new corrugated metal building. The customer mentioned to us that the vinyl was already starting to peel on the edges and when I went to the location to see how bad, it's bad... I'm wondering what caused the vinyl to fail like this? We did vertical seams and carefully squeegeed the graphic left and right over the corrugation after cleaning. I used 3M IJ40C vinyl and Oraguard 210 overlaminate. The worse one is the 4'x4' decal on the south facing wall that gets sun all day, there's hardly any of it still sticking to the building. We were actually contacted by another sign company to do this for one of their clients and he mentioned that we should have used 3M edge sealer, but honestly I don't think that would have helped. The only theory I have is that the laminate (Oragaurd 210) shrunk enough in the full sun that it actually pulled the vinyl off of the building. That or the metal is coated with some sort of stain defender or chemical, though the building seems to have good adherence when using test vinyl.

I've attached some pictures and let me know what you guys think. One is the 4'x4' and one is the 6'x6' with 16"x8' lettering. I use this vinyl/laminate combo all the time on trailers with no issues.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Kynar, which is the paint used on good panels, is like Teflon. SMP coatings have silicone in them. You're going to have a hard time getting vinyl to stick to either one.

 

[Johnny Best]

Your using calendered vinyl with calendered laminate. not a good idea for exterior but as Notsoreal states is your downfall.

 

[2B]

Several points why this will NOT work.........EVER!!!
* You are trying to install it onto a substrate that has a non-stick coating on it
* The material is wrong, a full bleed CAL media with a CAL lamination that is known to shrink

Use a HI TACK film (DPF 8000) with a CAST lamination

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

why would anyone put vinyl on a corrugated metal building like that? Don't the ribs cause the graphics and letters to look distorted? I'd put dimensional letters and logo on there.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

I would suggest a couple of other things you might want to keep in mind...
- Best practice is to never mix media manufacturers.
- Anything outside like this, use cast media.
- In the northern hemisphere, anything south-facing (or horizontal) will be exposed to full sun, all day long, 365 days a year. Because of that alone, use cast (hi performance, whatever you want to call it) media.
- See as someone mentioned the panels you put this on are coated with a non-stick, put decal on aluminum (or ACM) and print enough bleed to wrap the edges. This will help cut down on visible shrinkage. Learning experience on this one, but always research the material/substrate where you're applying graphics to assure it will work (i.e., don't take the customer's word for it).

 

[Chris-H]

This is direct from Orafol website.
A cold laminate for protection of medium-term indoor and outdoor digital print applications. Flat application ONLY.

 

[Gino]

Might not matter, but I try not to take a heavy saturated color, such as BLACK to the very edge of prints. It tends to create a great area which will start peeling, especially on a hot metal building. It generally looks worse at the top, due to gravity. Putting a gripper edge on something like that could possibly help a great deal. Also, using the correct media will help.

 

[garyroy]

A picture is worth a thousand words. Thats wild stuff there.
They may have to go with a 4' X 4' sign mounted to the building.
Better for you, probably better for them.

 

[Geneva Olson]

was it difficult to install?

 

[SightLine]

Agree with the others. Really a combination of factors. The paint finish on that type of building metal has non-stick properties to help them stay cleaner. Then add in calendared vinyl....

 

[MarkSnelling]

I'd agree with a lot of what is listed above other than the statement that calendared films aren't good for outdoors....I do agree that with the shape of this metal wall that a cast would have been a better decision for sure, but if it was flat, there are plenty of polymeric calendared film which would work just as well as cast for a fraction of the cost.

Also - I'd check the tension settings on your laminator. The round decal is only really failing on the top and bottom of the print which is strong signal that you are stretching the crap out of the laminate which is why the sides are still adhered but the top and bottom are peeling back towards the middle.

 

[Stacey K]

Sorry for your loss, this is an interesting post. Are the letters you cut out also printed or are they solid cut calendared vinyl? Just curious.

I did not know that these kinds of buildings had a non-stick coating. This is good to know.

 

[Gino]

I'd agree with a lot of what is listed above other than the statement that calendared films aren't good for outdoors....I do agree that with the shape of this metal wall that a cast would have been a better decision for sure, but if it was flat, there are plenty of polymeric calendared film which would work just as well as cast for a fraction of the cost.

Also - I'd check the tension settings on your laminator. The round decal is only really failing on the top and bottom of the print which is strong signal that you are stretching the crap out of the laminate which is why the sides are still adhered but the top and bottom are peeling back towards the middle.

Interesting, but doesn't it make more sense that where the vinyl had far more area sticking to a solid plane, rather then being interrupted so often with valleys and ups & downs more of a less adhering area make more sense ?? When you look on the pic where the sun doesn't hit as much, even the yellow letters are giving way at ALL the interruptions and the circle as well..... just not to such an extent. The totally flat surfaces seem to be holding enough. Like someone mentioned, if this was flat any of these mistakes would probably not have happened. There's a lotta corrugation going on there.

 

[gnubler]

Sorry for your loss, this is an interesting post. Are the letters you cut out also printed or are they solid cut calendared vinyl? Just curious.

I did not know that these kinds of buildings had a non-stick coating. This is good to know.

Agreed, I was going to leave similar comments. Seems like every install is a learning experience for us newcomers and I never would have thought that surface would be non-stick.

For what it is, the OP did a good job, but I would have pushed for rigid signage instead. Bet it was a pain to install.

 

[visual800]

The problem is you went over ridges, same as on a work van. It never fails vinyl is gonna lift. It didnt hurt you had a laminate also, vinyl may have been better.
In the future when a customer ants this just say no and go with panels