Wall decal edges curling

[Kemble]

Looking for some noobie advice

So I made a wall decal for my daughter's room yesterday (a big flower) with Oracal 3268 6mil. Printed it then cut it about 15 minutes after. I contour cut it .010" inside the print edge so that there was no white space around the edges. I did not laminate it. Today the edges are curling.

What did I do wrong? Was it because I cut so soon after print? Was it because I did not laminate it? Was it because I did not allow white space? If it's because there was no white space, how come Fathead decals don't have white edges (this I know because I put a Millennium Falcon on my friends wall last week) ?

Thanks

 

[gabagoo]

you need to allow the ink to dry and outgas. I have printed black decals and let them sit a day then contour cut and a day later they basically rolled themselves up ruining them all. Anytime I need to inset the cut on dark colours I always let them sit for 2 or 3 days or laminate them a day later before cutting

 

[john1]

If you contour cut inside any printed area you need to laminate it. For wall vinyls though, they recommend a matte finish so a matte laminate would be a good idea. If you don't want to laminate, oracal suggest i think 1/4" white outline to prevent curling.

 

[jiarby]

well... this is from Oracal: http://www.oracal.com/products/_docs/prod-bulletins/WallGraphicApplicationTips1.pdf

Prior to trimming or laminating it is very important that the graphic sit for 48 hours or more to allow the graphic to out-gas. Prints heavy in ink saturation need to cure & outgas for approximately 72 hours. This is crucial to ensure your wall graphics do not start curling around the edges or lose adhesion altogether. Keep in mind that due to widely varying production shop environments, curing times may vary widely.

For best results on contour-cut wall graphics, utilize ORAJET 3268 6 mil vinyl, and leave a ¼” to ½” unprinted white border all the way around to minimize potential edge curl.

 

[iSign]

mostly because you cut too soon.

the solvents (eco solv... whatever) are like a vehicle to transport the pigment to the vinyl, in the form of ink. Once delivered, the solvents do not stay, they always have to release, outgas or evaporate. This is where the ink smell comes from on a fresh print.

The chemical transformation of the vinyl being heated & absorbing this pigmented solvent, and then cooling & releasing the solvent again... this makes it sort of unstable. It gets softened from the solvent almost melting it, and as it dries, or cures, it tends to shrink. That shrinking can be spread out over the entire sheet of vinyl if it's not cut, and once it's cured, any shrinkage will usually be insignificant...

..but, if you cut right through the printed edge, now you have all the shrinkage tendencies concentrated at the freshly cut edge & instead of fighting that adhesive & trying to pull the whole decal smaller, in to the center... the path of least resistance is for the edges to lift off...

 

[Kemble]

ok cool, that's kind of what I thought (cut too soon) I was just too excited to see how it would turn out cause I just got the roll of material in and I wanted to play =)

I really don't want to have any white space around the edges so I'll print it again and let it sit for 3-4 days then cut it. Nor do I want to laminate it as I don't have matte lamination in stock atm, just gloss.

 

[Kemble]

Thanks for that link jiarby.

On that PDF there is a link to Oracal's color profiles. When I select my Printer (Mutoh 1204) and my RIP (Flexi) there are profiles that say 720 and 720 FMX. Whats the difference? Whats FMX?

 

[Firefox]

What Doug (iSign) said is right on. The vinyl goes through some drastic changes from the time ink touches the vinyl until it is cured. I recently printed a static cling job and noticed a defect in the cling near the start of the print job so I stopped it advanced the cling cutting off the defective part. As the job was printing I was playing around with the freshly printed cling and pulled it off the backing liner. It was all stretchy and puffed up then as it cured out it shrunk up all distorted. It's kind of interesting the changes it goes through from inking through out-gassing. The cling job left to cure on the liner stayed nice and flat and was fine once cured thoroughly.

 

[Idea Design]

Explain perfectly the process of large format digital printing. Ready, Go:

...the solvents (eco solv... whatever) are like a vehicle to transport the pigment to the vinyl, in the form of ink. Once delivered, the solvents do not stay, they always have to release, outgas or evaporate. This is where the ink smell comes from on a fresh print.

The chemical transformation of the vinyl being heated & absorbing this pigmented solvent, and then cooling & releasing the solvent again... this makes it sort of unstable. It gets softened from the solvent almost melting it, and as it dries, or cures, it tends to shrink. That shrinking can be spread out over the entire sheet of vinyl if it's not cut, and once it's cured, any shrinkage will usually be insignificant...

..but, if you cut right through the printed edge, now you have all the shrinkage tendencies concentrated at the freshly cut edge & instead of fighting that adhesive & trying to pull the whole decal smaller, in to the center... the path of least resistance is for the edges to lift off...

 

[Kemble]

It's like science class all over again. Take an empty 2 Liter bottle and pour HOT water in it to the top. Let sit for 20 seconds then pour out & cap bottle immediately as tight as you can. Then let it sit in room temperature and watch as it crushes itself.

 

[Case]

That is why Fathead prints with UV printers... They don't have to wait and and cut into the the ink with less issue....... The new latex printers are also looking very good for cutting into the ink on fathead type materials/wall graphics without waiting or laminating....


Case

 

[visual800]

Im gonna ask what paint texture did the wall have on it...flat, satin, eggshell? sometimes that makes a difference. i have had decals fall off a flat wall and stick great to satin or above. NO LAMINATION on wall prints

 

[Jim Hancock]

Also, as the cutter blade is cutting through the vinyl and ink, this may allow the ink to leach around the edge of the cut and down to the adhesive, also attacking and degrading the adhesive at the edge of the cut. iSign's explanation probably has the most dramatic impact.

 

[MikePro]

aye, i've printed entire rolls and let it sit for days just to come back and see that my 48" roll had shrunk 1/8". always good to give it fair, to large, amounts of dry time just to be safe.

 

[joeshaul]

I've had problems with the curl on 3628, even after curing for a few days. I started adding the suggested border and haven't had issues, just kinda sucks to have the border if the walls aren't white. Printed on my SP300V with Oracal's 3628 profile.

The new latex printers are also looking very good for cutting into the ink on fathead type materials/wall graphics without waiting or laminating....

Hate to segue, but anyone here have experience with this on 3628?

I still have a partial roll of 3628 and was just planning on switching to Phototex or Bigfish's wall product after it was done. I had a wall job come in before Christmas, but was a bit leery about printing on 3628 with my new L25500 for fear that the heaters would be too extreme for the removable adhesive.

 

[Prairieboy]

I've had no problems with any curling or shrinking using Catalina wall graphic material. I print with a Mutoh 1608 and get great results.