What caused this failure?

[gaeabav]

This partial wrap is 4 years old. We used Oracal 3751 with 290 Laminate. Both sides of the vehicle were printed and installed from the same rolls of materials. Installed using the same technique. Driver's side is wrecked, passenger side looks like normal wear-n-tear after 4 years. Anybody got any ideas as to what caused this?

 

[DougWestwood]

How long was material left to off gas before laminating?
Also, could be just the way they park it, with one side to the sun.

 

[oksigns]

I'd hazard a guess that based on the material used and not knowing the region, stress cracks due to over stretching on that side along with excessive sun exposure. If that vehicle is parked in the same way everyday and sees a lot of sun, I'd believe it.

3751

 

[eahicks]

Is that window perf on the glass or the same vinyl? Seeing how tore up that part is too, I'd say overexposure to sun. What happens if the car never moves or parks the same way every day.

 

[gaeabav]

To answer all the questions:

1. It was allowed to out gas for at least 24hrs before laminating.
2. We are located in NY about 80 miles north of NYC.
3. Yes that is window perf, Oracal's and laminated with the 290F.

This is the first vehicle we've had this happen to. Is this typical of sun overexposure after 4 years? Our own shop van is wrapped and parked in the same place day-in-day-out and it doesn't show this kind of wear. And it's wrap is 12-18 months older.

 

[Gino]

Is that one solid print from top to bottom, other than the perf portion, or is there any overlay vinyl techniques being used ??

 

[gaeabav]

The logo on the door is an overlay of printed, laminated and diecut using the same material as the rest. The grey and light blue are a solid print with lam. There is perf on the window.

 

[edspecR]

not sure how probable, as i'm in california with extremely harsh winters (...) but maybe some water/rain got in underneath the vinyl and never got out when winter came and turned it into ice? kinda like how pipes crack... i've had to replace wall graphics that had water fill up between the wall and the adhesive, material looked similar to that.

 

[Bly]

4 years isn't a bad life for vehicle graphics.
We tell people they should last 3 years.
Do you know when it started to fail?

 

[GAC05]

I am with team exposure, the left side must be getting much more sun than the right with both the regular print material & the window perf failing on one side only.
Either that or it is political - Right side is in pretty good shape in 2017 - The Left, not so good.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[AKwrapguy]

Don't use Oracal much but ave you asked the client how often they wash the vehicle? What they use as a soap? Did they use a pressure washer? Did they try to wax the vehicle with some type of buffer?

As far a the layered material coming up, we have found that in colder climates, when placing a second layer on top of a gloss laminate that as the car expands and constricts it has a better chance of curling on the edges and doing things that look very similar to what you have.

Also it looks like the the rear doors on the driver side gets used more than the other side, so perhaps someone is resting something on it or brushing up that is causing it ware down....

 

[Jonzed]

Lots and lots of Sun or parked next to a house fire?

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[equippaint]

We dont do wraps so Im totally pulling this out of my you know where. Is it possible that you didnt seal the edges on 1 side? Maybe got in a push, put another employee on it? Or maybe your laminator pressure was slacking on the second run? The 1 door pic looks like it has mold under it like water got in between the lam and print which is why Im saying this. Did you print it in 2 batches and mix up materials like we just did? They should put the material number inside of the cores. One of my employees mixed them up and its about impossible to tell the difference until you use it a little. Thats all I got, feel free to laugh at me if it sounds like I dont have a clue on this cuz I dont....