I'm experienceing sporadic UV Inhibitor delamination using the Clear Shield Clear Star products. I'm spraying them on with a turbine HOLV sprayer. I'm getting perfect, smooth, even coverage. I'm using a Lo-Tac premask to transfer the digital prints to various substrates and the clear overlay periodically comes with the premask when removing it.
My printer is a Falcon Outdoor 48" using Ecosolvent inks.
Does anyone know of another sprayable UV inhibitor other than Clear Star?
TIA
Latigo St.Marie
Hi. Yes, our customers expect 5 years from our prints. Most are rather complex in-line cuts and installed on trailers. We're a Wholesale Only shop and service no end-users. The shops we service expect the absolute 3 year minimum life from our prints.
All architectural renderings require nothing at all, but the trailer/van wrap stuff has to last longer.
Thanks for your reply.
Latigo
Printing on what media?
We have the same printer and use the same liquid laminate. We had work delaminate just one time and that was when we were using a medium tack mask as an expedient and not letting eiither the print or the Clear Shield set for a few hours. We switched to a low tack mask, developed some patience, and have never had the problem since.
How long are you letting your prints dry before applying the Clear Shield? We let them sit for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.
How long are you letting the CLear Chield dry before masking? Again, we let them set for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.
Spraying Clear Shild can be problematic. You tend to get the stuff too thick and it never really gets worked onto the surface, it just sits there. Thinner and worked onto the media seems better. When propely used the Clear Shield leaves an really thin and tough coating. Thicker is not necessarily better, especially since any coating bonds to the surface of the media. More of it doesn't necessarily bond any better.
We find that the best result applying a slightly thinned Clear Shield with an el cheapo foam brush. Even this take a few times to get the hang of it. We thin the Clear Shield at the incredibly imprecise ratio of about a half a small juice glass of water to about 3/4 of a Cool Whip bowl of Clear shield. We like the viscosity to be such that it runs off of a standard wooden paint stirring stick like thick water rather than sagging off like motor oil.
We have also achieved good results with mopping it on with a chunk of woolskin. From an actual sheep. The stuff used to line Western saddles. But this sometimes tends to leave the odd hair in the laminate. Not often enough that anyone who isn't completely anal would fret.
Would you actually do that with a 48"x16' digital print?? Some of these we do are 20' long.
We let the prints cure for 24 hours before Clear Shield application. We'll try your suggestion of thinning. Using any kind of an applicator isn't practical for us. The prints are mostly just too large and too many of them at one time. Production would force the sq' price up if we had to apply that much by hand. We'll try your method on a smaller print and do a comparison.
Thanks for the response.
Latigo
Just lay the print out on the floor, pour a puddle of Clear Shield on it, you'll learn just how much, and mop it on. Use a flat pad applicator a roller, or an actual mop. The flat pad wastes the least amount of laminate.
Try this a couple of times and see if it's not faster and more efficient than spraying. The actual application AND the setup and cleanup times are better and the material is better applied. The object is not so much a smooth coat but a thin well bonded coat. The smoothness is generated by the material, of proper viscosity, flowing as it dries and the bonding by your application technique.
We used to spray with an HVLP rig. Now it sits on the shelf gathering dust. Way too much trouble for less than satisfactory results.
One more thing to consider. Does the delamination tend to commence over unprinted or printed regions of the media? If the behavior is different, printed vs unprinted, then this would indicate that either your media or your print has some problems.
Please keep in mind that almost all of the liquid laminates on the market are meant primarily for small short run decals, not large long-term graphics. The only guaranteed sure fire solution for protecting prints is a pressure sensitive overlaminate. Yes, it costs more but the graphics would last. There would be no delamination and no added expense for the material and labor of adding the transfer tape.
Mike
Spoken like a specimen with something to sell. Smal, short run? Is there some critical mass of number prints above which a liquid laminate is sure to fail? Is there some physical size of a print above which a liquid laminate will refuse to function?
The only real difference is in theoretical longevity. Theoretical because most, of not virtually all, printed graphics experience a functional life far less than the limits of the materials from which they are fashioned.
Latigo,
Liquid laminates can be tricky. Everyone has a process that works for them and their particular material and we found that there is a break even point when size & quantity gets higher. With the size & quantities your talking about, it may be time for you to look at a laminator to ease your production and space needs. Or an automated liquid laminator to keep the square foot cost down. We laminate and it's fairly easy and the bullet proof I think your customers are looking for. Try and visit a shop or vendor to see it in action.
TW, actually spoken like a person who successfully owned and operated a digital print company for 9 years. The size and amount have very little to do with failure and everything to do with being competitive. Of coarse the vinyl that graphics are printed on will outlast the liquid laminates that's applied to it, the laminates function is to protect the ink.
Sometimes in order to be competitive you need to find alternative (cheaper) way to protect your graphics. Alternatives only come into play when your producing small or short run graphics. When producing larger graphics or greater quantities of graphics the laminate becomes less significant in cost.
Either way you protect your graphics please keep one thing in mind, there are expensive laminators and inexpensive laminators. No matter what, you ALWAYS get what pay for.
Mike
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Do you really need a UV inhibitor with Eco-Sol ink?
I mean how long are they needed?I ecpect that you'll get a year plus with these even in the worst conditions.
If so, I would consider a laminate with UV inhibitors.
My 2 Cents.
Gregory Daerr
@your Service
Providing Independent Large Format Digital Service and Support to the Sign and Graphics Industry.
Mobile: 714.401.6409