What are you all using for digital media for signage? I have a couple sign jobs coming up that will be on the building for many years. Basically needs to last forever,lol. I know that isnt possible but thats how many years Im talking,.lol. I have got so many different opinions on what material to use. This will be a flat surface. I will be laminating also. What do you all suggest? Which Vinyl and matching laminate?
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Digital Media for long term signage
- Thread starter LMSigns24
- Start date
jess nixon
jess
We use Dibond for jobs sounding similar to this
Gino
Premium Subscriber
I never really understood why the emphasis was on how long the vinyl will last. Seems even if you use a 7 year or 10 year warrantied vinyl, the printed matter will barely last 4 to 5 year. With Laminate, maybe another 18 months. Sun exposure and geographical location play a big roll in this, too.
Signs today, are not what they were 20 or 30 years ago or more. Back then, it was no problem getting signs to last 20 and 25 years..... not so today.
Ya buy all this expensive equipment, supplies and labor and end up with a sign that's gonna last 5 years. Doesn't seem like progress to me.
Signs today, are not what they were 20 or 30 years ago or more. Back then, it was no problem getting signs to last 20 and 25 years..... not so today.
Ya buy all this expensive equipment, supplies and labor and end up with a sign that's gonna last 5 years. Doesn't seem like progress to me.
Corwin Steeves
Large format printer to the stars
I did some signs at a hospital almost 10 years ago, and I drive by them a few times a year and they look as good as the day we installed them. 3M 180 and 8518 lamination on 3mm alumicore, printed on a full solvent Mimaki. If you'd like it to REALLY last, you could use 6mm instead. And if it's accessable to people than I would look at a polycarbonate lamination.
Make sure that you wrap the vinyl all the way around the edges of the aluminum panels. This will ensure that they don't lift over time.
Michael-Nola
I print things. It is very exciting.
That was helpful Gino.
In reality, the "forever" grade signs that are high quality and made to last (which you see off the side of the interstate all day long) are made out of polycarbonate and cut vinyl.
The polycarbonate needs to be a high quality UV resistant grade. The Palram Palsun series are my standard outdoor sign sheets. Check out their catalog that easily breaks it down by application:
Palram - Flat Sheets Application Catalog
There are other brands like Lexan and Bayer Makolon, but I find their outdoor UV resistance is significantly lower, so not as good for "forever" grade outdoor.
For 4 color process signage, you need to print with the highest grade 3M/long life UV inks. Don't ever back it with white ink, use a long life polyester or vinyl blockout backer (or translucent if a backlit sign).
For "forever" grade, customers have to give up 4 color process and stick with cast cut vinyls. If you'll notice, most commercial grade signs way up in the air are solid, 1-3 colors. Not process.
3m 3630 is their translucent signage grade material. 7 year outdoor durability, and under UV protected polycarb it's pretty much "forever" until the polycarb yellows beyond the customer's liking. (They last decades, depending on what the customer accepts as "too yellow"). This is what you see on most free standing signs, since most of those are all backlit.
3m 7725 is their opaque signage grade material. 8 year outdoor durability, again it's pretty much forever under the UV polycarb. This is common for wall mounted signs that are not backlit, or can be installed "right reading/forward facing" on metal or plastics. In those cases their are various clearcoat and covering options to extend the 8yr life, and many people don't even do that for shorter life signs.
All in all, there is a lot of knowledge that goes into making a REAL high quality sign. Sure you can slap some cheapo UV ink inside a sheet of generic polycarb and it will look good for a year. But all those yellow signs you see that have been out for 25 years? Those are quality. I would job this out to an experienced sign shop and relay your needs to them. If you're bent on doing it yourself, I'd do some serious homework first. Make friends with a sign shop locally? See if someone can give you the knowledge up-front, instead of learning by expensive failures.
Lastly ... If you're going the cut-vinyl "forever" route and they want more than 1 color or you don't have a plotter or something ... you definitely need to job out. I keep virtually every standard color vinyl in stock allowing me to make signs of all types, all the time. That's about $50k worth of inventory. If your clients want 3 signs, 2 colors each, you're stuck buying 2 rolls of vinyl at about $900 per roll and then only using 5-10 feet of each? That doesn't make much sense.