Does anyone laminate metallic or fluorescent cut vinyl to get longer life?

[wesley]

Was wondering if anyone has tried laminating fluorescent or high metallic vinyls to hopefully keep them from washing out so soon? We live in south Georgia and the rays around here are brutal. Was thinking of trying this as an extra fee when someone calls about fluorescent lettering on their business vehicle.
Thanks for any knowledge or experience

 

[TyrantDesigner]

the hard part of flourescent is not that the color will wash out or scrape off ... but fade. even uv rated laminate will only help offset that in such a small way that it isn't even worth it.

metallics are different, i use them on a daily basis. I wouldn't laminate them ever. They do darken with age and with a LOT of cast metallics now reaching the 5-9 year rating ... it really comes up to the new owner of the vinyl to take care of it ... I give out a vinyl care and upkeep sheet just so they can do just that.

 

[wesley]

Thanks Tyrant,
Just what are manufacturers refering to when they say a film is a 6 year film? Are the saying it will stay stuck for atleast 6 years, or are they saying the color will hold up for 6 years?
I am re-doing a truck now that I used a six year metallic vinyl on. It has lost all of it metallic and is totally dead in just three years. But it isnt lifting anywhere???

 

[royster13]

I noticed the other day with certain colours of Oracal they show a shorter period than most of the colours...

 

[Fred Weiss]

Metallics, for whatever reason, do not last as long as their non-metallic counterparts.

Estimate life is a comparative rating against other films the manufacturer choose to test and compare to. If film #1 is rated at 5 years and film #2 is rated at 7 years, neither is a guarantee and it is simply a statement by the manufacturer that film #2 will last about 40% longer than film #1 in whatever environment the film is exposed to. So if film #1 fails in 24 months in a given environment, you can expect film #2 to fail in a little over 33 months. One should also take these ratings with a grain of salt because they are used as selling points in their advertising.

To attempt to make a fluorescent last longer is a waste of time if what you want is for the fluorescence to attract attention. It is the physical nature of fluorescent materials that they react with UV light and consume themselves in the process. If you reduce the amount of UV reaching the fluorescent material, you extend the life but at the expense of the reaction you are looking for.

 

[TyrantDesigner]

from my experience with metallic lettering ... the color tends to darken over the years. I just replaced some lettering on a rig last week that was entirely in gold that I installed 2 years ago. the new gold is bright, catches the light and is all around marvelous looking in comparison to his old gold which is about 2 shades darker. Had I not had to replace his "leased to" to "operated by" above his company name and of course his city and state ... you wouldn't be able to tell the difference, now you can. when you install metallic vinyl, just inform the customer to go lighter that they want because the metal flake in it can and will oxidize with age (darkening the color). Also, since I do a lot of rigs ... I also tell them that the more they drive through an acid wash the faster it will darken.

It's pretty much the same thing as when someone gets a metallic paint job, slaps lettering on it and a few years later when they remove it you see the letters being A LOT brighter than the rest of the paint. all metal flake oxidizes. clear coats help paint not oxidize nothing really to help vinyl though.

as for the vinyl itself ... when I remove the vinyl it doesn't flake away with my stripe off wheel like cast or melt to a goo like calendared ... it actually almost feels like trying to remove sand paper when it's around 4-6 years old.

otherwise i've never had any longevity issues with it.