Need Help Reflectivity?

[koz]

Hey all, I have a large job coming up on reflective vinyl and I want to make sure I deliver the best product possible. My question is one about ink types. In your experience with Eco-Solvent and Latex - does either one look better on reflective than the other one? Does it even make a difference? I can use either, so I want to make sure to use the ink type that will provide the highest possible reflectivity. Thank you for any advice you can give me!

 

[bulldozer]

where there is ink, it will lose quite a bit of the reflective effect. from my experience.

 

[2B]

where there is ink, it will lose quite a bit of the reflective effect. from my experience.

exactly, the inks add a layer on top of the reflective properties.
If you want the highest reflective properties you need to use colored reflective vinyl.

also if this is the first you have worked with reflective, remember that black reflective will appear as "white" when it is hit with a light source

 

[Neville]

Hi Koz
The darker the ink the less reflectivity you get, there is nothing you can do about that it is what it is. If anything the less ink you put down the better of for reflectivity you should be so maybe watch your pass rate.

You didnt say what your job was going onto so I will assume its for flat surface or curve in one direction. All reflectives have a different rate of reflectivity (candela) so if your after the maxium then you would be best to use a prismatic film over a glass bead. You should be able to print say 3M Diamond Grade or 7930 Prismatic on a latex, but if not print onto a clear film then laminate that to your DG, that will be far brighter than printing onto a glass bead film (ie: 3M 680CR). If you are going over something that needs to be conformed then you need something more like 680CR. I'm sure the other manufactures will have their similar films so maybe start there at product selection.

Regards

Nev

 

[Quark]

Is there a general consensus if one ink type is more translucent than the other?

 

[KSTrooper]

At my old shop we printed on reflective fairly often for out of town billboard graphics. We used a Roland VP540 with Eco-Sol inks and they always turned out pretty well. We usually printed on 3M 680 reflective white.

 

[Rick]

What are you making? Traffic Signs?

If they are traffic signs, they are required to meet certain standards, not every reflective meets MUTCD and/or ASTM standards.

Most custom traffic signs are printed with screen printed translucent inks or transparent cut vinyl. I think even today, there is only one printer that can print a MUTCD/ATSTM compliant sign, The Matan - DTS Traffic Sign Printers - Matan Digital Printers - good luck finding one...

If they are NOT traffic signs, then printing on clear might do the trick, but will not be very reflective...
Without seeing the signs, you might be able to use a combination of trans cut vinyl and digital print, but can't say without seeing the design...

Also... be careful with digitally printing on clear as proven by the now infamous Ashville, NC Wayfinding signs...

 

[eahicks]

Either solvent, eco-sol or latex are all fairly translucent, all about the same level. We do tons of printing on reflective (doing some as we speak!) and the darker colors are less reflective, obviously, but still do reflect. Wouldn't hurt to run as low saturation as possible though, enough to have a solid color, but still be as thin of a coat as possible.

 

[AKwrapguy]

It all depends on what to project is. Each are fine but it also depends on the material as well as laminate. 3290 won't run with latex but you can with eco-sol. I also haven't had much luck with 7930 and latex either but could have just been a bad roll.

 

[ikarasu]

It all depends on what to project is. Each are fine but it also depends on the material as well as laminate. 3290 won't run with latex but you can with eco-sol. I also haven't had much luck with 7930 and latex either but could have just been a bad roll.

Why can't 3290 run with Latex? I've printed a few signs on my home latex (110) using 3290. I did notice it wasnt too abbrasive resistant... but Laminate fixed that. Our shop is looking to buy a latex printer... And we do a lot of reflective, So I'm hoping I don't have to tell them Latex is a bad idea for our use, considering I've been hyping latex all this time!

 

[AKwrapguy]

The 3290 is meant for screen printing but it will also work with solvent/eco-solvent. We thought the same thing and one day we printed a sign and used masking tape to tape a slip sheet over it so it wouldn't get scratched. When we removed the masking tape it pulled the laminate and ink right off the material. We had our local tech, 3M and HP looking into it and it turns out that the 3290 isn't rated for latex. We also didn't have much luck with 7930 either. We're currently looking at the 3m 5100 series I think .

 

[ikarasu]

Ah. I'll have to try again and see - I did notice it scratches off pretty easily. Too bad... a good 1/3 of our prints are on 3290, I think it'll be a deal breaker for them, and I'll be stuck with another crappy solvent machine. We actually had a Roland tech come in and try to sell us a machine... we gave him some 3290 to print some samples for us, and they turned out really bad / smudged. Not sure on the exact model.. But it was a solvent machine, and he came back saying he couldn't get it to produce decent quality.

Our Seiko prints on it perfectly though.