Vinyl peeling very slightly on cut/bleed **pic**

[ATW]

Good morning,
I wondering why some of my cut decals are slightly peeling when the i cut on the bleed.

I am guessing it could be either i have my heat set to high and it is causing the vinyl to heat up too much, im using calandered Mac Tac.
or maybe it could be that i have the blade pressure set too deep.

Any suggestions is welcome.
Thanks for the support

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

If you are printing on a solvent that is pretty common with saturated vinyl. Typically you want a 1/8" White border around your print to prevent vinyl curl due to ink.

 

[ATW]

Yes, of course if there is a white trim then its always good. But, in certain cases when i do a decal a colored edge is preferred.

 

[rdm01]

Let it cure for a day prior to sending it through the plotter. Lamination may help this as well, but lamination is not always required for print-cut jobs.

 

[ams]

Heat and too much ink. Laminate it, it will fix it.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Yes, of course if there is a white trim then its always good. But, in certain cases when i do a decal a colored edge is preferred.

I get why you are doing it, but I'm telling you that the nature of the ink is going to cause that. Solvent ink changes the vinyl chemistry and embeds itself in to the film while Latex, Thermal, and UV sit on the surface of the vinyl. It sounds like others have luck with lamination before cutting, as for me when I ran Mutohs we always had issues with full bleed contour cutting.

 

[gabagoo]

Must laminate...have had the same issues with black ink

 

[TimToad]

I concur with others and absolutely agree that its best to wait until the next day to do the cutting. Especially if you aren't going to laminate them. When we do full bleed cut contours without lam, we'll make it the last print run of the day and use our print/cut alignment marks. We'll then leave it on the printer as is, then align and do the cutting the next morning after without issue.

 

[P Wagner]

I get why you are doing it, but I'm telling you that the nature of the ink is going to cause that. Solvent ink changes the vinyl chemistry and embeds itself in to the film while Latex, Thermal, and UV sit on the surface of the vinyl. It sounds like others have luck with lamination before cutting, as for me when I ran Mutohs we always had issues with full bleed contour cutting.

Concur.
The brand of printer is irrelevant to this. Solvent ink's basic chemistry is causing this issue, by attacking and thinning the vinyl as the ink evaporates. Lamination will help by adding body and dimensional stability to the vinyl. Giving the vinyl more time to dry the ink can help as well, but both approaches add to the overall cost of the resulting product.

Paul

 

[Jester1167]

As others have said, it's the solvents.

To elaborate, the solvent makes the vinyl swell up like a sponge and it's gummier. The cutter tends to push the vinyl and not cut as clean. If you're using air egress vinyl, once you break the bond between the vinyl and liner it will never stick the same. Lamination will help but your best bet is to let the solvents outgas at a minimum overnight and best case 24 to 48 hours before laminating, cutting or both. It also helps to round the corners on all sharp inside and outside corners. The blade is less likely to catch and pull it and it makes it easier to weed. Also inside sharp inside corners tend to be failure points on less expensive and calendared vinyl. We even employ this technique on cut vinyl when cutting small thin text to make weeding easier.

Everyone should cut open an old solvent or eco-solvent cartridge and put a big drop of ink on some vinyl. It's best if you spread it out to about a 3/8" - 1/2" wide. Then you will understand what the solvents do to the vinyl.

 

[StickyBandit]

Let the print air out for a day or two. Gotta think of it like a tattoo. After the vinyl dries, it cuts great.

 

[ATW]

Thanks for the advice. I do mostly hard hat / coffee mug decals and they get printed in large quantity. Letting them dry for 24 hours almost seems impossible. But, what i am doing is reducing the heat, and letting the vinyl dry for about an hour, i know there is more i should do but i'll have to figure logistics.

Thanks for the advice on this issue.

 

[DerbyCitySignGuy]

Thanks for the advice. I do mostly hard hat / coffee mug decals and they get printed in large quantity. Letting them dry for 24 hours almost seems impossible. But, what i am doing is reducing the heat, and letting the vinyl dry for about an hour, i know there is more i should do but i'll have to figure logistics.

Thanks for the advice on this issue.

It's definitely worth waiting the extra day. Do a small sample run and check it out. It makes a huge difference. You might have to adjust your lead times a little, but the amount of headache it saves is worth it.

 

[rdm01]

Thanks for the advice. I do mostly hard hat / coffee mug decals and they get printed in large quantity. Letting them dry for 24 hours almost seems impossible. But, what i am doing is reducing the heat, and letting the vinyl dry for about an hour, i know there is more i should do but i'll have to figure logistics.

Thanks for the advice on this issue.

Hard hat decals should be laminated. I'd say the same for coffee mug decals. That would solve the problem.

For decals that don't require lamination I'd just bid in an extra day for curing.