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KEY TO SUCCESS

 

 

Printable rigid substrates are often an important part of a shop’s product offerings. It pays to know the best ways to handle and ship them in order to cut down on unnecessary waste. Photo courtesy Palram.

Just about anything can happen to printable materials during the circuitous route they take from the manufacturer to the distributor to the print shop’s warehouse to production to finishing to the end-use customer’s hands. This is particularly true with rigid substrates—like foam boards and PVC products—where anomalies on the printing surface are more likely to occur.

 

While they’re in your control, however, you can take steps to diminish, if not eliminate, potential printing problems that cause waste, force the dreaded re-print and all the hassles that follow. The steps are simple, but can make the difference between a botched job and a profitable one.

 

DIRECT PRINTING

There’s not much you can do about the board until it makes it to your shop, but most manufacturers and distributors take great care in the process. For instance, Palram Americas, based in Kutzdown, Pa., uses a protective masking on its PVC foam product.

 

“We produce our Palight foam PVC sheets with two packaging options. One comes with a polyethylene protective masking on each sheet, which means the printing surface is untouched by human hands from our factory, through distribution and to the print shop. This provides the printer with a pristine surface for digital printing. However, some high-volume printers don’t like to have to peel off each and every sheet, so we package those in a box with a removable lid that keeps the product free of dust and debris,” says Tim Cronrath, product manager for Palram Americas. “For those printers who buy less than skid quantities, the distributors we sell to in the graphics market wear white cotton gloves if they need to handle the boards individually, keeping the board free of fingerprints.”

 

Burbank, Calif.-based Crush Creative, prints onto a myriad of rigid substrates, using one of its UV-curing flatbeds, such as this Inca Digital unit shown printing onto layered recyclable sheet. Photo courtesy Crush Creative.

Regardless of how the manufacturer packages it, the white glove treatment is the first step. Well, not exactly the first step. Since the material will typically be stored somewhere before it goes to production, it’s essential that board materials are stacked horizontally, rather than against a wall. Vertical stacking will inevitably lead to bowed boards that will cause all kinds of havoc on a flatbed printer. Moreover, board materials should be kept in a clean, climate-controlled environment. If that’s not possible, avoid extreme temperature variations.

 

“We shrink-wrap our materials, but often someone will pull out a sheet barehanded, leaving grease and dirt behind and send it off to production for printing. Especially on a digital flatbed, you can see those fingerprints in the print itself,” says Jerry White, national sales manager for Kommerling’s Graphics Division. “So always wear white cotton gloves and make sure it’s cleaned off before it’s printed. You can generate a lot of static with our product, especially when it goes from cold to warm temperatures. Our sheet will hold a static charge unless you wipe it off with water, which really works because you’re rehydrating the sheet and killing the static charge in the sheet. A lot of people will take a brush and brush it along, which moves static from one end to another end of the sheet, versus taking a damp cloth and wiping it down where you actually kill that static bubble in the sheet. That’s an important factor. Lay it flat, keep it clean and don’t put grimy hands on it. It seems like a pain, but I’d rather have a clean sheet that’s static-free than have to print it five times before I figure it out.”

 

Actually, White recommends a three-part solution of equal parts water, alcohol and Simply Green, which you can pick up at a local hardware store. “Simply Green cleans the grease and dirt, alcohol picks up lint and other materials and the water dilutes it so you don’t leave a film behind after you wipe it off,” says White. “If you use straight isopropyl alcohol it tends to leave a bit of a milky film behind, which affects the quality of print.”

 

Printed rigid substrates offer a myriad of creative applications, but handling needs some TLC. Jerry White of Kommerling recommends wearing white cotton gloves while handling rigid substrates, and cleaning sheets with a mixture of water, alcohol and Simply Green cleaning solution.

When shipping printed rigid substrates, packing and crating must be done with care so as not to damage an otherwise perfect print. Photo courtesy Crush Creative.

RIGID DETAILS

At commercial graphics provider Crush Creative in Burbank, Calif., Michael Lannin, purchasing and facilities manager, runs a super-clean, tight shop, which is the foundation for ensuring a quality final product with few, if any, customer returns or re-prints.

 

“We flush the heads on our solvent printers after every job and the heads of our direct-to-board printers every two to four hours, depending on the printer. We are strict about regular maintenance on all of our printers, whether it’s our UV-curing flatbeds, solvent printers or our photographic printers. We’re trying to run our cash as lean as possible, but maintenance is a crucial factor for us,” says Lannin.

 

On the front end, Lannin reports that for PVC foam boards Crush Creative has moved from buying “bits and pieces,” as Lannin puts it, to buying palettes because this ensures that fewer hands touch the boards. “The less handling and the more pristine the board, the better,” says Lannin.

 

Lannin reports that—thanks to advances in printer, ink and substrate technology—they are able to print with higher quality to a wider range of boards. “There are boards that don’t handle the ink as well; the cheaper, lighter, closed cell polystyrene. Some work better than others, but now they seem to be coming around. I think the ink and the substrate technology are coming together,” says Lannin. He adds that printing rigid substrates is a lot easier with the latest generation of flatbed printers. Crush Creative and parent company Merisel run a battery of printers from EFI, Durst and Inca Digital.

 

For shipping the prints to customers, Lannin explains, “We usually wrap things in paper, then put foam around them and pack them in a rigid crate.”

 

It’s common sense, but little details missed in shipping can spell disaster. For instance, make sure the corners are adequately reinforced and that there’s no debris or chips between the boards stacked in the crate.

 

“Even if there are shavings or wood chips they will press through the rest of the boards and you’ll see an impression. You also want to make sure the palette doesn’t have any nail heads popping through, because that will transfer through all the boards in the crate,” says Jon Silver of Jain Americas in Cleveland.

 

For aluminum composite materials the same principles apply, though denting is more of an issue in the handling and shipping process. “You can be fairly rough with the sheets, but you should still handle it in such a way that you don’t dent the aluminum face,” says Paul Olson, senior marketing manager for Mitsubishi Plastics Composites Americas. Olson adds that dirt is naturally attracted to any rigid substrate so the cleaner the shop, the better the print.

 

Aluminum composite materials, such as the Graphc·Al line from Mitsubishi Plastics Composites Americas, can stand a bit rougher handling, but dirt is always a challenge. The cleaner the shop, the better the print.

VINYL APPLICATION

When applying vinyl or any other adhesive-backed material to board, surface anomalies are not anywhere near the factor they are with direct printing. With direct printing more care is required, but to ensure a durable bond between the media and the substrate some preparation is required. The following suggestions were put forth by sources interviewed within this article:

Whether it’s plastic, PVC, aluminum or MDO the surface should be as clean as possible. Do not to use soap, Windex, or other ammonia-based cleaners as they leave a residue that will affect the vinyl’s adhesion, as will rags, towels and more expensive paper towels. Rather, they suggest using cheap paper towels to wipe it down with either rubbing alcohol or other cleaners that evaporate quickly, like Rapid Tac, which is designed for vinyl application.

 

There’s no need to scuff the board, typically done with PVC material, to give it more “tooth” or bite for better ink adhesion. This could defeat the purpose by creating ridges and pockets in the material that might ultimately cause premature lift and/or de-lamination.

 

Foam boards need less preparation, but if you’re cutting them to a different size, make sure there’s no dust on the board before you apply the graphic.

 

Although care must be taken with many lightweight rigid substrates, once laminated they offer a myriad of interesting applications, such as this framed sample from Encore (formerly Bienfang).

If you have a laminator, use it to apply the graphic to the material, even if you’re not laminating the print. It’s a relatively quick and easy way to apply the vinyl to the substrate. If you usually run rigid materials on one side of the laminator each time, the rollers will start wear down on that side, causing poor adhesion and de-lamination. One solution is to mix it up and run materials through each side of the laminator and in the middle.

 

To check your laminator, set the nip to zero, and if there’s any daylight between the rollers it means you’re getting wear spots, or the rollers are out of alignment. Either way, it’s a good idea to regularly check this.

 

Once you’ve applied the graphic to the board, whether you’re using a laminator or not, let the adhesive set for at least two hours, and ideally 24 hours, before you trim. This is especially important if you’re using a mechanical cutting tool, like a CNC router. If you’re not using a router, make sure to use a sharp blade on a hard surface, such as tempered glass. This will help eliminate any edge lift problems.