3M film

[Steve Clarkson]

The 3M company must be doing well in this economy.

Based upon a different thread concerning labeling keyboard keys, I ordered a sample of the laserable 3M film.

3M generously sent me 300 FEET of it!!! Probably more than I could ever use in my lifetime.

However, a product data sheet I found online stated that you should use a yag laser. It's very similar to Laser Lights and the topcoat is acrylate......which a quick Google search seems to indicate is a vinyl polymer.....anyone know if it's safe? Oh......for info about emissions from laser engraving/cutting, 3M tells you to contact their division in Germany........

Has anyone else used this material, and if so, for what applications?

Any setting recommendations? 3M doesn't provide them.

Thanks

[Dan Hintz]

If it's an acrylate, you're fine...

[Viktor Voroncov]

For GCC Mercury 25 Wt I use Speed 100%, Power 10-11-12-13-14, DPI 600. And very important set MANUAL COLOR FILL in MODE SETTING (I think this is valid only for GCC lasers). Last setting is very important for fillings and bar codes.

Steve - send me half :) of samples

[Robert Walters]

3M generously sent me 300 FEET of it!!! Probably more than I could ever use in my lifetime...

the topcoat is acrylate......which a quick Google search seems to indicate is a vinyl polymer.....anyone know if it's safe?

for info about emissions from laser engraving/cutting, 3M tells you to contact their division in Germany.


Hi Steve,

Where did you order a sample from? When I looked for a resource in US, the product line never showed up in their 'Security Products Division' (feel free to PM).




You probably already knew this...

The word you want to avoid is "chlor" [SIC].
As in Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC), etc.

Other "words" I like to avoid (especially around heat/flame) are:
Urea, Formaldehyde, Urea-Formaldehyde, PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene - trade name: Teflon)

And can be found in: MDF, Floral Foam, Melamine, Formica, among other materials I'd suspect.


If you are ever in doubt about some material, request the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for it.
Then google the 'CAS number' for each of the compounds they list.
May not always the best solution, but better than nothing at all imo.

[Viktor Voroncov]

May be will be helpful - that's what I get from 3M Germany. Really 3M is very difficult company in terms of purchasing/getting information/samples.

[Gary Hair]

Steve,
Where did you find the film? I have searched the 3m site and can't find it anywhere.

Thanks,
Gary

[Steve Clarkson]

Gary & Bob......I'm not sure exactly where I found it.......but it was definitely on the 3m.com website........there was a button that you clicked that said "Request a Sample". Of course that was a week ago and when I went looking for it today, I couldn't find it. I know I Googled "3M security tape" to find it originally.

Viktor......the roll weighs about 8lbs........probably would cost me $200 to mail it to you!

And Viktor's right......3M definitely isn't the easiest company to work with.......even if I wanted to buy more of this stuff......I have no idea how!

[Viktor Voroncov]

3M loves $ 000 000 customers :D When 8 years ago I have sent dealer inquiry to local 3M office, they provide me a lot of samples, many promotion materials BUT! they ask me buy initial order for almost $90 000 :eek:. When I refuse this proposal - they immediatelly loose interest to me :D

[Andrea Weissenseel]

Great Steve :)

I only know this one http://www.tesa.com/industry/products/tesa(r)_6930_laserlabel.html

Andrea

[Lee DeRaud]

Gary & Bob......I'm not sure exactly where I found it.......but it was definitely on the 3m.com website........there was a button that you clicked that said "Request a Sample".Found it here (http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Converter_Solutions/Home/Prod_Info/Prod_Catalog/?PC_7_RJH9U5230GE3E02LECIE20GER4_nid=CPZP68GFMQbeF LW8KCNRGQgl), but no sign of the magic "request sample" button.

EDIT: Hang on, found it, it's here (http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/electronics/home/productsandservices/products/TapesAdhesives/LabelMaterials/), over on the right. It's just a standard contact form with the subject prefilled to "Request Sample"...we'll see how well this works or if they wised up after Steve got his.

[Steve Clarkson]

Found it here (http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Converter_Solutions/Home/Prod_Info/Prod_Catalog/?PC_7_RJH9U5230GE3E02LECIE20GER4_nid=CPZP68GFMQbeF LW8KCNRGQgl), but no sign of the magic "request sample" button.

EDIT: Hang on, found it, it's here (http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/electronics/home/productsandservices/products/TapesAdhesives/LabelMaterials/), over on the right. It's just a standard contact form with the subject prefilled to "Request Sample"...we'll see how well this works or if they wised up after Steve got his.

That's it Lee! Not easy to find even when you know where to look! I'll bet Viktor's right.....they probably think that we will be small potatoes.

[Lee DeRaud]

Found it here (http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Converter_Solutions/Home/Prod_Info/Prod_Catalog/?PC_7_RJH9U5230GE3E02LECIE20GER4_nid=CPZP68GFMQbeF LW8KCNRGQgl), but no sign of the magic "request sample" button.

EDIT: Hang on, found it, it's here (http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/electronics/home/productsandservices/products/TapesAdhesives/LabelMaterials/), over on the right. It's just a standard contact form with the subject prefilled to "Request Sample"...we'll see how well this works or if they wised up after Steve got his.UPS just dropped off an envelope...not nearly the mass quantity Steve got, but useful:
five 8.5"x10" sheets of 7848 (silver/black) and ten 4.75"x10" sheets of 7847 (black/white).
Should be fun to play around with, once I work out the settings.

[Viktor Voroncov]

Lee, 3M staff react very quickly on sudden increase in samples requests :)

Very interesting - 4.75" is standart width, but I never seen in my life laser films in 8.5" width which is better for engraving

[Scott Challoner]

I got an email saying they would contact me, but no sample yet. Maybe they want to ask why so many people are ordering samples all of a sudden. I'm going to give them Steve's name. :D

[Gary Hair]

I got a package today, it had quite a few sheets of black and silver. I'll test them over the next week or so.

Gary

[Scott Challoner]

So everybody else is getting free stuff while I'm getting the inquisition. :confused: C'mon Steve. Send some my way. You know you've got more than you can handle.:p

[Lee DeRaud]

So everybody else is getting free stuff while I'm getting the inquisition. :confused: Nah, you're all right. I think that email is auto-generated when they hand the request off to the people that actually send out the samples. I got the same one last Thursday, the actual samples showed up today, no other contact in between.

[Andrea Weissenseel]

Same here :) I received that e-mail last week and Tuesday I had my samples of black 120mm x 10m and silver 120mm x 10m - I did not have the time yet to figure out settings.

Those Tesa 6930 Laserlabels I mentioned before are very interesting also. I read an article about it early this year that it is used to make labels for motorcycles, because it leaves UV tamper evident footprints.

Andrea

[Dan Hintz]

Got the auto-gen message, a few days later someone specific contacted me and asked if I wanted samples or to purchase. I requested samples, so I imagine they'll arrive shortly.

[Michael Hunter]

I'll be interested to see how you people get on with the 3M material.

Some years ago I had an assembly job which involved applying small labels made from the black-over-white 3M stuff (the labels were supplied engraved by someone else).
I found that the lables were very easily damaged - if you caught them with a finger nail, the black surface would crack off rendering the label unreadable.
I "aquired" a sample of the material (from the same batch) and had exactly the same problems when I engraved it, so abandoned the idea of using it and stuck to laserLights.

It could, of course, have been a duff batch or simply have deteriorated over time : the labels were coming off a 300ft reel and they were using about 6" per month - and they had bought an Epilog Mini especially for the job (which lived all alone in its own air-conditioned room).

[John Frazee]

The 3M company must be doing well in this economy.

Based upon a different thread concerning labeling keyboard keys, I ordered a sample of the laserable 3M film.

3M generously sent me 300 FEET of it!!! Probably more than I could ever use in my lifetime.

However, a product data sheet I found online stated that you should use a yag laser. It's very similar to Laser Lights and the topcoat is acrylate......which a quick Google search seems to indicate is a vinyl polymer.....anyone know if it's safe? Oh......for info about emissions from laser engraving/cutting, 3M tells you to contact their division in Germany........

Has anyone else used this material, and if so, for what applications?

Any setting recommendations? 3M doesn't provide them.

Thanks


Back when Unisub came out with the thick sheetstock for sublimation, they offered free samples. Well I requested a sample and it took so long I figured they must of forgot to send it out. Then one day a tractor trailer arrived with my sample. It was a 4X8 skid with several sheets! And yes, not your typical 4X4 but 4X8 oversized skid. I had to take it to get it cut into 12 inch strips to fit my shear.

[Richard Rumancik]

Michael, it could have been that the shelf life had been exceeded, but the material is not all that rugged before applying to a surface. It is often used as an anti-tamper label for VINs and therefore is meant to break into pieces if someone ever tries to remove it from a surface. I think it is around .003" thick so that is in the same range as vinyl film.

If one of the large distributors would pick up this film and cut into "reasonable" lengths and sell to engravers, it may be a viable material. Obtaining sample material is one thing but being able to source it for a production job is another. Most people here don't want to buy 1000 feet at a time or they will be faced with the problem you saw - the material goes bad before it is used.

If used as a decorative label, it is important to keep dust under control as the film is so thin that a spec of dust under the film will show. The LaserLights is a bit thicker and stiffer so dust is less of a problem.

[Lee DeRaud]

Ok, after some frustration, got it to work. For a 25W ULS VL200, settings are P10 S100 Image Density 6 for engrave, P15 S10 PPI200 for cut. And (important) in the 'advanced' tab, disable "Image Enhancement": apparently there's some kind of edge filter in the enhancement algorithm that makes it blow right through the edges of solid areas.

The page that came with the stuff says it's 0.0024" with a 0.0024" backing. That's about an order of magnitude thinner than my thumbnail, which makes peeling off the backing rather entertaining. It's not easy even with an Exacto knife.