PDA

View Full Version : Chlorine free lettering film



Brent Brod
08-17-2005, 9:38 PM
I'm curious to try making some decals and such, but so far it seems all the film I come accross is PVC. Is anyone doing decals or sign lettering, and what type of film are you using?

Thanks,
-Brent

Rodne Gold
08-18-2005, 12:49 AM
You can get polyester vinyls , 3m have them. They are laser friendly. Limited kiss cutting of normal pvc vinyl will not be particularily problematic if you have a good exhaust system and dont do it all the time. Environmentally , a swimming pool would probably release 100x the amt of chlorine than a laser cutting vinyl. In terms of the machine , the biggest problem is the CL combining with moisture to form HCL which is not going to treat your laser kindly. Vinyl cutting on a laser doesn't work that well either , a far better bet is to purchase a small cutter which can be had relatively cheapish.
Polyester vinyl (and most metalized films are polyester) has many applications other than decals , it makes a fantastic sandblast resist as well as an acid resist for etching - you just apply and laser it and either blast (glass/wood etc) or dip in ferric choride (metal etching)
Generally polyester vinyl is not at all stretchy , so if the vinyl you have does stretch when seperated from the release liner , its most likely PVC and NOT laser friendly.

Brent Brod
08-18-2005, 6:57 AM
Thanks, Rodne. I'm certain the vinyl I was looking at is PVC. I checked 3M's site to confirm. I didn't want to risk voiding my waranty just experimenting. It sounds like the polyester stuff is what I'm looking for.