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Matthew Sullivan
10-03-2006, 9:30 AM
Hello all,

I was approached by somebody the other day curious as to if I could cut custom car decals on my laser. And quite honestly, I didn't know if I could haha. So I've come to the experts! I have an Accuris powersharp 16, it's a 30 watt system that puts out a steady 35. I was curious of what materials to cut the decal material out of and how to apply them? Any advice would be greatly appreciated :D

Thanks again

Matthew Sullivan

Rodne Gold
10-03-2006, 10:41 AM
Theres about a zillion materials
1) Sign vinyl (not so good , lasers dont like pvc)
2) Polyester Sign vinyl (laser friendly)
3) Romark Flexibrass or any other durable thin substrate
4) You can use an injet printer and print onto waterproof inkjet vinyl (actually a polyester) and kiss cut
5) You can use almost all Formica thin surfacing sheets
6) The Rowmark laserlights
7) Kiss cut variously polyester films like holographics etc.

You can get double sided mounting films and apply em to any substrate and use the laser to kiss cut and make self adhesive decals out of em.

We do em with a Full colour digital printer which can also cut to shape , on various foils and vinyls and then cut em to shape and then use a flexible polyurethane dome over them.
Your biggest problem with car decals is their durability, A car is a very hostile place , weather , temperature extremes, washing , fuel spills , pollution etc and not many materials and will hold up well.

Joe Pelonio
10-03-2006, 11:18 AM
As Rodney says, you can cut a variety of materials on the laser that could work, but you shouldn't. Only premium sign vinyl will hold up on a vehicle. Since it contains PVC it will damage your machine and neighboring people's lungs. The other problem is how to cut through the vinyl but not through the paper backing (release liner) in order to weed and transfer tape it for application. This is a job for a plotter or die cutting. The only vehicle graphics I've done on the laser are thicker, like Rowmark lasermax brushed silver laminate logos that go on the body similar to the factory scripts.

Garrick Crocker
10-03-2006, 12:02 PM
A pretty fair vinyl cutter is pretty reasonable. You can get one for under $1000 on e-b@y. If you are good with vector images you should not have a problem with cutting vinyl. If you are going to cut reflective vinyl you may want a better machine since it is quite a bit thicker and requires a heartier cutter.

If you are doing a bunch of small decals (like the name of a car dealer) I knew this guy who used a die cutter for that kind of thing.

Mike Hood
10-03-2006, 10:49 PM
I have a vinyl cutter (Lynx 24") and couldn't imagine doing much cutting with my laser. :)

It can be done though. The vinyl is 2 mil thick or so and cuts so fast you'll not even get a wisp of smoke from it as you fly over it. The nice thing about the laser cutting it is you can apply it and THEN cut it. Not something you can pull off with a vinyl cutter :)