Printing on Plastic

Okay, so I need to print a number of durable pastic boards, that is boards that are the thickness of credit cards, and which are up to A1 in size. I dont need the whole thing printed just areas. Ideally I would like to print out a transfer to attatch using a cold process to the boards, but I cant think of any transfer paper that is durable, these boards will be in a public area where hands will be touching them.

So is there a transfer paper that will work in an ordinary printer and that is durable and strong enough to attatch to plastic sheets? Any other solutions other than getting professional pritners involved?

 

Are all of them going to be the same, or are they all different? What are you using them for and how long do you need them to last. Without using a pro, I don't have many ideas, but with some info I might can help some.

If all of them are the same, you might can get a good deal at a sign shop that cuts vinyl, especially if you weed the vinyl and apply it yourself. My boss has some pretty nice printers, but I cannot think of a way to print directly on plastic.

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The largest boards are A1, these are to be used as backlit information boards in a temporary display of Roman material. The smallest are non backlit A3 boards giving section information, B4 panels for mounting in front of artifact display cases, and size A2 boards for side panels to do the same. the information to be arranged is in .pdf forms, and ideally I want to be able to transfer them to the boards using some kind of cold process [as heat would melt the boards]. I know it is possible to use A1 transfer sheets that you mount onto plastic and then scrub the backing away but i cant seem to find any info on them.

 

I think the A1 is the American 'legal size' the other ones I am not at all familiar with. One idea would be to print on transparent media, then either sandwich it between 2 pieces of plastic or depending on how the display is set up, perhaps you could tape it to the back of the plastic.

We print banners, transparent stuff, and do a little vinyl stuff, but I am unfamiliar with the cold transfer method. I will ask the boss man if he knows anything on Monday.

 

Appreciated. I have heard of various people using a transfer system onto plastic a number of times. I guess its some strong adhesive. I have only seen it used once and that was on 'Pimp my Ride' when a copy of Michelangelo's mural painting The Creation of Adam was stuck on the ceiling of a truck. They used a high colour print on what I assume was an adhesive sheet, placed it on the celing and washed off the backing paper.

 

I don't know if this will help, but we've used draftsman's mylar (available from office supply stores ) for sign making. The mylar has a shiny side and a dull side. The dull side may be printed with a standard laser-jet printer. If you print a graphic, use a reverse or flipped image so that when you adhere the printed side to the light box or other surface, then the shiny side of the mylar is face up. This mylar is extremely durable, and the shiny side may be washed with standard cleaners.
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A slightly cheaper alternative and perhaps less durable, would be to print to transparency sheets. These sheets are normally used to project images to viewing screens ( commonly named "overhead projectors".)

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Hmm, never thought about OHP's, thats a good idea. I think the problem is that how do you adhear this to a plastic surface. firstly, what adhesive is strong and durable enough, will not damage either surface, and for that matter be easy to apply evenly on quite large sheets. Secondly, how will the glue pattern not be visible with a light srouce behind it? I.e. what is a truly invisible plastic glue.

 

The adhesive that was used last time, was a spray-on contact adhesive. A very light dusting of the spray on the receiving surface seems to work best. This type of adhesive is clear, so there is no visible smearing. However, it's not a permanent bond. If you need a glue that won't allow you to manually peel off the transparency, I'd recomend that you apply several drops of cyano-acrylanate or derivitive glues in the corners and along the edge of the transparency. It will only take a couple of drops of the "instant glue" to afix the sheet, as you are only reinforcing the spray-on contact adhesive.
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hmmm. Thanks for this, it looks a good solution. I will give this a try. Still would like to know what the transfer paper with adhesive is, its one of those niggly things that will always be in the back of my mind