Thermal Printable SignGold Print and Cut Information Our thermal-printable Genuine Gold material is excellent for use in most brands of THERMAL PRINTERS on the market.
Here are basic guidelines for printing our excellent product:
1. Before printing, read tech sheet completely to acquaint yourself with the product and what it can accomplish for your purpose.
2. Make sure you handle the material carefully when loading it into your thermal printer. Wash hands before handling the goldleaf film because oil from your skin can contaminate the material and cause printing problems. We recommend wiping the material with a lint free cloth to remove any possible finger prints from factory handling during the manufacturing process just in case.
3. Set your printer heat setting according to the high performance cast material profile. Most printers we have seen have defaults set to high performance cast material so this is easy. Our material works well with this heat setting, indeed.
4. When printing larger blocks of color, we recommend setting the printer for a second pass of color over the first to eliminate the possibility of very slight pin-holing effects sometimes visible after printing.
5. Black covers very well on one pass, but a second pass is acceptable and desirable in certain cases.
6. Printing with colors leaves a translucent look which is beautiful, especially on engine-turn material as the spins show through and give a certain effect. Trans-lucent qualities depend on the color used as some are more opaque than others. If opaque colors are desired, we recommend using the primer function on the printer and print white first as a base. Then print the color desired and the SignGold beneath will not shine through.
7. After printing your job, SignGold inherently does not need protection as it has a 12-14 year outdoor durability. But, the printed part of the material needs protection from the elements. After printing and cutting, and before weeding, One Shot Acrylic Clear 4005 can be foam brushed (or sprayed) across the print for this protection. Or, you can print, cut, and weed the work, then, laminate after which you can put the material back in the plotter and cut a ¼ inch outline around the lettering. This ¼ inch of UV clear laminate around the print and lettering will provide excellent edge sealing also for the job. And, the thermally-printed sections will be safe from UV and abrasion. Sometimes signmakers will cut the protective laminate separately and apply it to the job after the goldleaf is applied. Both methods of protection are acceptable.
For further questions or help, please contact our SignGold Thermal Printable Technician:
Mr. Larry Hoppe, at (845) 764-0061 / Tech2@SignGold.com
Week-days 8 a.m - 5 p.m. Eastern Time |