Topic: InkJet on Mylar / Matte Film

[M-dub]

Has anyone here ever plotted with an inkjet plotter / printer onto mylar?  If so, does the ink ever REALLY dry?  I'm hoping this works...
I had to get a couple of stick files ready for some guys out in the plant and they were complaining that the drawings in the front and back of their stick files always get tattered and torn, so I decided to try printing a drawing list on mylar for the front cover and just using a blank sheet of mylar for the back.  That should help, anyway.
If the ink isn't going to dry though, I may as well just put two blank sheets of mylar in there.

[Dinosaur]

HP told us it took a special mylar to work with inkjet.  It was too expensive so we never tried ... all attempts on regular mylar gave poor results.

[M-dub]

Yeah, I'm thinking that's going to be the case.  I thought there was some sort of spray you could put on them, but I might be thinking of something else.

Since it's translucent, I'll just put the drawing list on the first paper sheet of each.

[Dinosaur]

I have used a solvent in the past to treat mylar before inking that would probably solve the problem but it is not available in the US now as far as I know.  If you can find carbon tetrachloride in Canada, just applying a small amount and scrubbing the mylar surface thoroughly will let mylar take ink much more readily and consistently.  You might try applying some Pounce, but you will need to take extra care wiping down the excess.

[Bob Wahr]

I've done it and it does require ink jet mylar.  You might try spraying it with Krylon Crystal Clear.

[M-dub]

Thanks guys, but I just went with my (much easier and readily available) solution to use a blank sheet.  It essentially gives me the same result I was going for, but would have been a little nicer if I had one of the solutions (no pun intended) you guys mentioned.

[sinc]

We do it all the time in our large format printer, but I think the matte film we use was designed for this purpose.

(Sure enough, the box says "IJ Film", which I presume means "InkJet Film".)

[Julie@Integra]

Last time I used mylar was through a blueline machine (I can smell the ammonia now). That brings back some memories...  :ugly:

[Strucmad]

You could print it on paper first , then dust off the old pens and trace it on to mylar...

[M-dub]

No thanks! 

I tried it, but it didn't work.  I didn't really expect it to, but had to try anyway.  I printed a BIG drawing list in reverse on the 'back' of the mylar and was going to use it as the cover of a stick file in an attempt to protect the (bond) drawings inside.  It would still smudge though... the ink will NOT bond to it.

I just printed the drawing list on another c-size sheet of paper and used it as the first page under the blank mylar.  It's actually a better result for a couple reasons.  Obviously, the mylar is transparent / translucent so you can see the list right through it, but the nice thing is that when the drawing list needs to be updated, I don't need to use up another one of our last few sheets of mylar.

[mjfarrell]

A clearly fabulous solution there Dub.

[M-dub]

So we decided to try a roll of inkjet mylar after we received a request for 63 laminated C-size drawings.  I would say I'm fairly pleased with the results.

Thought I'd throw this out there.  I sent this to the guy who made the request.

18”x24” (C-size) prints      $0.90 each
18”x24” (C-size) laminated      $11.88 each
$12.78 x 21 drawings         $268.38
$268.38 x 3 sets         $805.14
Taxes            $104.67
Total            $909.81

From one roll of mylar, we can expect to get about 80 C-size drawings out of it and the cost for one roll is $213.99.

On another note, how do you add more than one 'tab' in a post?

[Bob Garner]

We tried a spray fixative on mylar but found that if the ink won't dry, the fixative just makes it run.

[Dinosaur]

We tried a spray fixative on mylar but found that if the ink won't dry, the fixative just makes it run.

you need to make a few very light applications before leaning into the button ...
hope that expensive roll works well for you Mike - just don't make too many test plots ...

"On another note, how do you add more than one 'tab' in a post?"
I would say just let Maverick pick up the tab.

[mjfarrell]

From where I'm sitting, one would want to format ones post prior to inserting into a reply window.
 

Oh, and the proper media for ones plotter always yields superior results.