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Help required to put up tinted film on UV Stabilised Polycarbonate

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Hello everyone

We are doing a massive polycarbonate structure for a Jewish museum which involves big 12 mm Polycarbonate sheets (UV Supplied) to be coated with translucent tint like films in different colours. The problem is after we put the film on it starts to bubble up doesn't matter how long and how hard we squeegee it for. And yes they are the air pockets and not the dirt particles. We were told that it is because of the Hydrogen gas which escapes the surface of the sheets after the application and we need to keep the sheets unmasked (taking the plastic covering off) for 1 to 2 days to allow the gases to escape before putting the film on.

Is there anyone who has done the tint film application on polycarbonate plastic who can shed some light on some other precautions to be taken including some special preparations, some special solvents to be used for cleaning, some special ways of application so as to minimise the bubbling of the vinyl once it is on the sheet please?

All inputs are welcome

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I have recently coated polycarbonate with translucent cast vinyl.  I also had some issues with bubbles.  I did learn however that a wet application seems to help with getting most of them out.  My step dad and I redone our backlit church sign and removed the old yellowy plastic stuff that was previously on there.  The one thing I did and you can't tell that I did was took a very small sewing needle and pricked the bubbles, then used the squeegee on them and you can't see light through it where I had pricked the vinyl.   If you find a cure, please post so I will know for later applications.   GOOD LUCK!!

 

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On 10/16/2020 at 2:14 PM, carrie said:

I have recently coated polycarbonate with translucent cast vinyl.  I also had some issues with bubbles.  I did learn however that a wet application seems to help with getting most of them out.  My step dad and I redone our backlit church sign and removed the old yellowy plastic stuff that was previously on there.  The one thing I did and you can't tell that I did was took a very small sewing needle and pricked the bubbles, then used the squeegee on them and you can't see light through it where I had pricked the vinyl.   If you find a cure, please post so I will know for later applications.   GOOD LUCK!!

 

The pricking would not help me here as the polycarbonate we use is in 25 sheets each 2.4 m long x 1.2 m high, so we will be looking at a lot of bubbles through them. We tried squeeging it to the limit, then leaving it again and squeeging it again but the small bubbles still keep popping up and so are the water pockets. We were told by someone that we need to allow Polycarbonate to degas for a couple of days (Minimum 96 hours) so all the gases in it can escape. Obviously, with translucent films, we can't use too much soap and it settles down way too quickly.

Anybody in the business of Window Tinting, please help?

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On 10/16/2020 at 2:14 PM, carrie said:

I have recently coated polycarbonate with translucent cast vinyl.  I also had some issues with bubbles.  I did learn however that a wet application seems to help with getting most of them out.  My step dad and I redone our backlit church sign and removed the old yellowy plastic stuff that was previously on there.  The one thing I did and you can't tell that I did was took a very small sewing needle and pricked the bubbles, then used the squeegee on them and you can't see light through it where I had pricked the vinyl.   If you find a cure, please post so I will know for later applications.   GOOD LUCK!!

 

Hi

We peeled the polycarbonate sheets off and left them for a day or so. Next day we applied the vinyl wet.As Carrie said, we had to prick a couple of bubbles but apart from that it went fine.

Please have a look at the photos. It is the famous SUKKAH, the Hut shaped structure built up by Israeli people during their festival

image.jpg

rsz_10_sukkah_marie-luise-photographer49.jpg

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They way they are running around that, and the sharp corners, that just looks like an accident waiting to happen.  ha!

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On 1/20/2021 at 1:18 AM, darcshadow said:

They way they are running around that, and the sharp corners, that just looks like an accident waiting to happen.  ha!

 

On 1/20/2021 at 9:10 AM, haumana said:

Someone is going to get their eye poked.

They were notified of this and still they agreed to build it that way. Some people, especially artists and intellectuals are next to impossible to convince

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