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Adhesive labels for outdoor usage should resist water and humidity. So far, for most printing techniques this is an easy challenge, since pigments both in offset printing and screen printing as well as in eco-solvent and digital print are water-proff. A bigger task is the production of fadeless stickers, that resist sunlight and - often a side effect - heat. over a certain period of time.
The choice of the right production type is often dependent on the required quantity. Additionally, the colour composition of the design might play a role as well, due to different stability of different pigments. In offset print for example, black and cyan pigments have a better stability against light than magenta and yellow. When it comes to low-quantity eco.solvent printing, the pigments sink into the foil, making the colours quite stable agains uv-light. THis gives a great posibility to produce light-resistent stickers in low quantities that last up to 3 years in outdoor usage and therefor ebeeing relevant as car stickers for service and maintainance technicians. With only a few colors in the required print, such as a company logo that strictly follow the CI with defined Pantone® colours, it might be screen printing, that turns out to be the better choice. The higher density and thicker color application results in an extremely resistent print, lasting against sunlight and weather over years.
Ofcourse, vinyl and other foild are first choice for stable and weather-proof stickers. Since "light-resistance" usually implies "weather-reistance", most adhesive papers can only provide a few weeks, maybe months depending on the season. Humidity from air and rain stresses the paper, makeing the best prints useless as long as the carrier unterneath corrodes. For the choice of foils (vinyl, PE, PP) the temperature in the use scenario is important! Some PP-carriers are better than others, with low temperatures an adhesive Vinyl might be the best option.
We try to give you an idea of the best matching print technique for ligth-resistant stickers:
For outdoor durability, the low quantities from Eco-Solvent printing will be your first option. The pigments last 3-5 years, even on outdoort use, and are, ofcourse, water-proof. By choosing very resistant materials or ordering an additional lamination (glossy or matt available) can increase the durability, also against abrasion by the way. Depending on format, quantity and your special requirements, the price should be compared to our stickers from offset priting.
Our weather-proof stickers from offset printig are reliable for normal outdoor usage. Please consider the natural differences between the seasons, since the intensity of sunlight will be different in summer and winter. During summer, all offset pigments should last as least 1-2 months under normal conditions in middle europe. With very low or short exposure to sunlight, 6 month or more are possible. The black and cyan pigments provide better results, so that shades of blue will fade to a one-tone cyan (since the other pigments except black fade away). Does your design only consist of black and cyan (or even just one of those) the print will last longer and offset printing might be an interesting alternative for screen printing. The choice of an PVC material is recommended, to increase the durability of the material itself.
Stickers from screen printing are extremely resistant against weather, light and match industrial requirements. The applied colour layer is much thicker than in any other printing technique and can last 5-7 years (normal conditions) in outdoor use. Labels for machines or industrial installations in the field, for maintainance equipment that must resist long travelling all over europe (e.g. solar industries), for naval or maritime requirements and in other scenarios with special requirements, are to be relaized in screen printing most likely.
For quantities over 100'000 labels, flexoprint should be considered. The use of highly-reisistant pigments, additional laminations or varnishing can still provide the better price-per-piece, although extra steps are required. This as an option, weather-proff and light-.resistant stickers and labels that come on rolls are available as well.