How does printing onto aluminium diabond work ?
As I understand it the printing is not done directly onto the aluminium but onto paper which is then bonded onto the aluminium diabond, but if its just paper how can it be so resilient ?
(Note would be nice if somebody with enough reputation could add diabond as a tag)
I work next door to K&S signs and I just had a quick word about this.
They showed me the Aluminium diabond (they informed me that it is also referred to as dibond)
It is a rigid aluminium composite sheet with aluminium cover sheets and a centre made of polyethylene.
The diabond can be white on both sides or white on one side and brushed aluminium on the other side.
The white side, which is a polyester lacquered printable material, is perfect for all types of Digital Prints, from signage to fine art imagery.
The sheet is loaded onto a very large flatbed printer and the image is PRINTED DIRECTLY via UV ink onto the diabond sheet and no additional paper is used.
The sheet is then durable and robust for most types of display, including outdoors, bathrooms, terraces, and areas where the images needs to be durable.
You have 2 options. Print on a normal adhesive paper (or vynil); or print directly into the diabond. There are inkjet printers that can print on a big flat surface.
I just found the following youtube playlist with some interesting information in motion. Probably nice to have as an addtitional source of information.
https://youtu.be/hZ-ZRMUH3Ao?list=PLaKBaEVlsWnazhmYpgZDzmneGGCqmkXzU
Judging from that, it is not paper that is so resilent, but the heat transfered color that bonds with the surface of the aluminum.
It seems there are multiple different ways to use diabond. I spoke again to my printer and this is how he does it.
So the aluminium diabond provides a slim lightweight frame, but doesnt really have an effect on what the images looks like (unlike if printing directly onto the aluminium)
