Written by John Raine
If you’ve ever loaded a cold roll straight from a courier’s van onto the printer, or tried to fit graphics that have been sat in a freezing vehicle overnight, you’ve probably seen the side effects:
• Head crashes and print defects
• Rippling and lifting in the printer
• Poor adhesion and “no tack” complaints
• Brittle, tearing vinyl during application
• Colour shifts from panel to panel
All of these are classic signs that the material simply wasn’t acclimatised.
What Do We Mean by “Acclimatisation”?
Acclimatisation is the process of letting your media (vinyl, laminate, papers, films) and the substrate (vehicle, panel, wall, etc.) gradually reach the same, stable temperature and environment before you start working with them.
It’s about:
• Bringing cold material up to the recommended temperature
• Avoiding sudden jumps from very cold → very hot
• Keeping temperature and humidity stable in the print room and fitting area
Just like people, vinyl doesn’t like being dragged from one extreme to another.
What Happens When Media Is Too Cold?
When you bring cold media into a warm print room or fitting bay, several things happen at once:
1. Condensation on the Surface
Cold material in a warmer room attracts moisture – like a cold bottle “sweating”.
That thin layer of moisture can:
• Interfere with print quality
• Stop the adhesive making proper contact
• Cause lifting, bubbles or silvering under laminate
• Lead to long-term failures on vehicles and flat panels
You might only see it if you look closely or run your hand over the film – but it’s enough to cause problems.
2. Reduced Adhesive Tack
Pressure-sensitive adhesives are designed to work within a temperature range.
• Too cold → adhesive feels lifeless, “no tack”, poor initial grab
• Too hot → adhesive can become overly aggressive
At low temperatures, customers often report “it’s just not sticking” when in reality the product is fine – it just isn’t up to temperature yet.
This is even more noticeable on low-tack / repositionable films (e.g. products with air-release or “flight” technology). Straight off a cold van, they can feel like they have almost no tack at all.
3. Brittle, Shattering Vinyl
Cold vinyl becomes:
• Stiffer and less conformable
• More prone to tearing
• Likely to “shatter” on the edge when cut or snapped
Warm the same material up and suddenly it cuts cleaner, stretches better and behaves exactly as designed.
Printing on Non-Acclimatised Media
On the printer, cold media can create a whole chain of issues:
• Rippling / rucking as the material passes through the machine
• Head strikes / head crashes if the media lifts into the print heads
• Soft edges and fuzzy small text if the heads have to be raised higher
• Inconsistent drying as the printer fights the temperature difference
Modern printers often include pre-heaters and edge guides to help minimise head strikes, but there’s only so much they can do if the roll itself is still freezing cold internally.
Latex & Resin vs Solvent
Latex and resin printers typically run higher temperatures than solvent:
• The ink and media are exposed to more heat in a shorter time
• If the roll is very cold, you’re effectively hitting it with “shock” heat
• This can exaggerate cockling, wrinkling and surface instability
Think of putting thin paper straight onto a hot radiator – it wrinkles and distorts. Cold vinyl going into a very hot dryer section behaves in a similar way.
Solvent printers generally use less heat, which helps a little – but they are not immune. Cold material can still ripple, curl and cause head strikes, and you’ll still see print defects if the media isn’t up to temperature.
Colour Shift & Large Graphics
Temperature and humidity affect not only adhesion and handling, but colour consistency too – particularly on latex printers.
If the environment isn’t stable, or if the roll temperature changes as you print, you can end up with:
• Slight colour shifts along a long run
• Panels that look fine alone, but don’t match perfectly side-by-side
This might not be obvious until you’re lining up panels on a bus, trailer or fleet vehicle and suddenly one section looks a touch different.
Acclimatisation Before Application (Not Just Before Print)
The same rules apply when it comes to fitting.
A typical scenario:
1. Graphics are printed, outgassed and packed correctly
2. They’re shipped to the customer in winter conditions
3. The boxes sit in a cold vehicle or unheated area overnight
4. The fitter opens the box and starts applying immediately
The result?
• Vinyl feels stiff and brittle
• Adhesive has very little tack
• Film may tear or shatter at the edges
• Bond to the vehicle is compromised from the start
You’ve done everything right in production – but the graphics still fail because they weren’t allowed to acclimatise at the fitting end.
A long-standing rule of thumb from training is:
The vinyl and the vehicle should be together, in the same environment, for at least 8 hours (ideally overnight) before fitting.
That way, they’re both at the same temperature and will work together rather than fighting each other.
