In the video Chris Cook, from 3M Commercial Graphics Australia, talks about on how much you should stretch the self-adhesive film during wrapping.
What causes the car wrap film to lift-off the surface is often hidden in the fact how much that film was stretched too much during application.
You should know that for most cast films the maximum stretch is 30%. Therefore, if you scratch beyond that, the adhesive layer will thin-out and that will lead to defects. In other words, the wrapped film will lift-off the surface.
Try not to stretch the film beyond 30%
In fact, the film can be stretched up to 100%-150%, but in those cases it would most likely lift-off the surface. The question is, how much do we need to stretch the film when wrapping the recess:
How much to stretch the film?
Fast and easy! All we need is a piece of paper with sizes not much bigger than the recess, pen, and a ruler.
- We place the paper on the recess and and mark the beginning and the end of the recess. This is the original length of the film.
- We push the paper in the recess until it makes full contact with the surface and mark again the end and the beginning of the recess.
If the original length of the film is 16mm and the stretch is – 4mm, then you need to stretch the film up to 25%, which is lower than the maximum (30%). In reality we divide 4 to 16.
Pay attention to the 30% stretch rule!
