I posted this on another forum and it had a lot of interest.
Maybe it will help some of you out.
Back in my past life, I was a Trooper and a Sign Painter. After leaving the Patrol, I got the contract to provide the graphics for 350+ new Patrol Cars every year. It turned out to be very short-lived because Jimmy Crump, who had ran the GSP Garage for decades, retired. The new regime had their own cronies and I was OUT.
Here's what's left of the first 150 sets I did. You can see how the EDGE works. The roll of vinyl was fed through 4 times, one for printing each color, and once to contour cut around the perimeter. The material is never removed from the sprockets so registration IS PERFECT, and so is the cut-out.
Only the "one-time-use" cartridge ribbons are changed out with each pass. The color is FUSED into the substrate using heat and the result is the best way it can possibly done. TENx better than screen printing and 100x better
than laminating.
The equipment to do this was so expensive, I never bought the machine. I furnished the ribbons, supplies, and artwork, to the local sign shop and they did it for $5.00 per decal.
