Spray too far ahead and they will start to get brittle after a short time based on the temperature..
We did a ton of tests about 5 years ago with Timeless, Glamor II and Print Shield.
(Winter test with shop temp at 55 to 60 degrees.)
The worst for cracking was Print Shield. After about 2 days if you folded a corner it would just snap right at the crease
Second worst was Glamor II. Starts to become brittle after about a week. Glamor also becomes quite amber over time.
Timeless was the best. Most were still pliable after several weeks, not sure I would push them out to a month.
The results were very temperature sensitive.
In the summer the above test results improve dramatically. (Temp above 70 degrees)
Print Shield still is worthless if you are gallery wrapping. Cracks every time. Using it for prints flat mounted the stuff works great.
Timeless and Glamor in the warmer temps do not exhibit cracking for several weeks or more.
Dan - Thank you for such an in depth description of the research you've done surrounding this topic. You have answered a couple of rather nagging questions I've been struggling with. I send my
canvas customers to a local framer for stretching, and very seldom does she find any problem with the Print Shield cracking. There have been a few occasions where she has fixed the
problem and then let me know what later, but very few indeed. However, with some effort I seem to recall that those infrequent occasions would usually happen during the dry winter
months, which would seem to coincide with your research. A while back we encountered an issue where two canvases for the same customer actually started to crack/peel in the middle of
the image, but not the edges or corners. It appeared that perhaps the canvas had some sort of imperfection in those areas that prevented the inkjet receptor from adhering properly, and
therefore was prone to peeling after stretching, since the peel did not appear immediately. I photographed the peeling sections and had intended to send the pics to Breathing Color
along with the story behind them, but time got away from me and I had never experienced that issue again. Was it canvas related, or was it coating related? I will admit that at this point
I'm tempted to go with the latter, after reading your post. One of the problems is that when I send a customer or one of my own canvases to the framer, it might take a couple of weeks for
her to get at it, or more. According to the information provided here by yourself and Gar, that could very well be the major cause of any cracking/peeling issues, especially during the winter
season. After my move and downsizing I will no longer be producing canvas any larger than what the 24" printer will handle, and perhaps I'll decide to stretch them myself as well and leave
them uncoated until necessary.
One more question. I have always printed on the Breathing Color Chromata White Matte canvas, and applied three coats of Print Shield as suggested. If I were to change over to one of the Satin finish canvases and still apply the same coating, do you think that might have any advantage concerning the cracking issue? With the Matte canvas the first coat seems to soak into the ink receptor pretty quickly, and therefore perhaps lend itself to cracking more easily. Perhaps the Satan canvas may not exhibit the same sort of absorption and therefore not be as prone to cracking. Not sure if any of that makes sense, or perhaps just my crooked way of thinking. Perhaps one of you fellows can take a stab at answering that as well, or at least offering your much valued opinion.
Thanks again Dan and Gar,
Gary
