Spraying Finished Portraits

[TitansFan]

Hello. I work for a portrait studio and we do a lot of 11x14 and up wall portraits. We shoot 100% digital. We send our digital files to be printed out-of-town. When a portrait order comes back, we spray everything 11x14 and up with a laquer-based spray from a spray gun. We do this because it adds UV protection and adds a nice textured, matte finish.

We are moving our printing in-house at the first of the year using the Epson 4000 and 7600 printers.

We are having trouble finding a spray that is similar to our laquer-based spray that will give us the same look. We've tried a water-based spray with our spray gun, but it spits out large drops of the spray on the prints so we can't rely on it. We've also tried the PrintShiled stuff from PremierArt, but it's not a mattle finish and doesn't give our prints the texture we like. We've also tried the water-based stuff in one of those coating machines, but the machine is difficult to clean and maintain, plus the prints sometimes would sometimes stick to the rollers.

Does anyone out there have any experience with this? Suggestions? Thanks!

[Doug Nelson]

I have zero experience with this, but I trust Lyson:
http://www.inkjetart.com/lyson_spray.html

[Chip Hildreth]

Bulldog

http://www.bulldogproducts.com/glossary.htm

[TitansFan]

Thanks for the replys.

The other day I printed a photo off of the Epson 4000 and waited 24 hours for it to cure. I then sprayed it with Laquer-Mat 4000 and got a milky, cloudy look in the deep, dark shadow areas. It appears to do this in the most saturated, black areas.

Last night I did a test. I printed a few of the same photo I mentioned above, let them cure 24 hours and sprayed them first with PrintShield. I then used Laquer-Mat 4000 on top of the PrintShiled and didn't get the milky, cloudy reaction in the ink-saturated areas.

I also sprayed one of the prints with PrintShiled and then Sureguard Retouch spray and Sureguard Matte Special (we have been using Sureguard sprays for 20 years). Again, I did not get a milky, cloudy reaction in the saturated, dark areas. Apparently, PrintShild acts like a sealer and seals the ink.

My question is what will happen over time? Will the Sureguard products eventually react with the inks? Will the saturated areas eventually turn milky?

Thanks

[TitansFan]

I'm going to answer my own question. I spoke with a rep from Big Systems Inc. (www.bigsys.com). They told me that one of their customers does use the SureGuard sprays directly on his Epson prints and has been doing it for 2 years without any problems. I tried it and I got no reaction in the dark, shadow areas. I did not use the retouch spray which must have something in it that reacts to the inks. Hopefully, I'm on to something.