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When i buy vinyl its rated as 3, 4, 7, 10, what does it mean
Probably been asked before, but can’t find it anywhere.
When you buy vinyl its rated as a 3, 4, 7, 10, year or whatever, what exactly does this mean ?
Is it from the time of manufacture, or when its applied to a surface, because if its the first one, then how do you know how long you got left or how long its been on the shelf ?
Hope that makes sense
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9 Replies
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Easy.
When you have vinyl delivered just write the date inside the roll! It also helps with traceability should you have problems with it later on.
I think the rating refers to life on the vehicle or sign and that shelf life is something different altogether. Ten years on the roll is pushing it a bit although we do have some obscure colours of that age in stock. 😳 You know, the offcuts from a funny colour you bought for a specific job and never used again. We wouldn’t use it for anything serious but it sometimes comes in handy for the odd very short term cheapie sign.
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All vinyl’s have a shelf life, typically calendared has a shelf life of about one year, and cast film will last between two and three years. Shelf life is based on when you received the material, and is also dependent on storage conditions.
Shelf life is based on there being no processing of the material, so if the vinyl has a 2 year shelf life once the vinyl has been cut or printed it may only have 12 months.
We have batch labels for traceability which go on the inside of rolls, even when we further slit rolls down.The durability, varies according to the material series and even when they talk of a 7 year life this is dependent of location, colour of the vinyl, if it is printed, even the angle of exposure of the graphics. Most manufacturers detail shelf life/durability on their product sheets.
One of the main reasons the shelf life varies from durability is to do with the activation of the adhesion. So once the graphics have been applied, and the adhesion is activated that is when its life durability starts.
Where a warranty for the goods are required the shelf life and durability are key.In reality the vinyl may still be OK years after it is out of date. I’d be interested to know what experience people have with material that is 3 or 4 years old as we have quite a lot of vinyl in our quarantine (out of date) stock.
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Never had a problem with vinyl even older than 3/4 years although, as I said, we are careful where we use it.
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don’t forget too, that the life expectancy is reduced when applied by degrees from an absolute verticle application.
A 7 year is 7 years at 90 deg to the horizontal. As the sign applied to surfaces in degrees from verticle, the age or life of the vinyl decreases, until it is level to the horizontal, when the life could be as low as 2 years (as an example)
Just thought I’d add this explanation for the newbies that may be interested.
Interestingly, I have some buses that have been done in Avery and 3M 7 year, that are into their 9th year now. It depends on a lot of variables, including how the signs are maintained.
Shane
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Thanks guys for all your help on that one, its made it very clear, I think ?
can’t quite get my head round the degrees from an absolute vertical, but I’m working on that one 🙄
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hey Lee,
good question dude ! i was wondering the same just last week !!
as for the degrees from verticle, i took it to mean that they’ll give you the conditional lifetime guarantee based on the assumption that it’s applied to a flat verticle surface,
i assume that if the top tilts forward, therefore sheltering the decal, that the lifetime is expected to be the same,
but if the sign is tilted backward from vertical, then the decal will obviously take more sunlight, more rain, more everything, which could contribute to a shorted life expectancy,
blimey…. i almost sound like i know what i’m talking about !!
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Well, you get my vote on that one, as that seamed to make it a bit clearer, that’s the trouble with these Australian’s, they see things from a different perspective, being upside down all the time.
and don’t call me heylee
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lol, sorry dear ! will be more selective in my nme calling in future !
glad it cleared it for ya !
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To be honest Lee, after I re read my post, I got a bit confused myself 😳
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