Banner eyelet questions, opinions please?

[Graham Scanlan]

Hi Peter,

I don’t use clear eyelets but I sell plenty of them, the main advantages are they don’t rust, you can see the print through them and also if used with non pvc banner they can be recycled without being stripped off the banner

[Robert Lambie]

@GrahamScanlan I had never thought about the recycling aspect of plastic banner eyelets. It is a good selling point with big companies!
Are all banner materials recyclable?

Peter, I have always used the metal ones but I agree the clear plastic on a printed banner does look better. As for these automated machines. I almost bought one just before lockdown. I forget now why i didnt pursue it! 🤨

[Graham Scanlan]

@RobertLambie non pvc options have been around a while, mainly for large retail as recycling plays a big part of their business. As soft signage and pvc free banner alternatives are becoming more popular I think more people should look towards the clear eyelets.

I understand that you can’t recycle a pvc banner unless the metal eyelets are taken off. And as a result probably ends up straight to landfill. Where the pvc last for hundreds of year and when the chloride (the c in the pvc) releases into the environment to poison the water table

[Simon Worrall]

I hate to say this, but from what I have been reading, recycling of everything other than metal appears to be mostly a myth.

For the most part it is sent to poor countries who then either burn it, put it in landfill, or more likely just dump it in the sea.

It is called recycling just to make us feel better about it, but that is very far from the truth.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/17/plastic-recycling-myth-what-really-happens-your-rubbish

[Kevin Mahoney]

I have to agree with Simon on that, I have 10 banners in a corner of the office, ordered months ago, invoiced & paid for, never collected even after multiple calls. Can’t imagine these people would be cutting out eyelets & recycling them if they can’t even be bothered to collect them. Never once been asked if anything we do is environmentally friendly.

[David Hammond]

We’ve a couple of customers who are environmentally conscious.

We’ve made the decision to reduce the amount of PVC we use.

I met with Graham last week, and he was showing me some of the alternatives, some aren’t ‘new’ products, more forgotten products. Whilst we were talking, I had an A2, 5mm foam PVC board that should have been collected for a garden party, they couldn’t read the message saying we were closing early, regardless it would have been used for a single day then tossed in the bin.

The PVC might have got incinerated and released Chlorine, or it may have got buried taking 100’s of years to break down.

In my hand I held a suitable alternative, a fibre based board that would have been more than sufficient for this single use board. It may have got recycled into paper/board, but even if not and it got buried or incinerated, the only PVC would have been the digital film.

This is the stumbling block – PVC free films are expensive, and the cost makes them unviable for most typical jobs like this. I hope this changes.

These alternatives aren’t any more expensive than the current options we’re using.

[Mark Johnston]

Metal eyelets for us. I will be honest though I don’t think we would ever buy in recyclable materials because I doubt we have a single customer that would really care if it was or wasn’t.

[Graham Scanlan]

I envisage products that lie heavy on the environmental will eventually price themselves out of the market leaving the more friendly products to be the only option. The sign and print market is lead by the manufacturers and resellers of these products and there’s a big swing towards eco friendly products

[John Hughes]

We’ve got one of these.

http://www.atech.co.uk

Great little machine and if you have any quantity of banners forget the hand press options.

John

atech.co.uk

Home

40 years experience in print and finishing equipment. Buy with absolute confidence assured of our unbeatable after sales support.

[Patrick Donaghey]

bought this one and it paid for its self in weeks banners are now easy again even cut threw the banner and the heming web

[Karen White]

i am looking at this and the different machines and I am thinking. the biggest hassle for me is putting the male and female eyelets on the machine, then holding the banner in place.
some of these machines show a foot pedal to punch and press the banner which is great, but surely the ones that load the eyelets themselves is the better option, and by the looks of it they are the cheaper option?

[Robert Lambie]

Karen, for me it is definitely the placement of the eyelets that cause the hassle. if this part is automated it leaves your hands free to work the banner.

[Patrick Donaghey]

the one i bought has no bottom eyelet part it spreads the top part once it has cut the banner on top of a die making it even easier to use , you just load the top box with a few hundred eyelets and work away

[Robert Lambie]

@patrick-donaghey

what price do they charge for the eyelet machine and the eyelets, mate?

[Patrick Donaghey]

machine was 140£ plus vat eyelets are £16 per 1000 , best thing ive ever bought from mdp supplies

[Karen White]

I would also be interested in knowing what they cost Patrick?

[Patrick Donaghey]

machine was 140£ plus vat eyelets are £16 per 1000 , best thing ive ever bought from mdp supplies

[Patrick Donaghey]

[Peter Cassidy]

that looks very similar to the eyelets i will be using, Patrick.

[Peter Cassidy]

thank you very much for the replies, everyone.

I am going to go with the semi-automatic eyelet machine which uses a single metal eyelet rather than male and female parts. so I don’t have many options on plastic or other types of eyelets.

[Robert Lambie]

I am tempted to just order one of these and give it a go. at £140 it’s not exactly a big gamble. my only concern at the moment is how the single eyelets flares out to grip the banner material. I don’t know if it will have the same grip to prevent the banner tearing at the eyelet because the eyelet is gripping material rather than gripping the female part of the two-part metal eyelet if that makes sense?

[Patrick Donaghey]

Rob the eyelets are slightly deeper to allow for this ,even when banner tape is used the are brilliant

[Craig Thompson]

Got one of these 2 weeks back, ordered a 2nd one last week, blooming great bit of kit!!

[Robert Lambie]

Thanks for the feedback on this machine, Patrick and Craig. I bought one of these and it arrived today! I will have a play with it and give some feedback on it here. 👍

[Paul Stenning]

We bought one of the semi automatic presses from MDP and it’s great on 440g banner, but when I use it on anything heavier (eg. Soyang AL2-450BF) it won’t punch all the way through.

Has anyone else had the same trouble?

[Robert Lambie]

Hi Paul

I forget the grade ours is, it’s 520 or 540gsm, and is the only grade of digital banner we offer and our machine has no problem piercing cleanly through and forming back on itself.

[Paul Stenning]

Thanks Rob, was yours from MDP?

[Robert Lambie]

@Paul Stenning

Yes, Paul. It was MDP we bought ours from.