Activity Feed Forums Sign Making Discussions General Sign Topics Banner eyelet questions, opinions please?

  • Banner eyelet questions, opinions please?

    Posted by Peter Cassidy on July 19, 2021 at 2:51 pm

    My banner eyelet machine has seen better days and i am looking at renewing it.
    i have had it a long time now and the price of the eyelet presses are much lower than i remember paying. so i am considering other options.

    Plastic -v- metal eyelets?
    does anyone use plastic eyelets or know anything about them?
    they look pretty neat and i like them being transparent, though some are coloured.
    are they any better or worse? cheaper?

    Machines
    has anyone tried the semi-automatic eyelet machines?
    they look great but like most things, are they as good as they say? all i can think is they will constantly jam or not Pearce the banner properly.
    again, if anyone has tried i would welcome the feedback?

    RobertLambie replied 10 months, 3 weeks ago 12 Members · 28 Replies
  • 28 Replies
  • Graham Scanlan

    Member
    July 19, 2021 at 6:43 pm

    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

  • RobertLambie

    Administrator
    July 19, 2021 at 7:00 pm

    @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

    Member
    July 20, 2021 at 3:39 am

    @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

    Member
    July 20, 2021 at 7:01 am

    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

    Member
    July 20, 2021 at 8:56 am

    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

    Member
    July 20, 2021 at 10:37 am

    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

    Member
    July 20, 2021 at 11:36 am

    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

    Member
    July 20, 2021 at 2:05 pm

    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

    Member
    July 20, 2021 at 5:55 pm

    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

  • Patrick Donaghey

    Member
    July 20, 2021 at 9:40 pm

    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

    Member
    July 23, 2021 at 9:14 am

    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?

  • RobertLambie

    Administrator
    July 25, 2021 at 1:46 pm

    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

    Member
    July 27, 2021 at 10:12 pm

    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

    • RobertLambie

      Administrator
      July 27, 2021 at 10:45 pm

      @patrick-donaghey

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

      • Patrick Donaghey

        Member
        July 29, 2021 at 12:27 pm

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

  • Karen White

    Member
    July 29, 2021 at 11:49 am

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

    • Patrick Donaghey

      Member
      July 29, 2021 at 12:30 pm

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

  • Patrick Donaghey

    Member
    July 29, 2021 at 12:35 pm
    • Peter Cassidy

      Member
      August 6, 2021 at 12:52 pm

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

  • Peter Cassidy

    Member
    August 6, 2021 at 12:47 pm

    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.

  • RobertLambie

    Administrator
    August 8, 2021 at 6:22 pm

    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

      Member
      August 9, 2021 at 9:44 pm

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

  • Craig Thompson

    Member
    August 9, 2021 at 12:31 pm

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

  • RobertLambie

    Administrator
    August 11, 2021 at 8:25 pm

    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

    Member
    June 9, 2023 at 2:56 pm

    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?

  • RobertLambie

    Administrator
    June 9, 2023 at 10:34 pm

    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

    Member
    June 13, 2023 at 11:21 am

    Thanks Rob, was yours from MDP?

  • RobertLambie

    Administrator
    June 20, 2023 at 1:08 pm

    @Paul Stenning

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

Log in to reply.