Printed truck curtains: volvo

[Rod Gray]

Very nice Phil,

Do you print the curtain material yourself and then apply the straps, hems and stitching etc?

[Phil Halling]

Yes

[Graeme Speirs]

hi phill looks good, can I ask what type /weight/brand of banner material you use for this type of work?

thanks
graeme

[Phil Halling]

We used coated truck curtain, 900 I think, printed with full solvent and liquid laminated.

[Nick Minall]

Looks good mate, you all up and running now?

[Robert Lambie]

very nice work phil… well done.

what type/width of print do you have these days to do that sorta work?

are you actually hemming and applying strap fixings etc all "in house"?

[Phil Halling]

Hiya Rob,

We have now got a 3.2m full solvent printer, cutting our print time on a double decker wrap from 17.5 hrs to about 4.5, seemed the way to go.

All the curtain welding, buckles etc. we put out to a specialist truck curtain manufacturer.

Hi Nick, we are about 80% up & running, give me a ring when we’re back on Thursday – Have a good Christmas

Phil

[Robert Lambie]

brilliant… nice move mate. wish you all the success with it…
good to know you have that width of machine too 😉

what type of printer is it, if you dont mind me asking? i saw a large/wide machine on the grafityp stand this year, cant remember the name but it had very little running cost per square metre. obviously thats the benifit of these big machines… we considered buying the 3 metre wide grenadier this year but decided to hold out until next signuk as our 54inch wide grenadier will paid off in 6 months.

[Nick Minall]

Will do Phil, I should have my workshop floor panted by then… I hope 😕

Happy Christmas to you and to all on the boards.

Nick.

[Phil Halling]

We thought about the big grenadier but at 2.6m it’s not quite big enough as we see a market in truck curtains and the average height of them is 2.6-2.8m so it would be cutting it too close.
We opted for a e-jet x16, so far (only had it 3 weeks) its done 19 pairs of truck curtains and a 140 sq mtr bus wrap with no major issues.

[Robert Lambie]

that’s impressive, nice orders… you will have the machine paid off in no time if that keeps up. 😉

the grenadier, "i was sure the new widths were 90inch and 120 inch? ill have to check that now :lol1:
i havent actually measured curtains… i assumed it would be like the rigid side widths and ive never had one of those over 100’ish inches deep. 😕

[Phil Halling]

Rob,
your forgetting, the visible area of the curtain is smaller than what is needed to produce it, you need a good 6-8 inches at the bottom of the print to make a proper pocketed hem where it runs against the rave bar of the truck and at least 15" each end for wrapping around the poles plus when your printing that size it’s wise to print a colour bar to ensure all heads are firing – that takes up a bit of print area as well.

[Robert Lambie]

hi phil, your right mate… im wrong. the bloody grenadier is 104inches wide not the 120 inches i thought 😕
i now know why i thought it 120"… that was because i remember being told it will print two rolls of vinyl at once. as i have the 54inch wide machine i assumed it would be twice this width 108" but with the extra width for pinches in middle and at ends i reckoned 120" wide on the likes of a single roll of banner. 🙄

http://www.uniformdigital.com/grenadier_gfx.html

[Martin Pearson]

Nice work Phil, if you have done 19 pairs of curtains in 3 weeks then you must be right, there is a market for truck curtains !!!!

I must admit we seem to be seeing more and more trucks with fully printed curtains rather than what use to be the norm with just maybe a logo and contact details. Do you get involved with the artwork on these sort of jobs or is it all done through an advertising agency?