Sewing a banner…

[Adam Triggs]

Hi There,

There’s a company called Wimbledon sewing machines who have their own brand WIMsew

Single needle entry level machine is £450 ish + VAT

Not used one but was recommended by a mate who makes bouncy castles 😕 Not the same I know but it will definitely go through banner and will hold if it can hold kids jumping on it all day.
Cheers
Adam

[terry sheban]

mod-edit 3
see board rules. :police3:

[NTC]

After seeing posts on a number of sign forums I thought I would show how I hem my banners in this short video using a small HF foot welder, I used a bit of scrap material for the demo. There are many types of bars you can use various lengths & width you can also emboss your name or logo in to the material.
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?doc … 4669750314

I will try to answers any of your questions if you need more info.

Norman

[terry sheban]

Norman:

An HF or Rf (radio frequency) bar welder is a useful tool for many applications. Most awning shops in the U.S. use RF welders for awning welds. I’ve welded awnings with them and have never considered them for more than a second or two as a potential hemming tool. As a tool for hemming banners it’s massive overkill and very slow compared to sewing. RF welders are large, very expensive machines that need a clean environment. If the smallest speck of metal comes in contact with the bar as the weld is happening you get a small explosion just like you do when you turn on a microwave oven with a piece of metal in it. I would not consider this a practical means of hemming banners.

Terry

[NTC]

Terry

I put this post on just as another option to hemming banners I am in no way trying to sell or promote them, I have this machine for other work we do, we also have a sewing machine too. As for speed 5 minutes to completing a banner of say 3ft x10ft

The HF welder is 10 times more reliable then any sewing machine in my experience with sewing machines they lie down a lot, as for the hf welder this one showing I have owned 7years and it was bought s/hand has never let me down you say that they explode well we have three and we have no such problems albeit we don’t have swarf or metal filing in the work place.

You can pick up an hf machine s/hand for what you could buy a quality sewing machine also with sewing machines engineers are like hens teeth to find with the demise of the rag trade in the U.K.

[Robert Lambie]

i was fortunate enough to have a tour of a large trade printers some time ago… i could be wrong, but i am pretty sure they were using a HF Welder that was used for hemming and welding huge banners together. again i could be wrong but they welded in sections of 1-3 metres at a time.
i actually considered buying a second hand one a couple of months ago but never got back to the guy.

[terry sheban]

Norman:

If you’re able to hem a 3′ x 10′ banner with your HF welder in five minutes you’re doing great. That’s faster than banner tape and a better seal. I hope I did not misspeak about HF welders. To my knowledge the terms HF and RF welders are used interchangeably in the U.S. (I’m going to research this). When I spoke of RF welders being large and expensive I was referring to RF bar welders I’ve seen and worked with. Most awning shops in the U.S. use these with 1 to 2 meter metal bars and cost from $15,000 to $30,000. As Robert said they are also used by big banner producers because it’s more difficult and risky to feed very large banners (especially those that are paneled) through a hot air/wedge welding system. As for the problems you’ve had with sewing machines I’d say it should not be that way. Good sewing machines will perform for years with almost zero maintenance and should almost never be down. I know many people see sewing as an antiquated technology but I see it as an affordable and proven technology that is well suited to banner hemming jobs.

Terry

[NTC]

Hi Terry

The sewing machine that I used was a huge (Adler walking foot) that would sew your hands together if you got then in there, We used it for tarpaulin work but we give that up some time ago,

Anyway I remember constant timing problems stitch variation with different thickness of materials pleased we got out when we did.

However your right I would probably use a sewing machine for banners if I didn’t already have the HFW machines. As council/local authority may not accept hemming with tape.

Norman