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Should I Wrap DiBond edges with vinyl or not?
HI, I’ve been asked by a regular customer for 15x sheets of DiBond (Aluminium Composite Board) to be covered in red vinyl. My 1st thought was to order in red coloured sheets but they want an exact match to their other signage which is Orafol 651 Red vinyl. They also need it in a couple of days. The sheets are to be attached to an existing fence to make a 60ft long x 8ft high wall outside. The easiest way would be to roll it on with our rollover table then trim the edges with a knife. I’m a bit concerned however that the edges may peel over time and we end up having to replace them after a year or 2. Do you think we should take the extra time to wrap the material around the edges or am I worrying about nothing? Any advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Davy -
9 Replies
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Very thin steel rule at an angle along the edges will prevent any graphic lift.
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Just take a fine file and with down strokes only file at an angle along the edge just lightly. Then try and rub it up with your finger, you won’t lift it !
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Cheerz Martin, a slightly more descriptive explanation than mine 🙂
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Thanks guys, I appreciate your help 🙂
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Just out of interest, someone pointed out to me they would always wrap vinyl round the edge to help eliminate the show of shrinkage. All vinyls will shrink to some degree, so does anyone ever have a problem when they just apply to the edges of the sheet with this? e.g. if red vinyl is applied to white composite and the vinyl shrinks by 1mm all the way round, you’ll get a white border around the edge of the panel.
Is this ever a problem? Would be interested to hear your thoughts.
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If concerned, wrapping the edges would take only a few minutes and job done.
I would see more of an issue if the red vinyl was exact size of the board you were flood coating and not having the extra to wrap around on the width.
If you want to help prevent noticeable shrinkage, use polymeric Oracal 551 or 751c Cast. You should find the colour matches are same.
At the end of the day, if the "customer is being very specific" and you are offering some form of warranty off your own back, then you must use a Cast film, wrap edges to make sure everything is just so, and charge him accordingly.
You need to also understand where you draw the line of acceptable wear and tear over a 2 year period. Personally, I would be more concerned about the UV colour stability of it being a Red. As I say, for the sake of minimal cost per metre i would at least move to 551 for more peace of mind. -
I think wrapping the edges looks so much better.
Specially when there is a join between two sheets.
We offer it as a service. -
We either wrap around the edge, or ‘scrape’ hard at 45 degrees angle with a new scalpel blade, this ‘champfers’ the edge of the vinyl to help prevent it flicking up
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if it’s a shop facia or in an office, especialy if it has a join, I will usually wrap the edges. I do a lot of hoarding (advertising boards) at various rugby, equestrian and other grounds, I just trim those.
Until I saw the above post about a ruler – which I have to admit I thought was nonsense when I read it, I always went along the edge with a blade, the inevitably the blade would occasionally dig in and on rare occasions it would still peel… I’ve since tried the trick of lightly dragging a ruler down over the edge at a slight angle and wow… how did I not know this trick? works a treat!
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