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Vehicle graphics longevity
Hi all. It often plays on my mind how long vehicle graphics should last, also how long the customer expects them to last. Whats acceptable “wearing” and whats not.
Im not talking about some simple vinyl on the side of a van but the more complicated stuff with large images, half wrap or even full wrap.
So when the van drives out of the workshop looking spotless, how many years down the line would you expect it to look like this before it starts to get tatty? fading, shrinking, bubbles, edges lifting etc etc. Because at some point this happens or seems to happen to most.
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14 Replies
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If you look at the data sheets for most digiral materials the life is quoted “unprinted” so its utterly useless!
I’ve been doing this 10 years, I can count on one hand the number of issues we’ve had with materials.
Part of the conversation with the customer should be how long do they want it to last, if it’s on a 3 year lease, a 10year cast vinyl may be overkill (stand fast wraps)
Our terms provide 3month warranty, although we will honour it beyond that (12-24 months) where its clearly a material, or installation fault, but I’m not replacing a partial wrap at 5years because its been jet washed off.
Guarantee it as far as your comfortable (IIRC you have a lot of snow so different to here in the UK) but don’t go setting it in stone.
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Hi david, yes i know exactly what your saying. Im not really thinking about this on my personal matter or t&c. I generally wonder what is acceptable as i feel after 3-4 years most graphics are starting to turn condition wise. Obviously how there being looked after comes into play. If you walk aroud most wraps/part wraps after 5 years you will see tears, peeling, holes etc. Obviously its still on the van and in theory will last 10 years but will not be as it was out the shop door.
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Avery offer you a printed and unprinted warranty although you need to use the correct inks, profiles and nearly all the others offer only unprinted warranties
Also to take into consideration is vertical and horizontal exposures, horizontal surfaces half the life expectancy of wrap vinyls for instance so I’m guessing it can do the same to inks
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So in reality, if you go by the printed media “warranty” your talking around 4 years.
Its hilarious they sell printable media with a 10 year unprinted lifespan. Maybe they should sell standard vinyls with a 20 years still in the box lifespan
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When I am asked how long will the graphics last my answer is ‘About as long as the money’ you paid. But I have seen some vehicles I have done that have made it to the breakers yard and the graphics still look good and others after 6 months that look awful. Got a call from a lad to say the graphics are peeling off the van after 3 months, he was washing it twice a week and wiping it down with Glue & Tar remover, at least he was honest so I replaced the bits that were peeling. So depends on the customer and the products used for cleaning, weather etc. but I do expect my work to look good for at least 3-5 years.
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Glue and tar remover 😂. Yep that will do the job nicely. So it looks like you agree with me then, after 4/5 years things are expected to start to get tatty
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I thought I was only one. Had a customer call to ask one day if this was ok to use.. least it never made it to the Land Rover…
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I would say 5 years is an acceptable lifespan for vehicle livery, but I won’t offer more than a 12 month warranty. They really should be looking at rebranding after that sort of time anyway. We can’t beat up the manufacturers for quoting unprinted lifespan as they have no idea what inks we use or intended position or purpose. I had a polymeric job revisit for a phone number change recently, lots of colour but predominantly red. 11 years old & should really have started to age but looked like the day I did it.
Was quite surprised to be fair. As said before, depends a lot on the care & maintenance, I always recommend leaving the livery to bed in for a week, wash with warm soapy water & then 2 or 3 coats of polish 2 or 3 times a year. All told, a £1000 livery over 5 years is around 50p a day. If they can’t see the value in that, they can always try EBay
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100%.
Folks ask me about power washing and so on and my normal response is “the same power washer you’ll use to remove chewing gum off the pavement aye”
We use Avery 700/800 for cut text. Wraps am straight up honest with them, i say it was developed for super cars that sit in a garage, probably with underfloor heating and do 5,000 miles a year. No a van outside in the snow/frost and rain that get dragged through a car wash or power washed once a month when it gets the point you can no longer see the wrap, normally with foam that removes tar with no effort…
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We always use the correct media for the application in question.
we always use reputable ink and manufacturing process.
we always use the best application process possible.With this in mind, if you are going to have a fail for whatever reason, it will happen within 2-4 weeks.
as long as the failure is our fault, we will fix and replace whatever without any disputes and I don’t just mean within the 2-4 weeks. I’m just giving this as a guide to when the vinyl will begin to show adverse reactions to how it’s been manufactured or installed.vinyl manufacturers cannot give warranties on ink life when they are not selling you the ink.
the quality of the ink used, profile, outgassing time and UV stability will determine its life.
lamination of the ink will “greatly extend” the life of the print, but again, quality ink will last longer than budget ink. which is something most don’t think about when buying third party alternative inks for their machines. anyway, this is why the vinyl manufacturer will not give a warranty on the ink life using their media.as for the warranty of vinyl media.
well, use this as a guide to determine how/where you will use their products. but certainly don’t think that by buying a 10-year film you will get a warranty claim simply by the film failing within that period. you will have to tick a LONG list of checkboxes before they will even take your claim seriously. and even then it won’t guarantee you a claim! the best you can expect is “replacement vinyl.” reprinting, manufacturing, stripping, cleaning and re-fitting, none of this is covered in your warranty claim!Do not get me wrong, companies like Avery and 3M do have warranty cover that does cover all this, such as the 3M MCS warranty, but you, me and the majority of the industry will never have that sort of cover unless your manufacturing process, facilities, installers and an annual volume of purchases reach the required levels.
As far as, typically “how long will my graphics last?”
if you are using suitable materials etc, then the graphics should last the time the customer has the vehicle. 5 years is a good benchmark for a new van. but the reality is, the graphics will only last as long as the way the van is treated.acceptable deterioration is probably:
* slight shrinkage.
* slight discolouration of warm colours.
* chipped letters and edges of graphics.
* General grubby corners and areas where vinyl crosses recesses, panel and door joins etc. -
To expand i don’t expect a material manufacturer to warrant the print, and the longevity of the print.
But to say a digital vinyl is a 5 year vinyl unprinted, in the knowledge it is most definitely going to get printed.
Bit like buying a car, with a 100 year warranty provided its undriven.
Another thing to note is a manufacturers ‘lifespan’ isn’t a ‘warranty’
Also check what environment the vinyl was tested to determine the lifespan, the same vinyl in Australia has a different durability that here in the UK.
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Who on earth reads the small print?
On a visit to Avery’s labs I was shown their uv accelerator weather test chamber in which Im sure they have 3 of them, this is where the vinyls are tested, I can’t remember the accelerated ageing time but let’s say for every month in the chamber was like 6 months real world. And of course the conditions can be varied depending on the zone their testing
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This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by Graham Scanlan.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by Graham Scanlan.
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Exactly, I heard a rumour that a manufacturer claimed their vinyl as a X year, but tested it to a different zone to comparable products.
I think the general consensus is warrant it for as long as you feel comfortable/confident 👍
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I don’t think there is much out there you can buy that comes with any more than a 12 month guarantee, I wouldn’t give any more than that. I tell the client what the manufacturer has stated, tell them the harsh reality that this will be best case scenario but very unlikely in the real world. If the van is parked predominantly in a sun trap, it’s going to have a significantly shorter lifespan than the one parked over the road in the shade. I seem to be blessed with clients that buy rather than lease & drive them till the wheels fall off. A 7-10 polymeric on flat panels should last 5 years at least, that’s our base grade regardless if it’s a lease vehicle going back after 2-3 years
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This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by
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