whats the difference between all the vinyls?

[Martin Pearson]

Hi Dave, its all down to the way they are manfactured. cast vinyls are made completly differently from polymeric or monomeric vinyls.
Cast vinyls are manufactured by pouring the liquid plastic onto a flat surface where as callendered vinyls are manufactured by stretching and rolling the material.
Cast vinyls do not have any memory so when you shape the vinyl it tends to take up the new shape and stay there. Callendered vinyls do have a memory and will try to return to their original shape.
I honestly cant remember which way round it is with callendered vinyls but one of them has much better properties than the other, ie one will have less memory so will be much more conformable etc.
Hope this is of some help, Im sure one of the suppliers will come along with a much better explanation.

[Dave Springate]

Hi Martin,
Thanks for the info mate, so am i right in thinking that a cast vinyl is the better choice for applying to irregular panelwork? I am about to order a uniform cadet machine from B&P what is the best vinyl for me to use, is that going to be the same, ie a cast vinyl that is suitable for solvent printers.

Dave

[John Singh]

Hi Dave:

There are many who would argue in favour of something like Oracal 751 which is a premium calendered vinyl. Rob has done demos using this stuff

Martin is right about the cast vinyl though. It doesn’t have a ‘memory’ because of the way it is produced.

Calendar vinyls have improved considerably and are now softer and more ‘stretchy’ than before. With good heat and proper application it can achieve good results.

John

[Martin Pearson]

Hi Dave,

Yes you are right a cast vinyl would be best for the job but as John has pointed out some of the calendered vinyls about now are pretty good once you get use to using them and know their limitations.
I think the major problem here might be price, a cast vinyl is much more expensive than a calendered and if you gave a customer a price based on cast vinyl and someone else gave a price on calendered they would probably be cheaper. You can explain to the customer that your quote is dearer because you are using the correct materials but at the end of the day he will probably get it done by the cheaper company and it wont be for a few months down the line when the vinyl starts to crack or pull out of the reccesses that they will notice. Its to late by then you have lost the job.

[Rodney Gold]

There are 2 issues here , the way of manufacture and the plasticiser. Cast and Calendared are to do with mnfgr , Cast is a less stressed way of making Vinyl than calandered. Cast is poured onto a smooth surface and the PVC goes thru curng ovens and is finally “ready” , generally it has better pigments , uv stability , dimensional stability and has a higher gloss. Calendared is “Extruded or rolled” vinyl , it has less dimensional stability in the direction its rolled and is a lot cheaper , very much the same as Cast or Extruded perspex.
The monomeric vs polymeric issue has to do with plasticisers and the plasticiser’s molecular structure. Polymeric has a larger molecular chain and has larger molecules , thus leading to less migration of these and less effect on adhesives , more logevity of flexibility , less shrinkage etc.
Monomeric vinyls plasticisers migrate due to the small molecule size and thus effect adhesives , overlaminates , makes the vinyl brittle in time and makes it shrink or “pull”
You can get mono or poly in either type of vinyl , however its pretty rare to get monomeric cast , its normally polymeric.
The plasticiser issue has a huge effect on digital printing , polymeric is a lot better to print on than mono due to surface plasticisers etc and it also has a huge effect on how conformable the vinyl is. The cost of materials is relatively low in terms of final selling price re digitally printed graphics. Its a pretty good idea , once you find the BEST material to print on, to stick to it for everything unless you need thicker or stiffer materials or are quoting on real tight margins on high volume short term work.

[Dave Springate]

Hi Guys,
What can i say, thanks for the replys, onwards and upwards with the learning curve.

Thanks again

Dave