Quality Vinyl Banners

Quality Vinyl Banners

Many a times you must have been in a situation where your graphic is picture perfect and your substrate is squeaky clean but you still wind up with those frustrating bubbles and wrinkles that diminish the look of the finished product.

What’s a vinyl installer to do to get Quality Vinyl Banners? Beginners often use a wet application with translucent or clear vinyl to eliminate bubbles and wrinkles, but experts say wet applications can actually create bubbles and wrinkles if not done properly.

Get the water out

In most cases, squeegee the vinyl at a 45 degree angle with overlapping, firm strokes will rid the vinyl of most of the bubbles and prevent wrinkles. Don’t be concerned about pressing too hard. So long as the squeegee glides across the vinyl smoothly then you should attain good results.

Water left between the surface and the adhesive can also cause bubbles and wrinkles, Make sure the film is properly squeegee to get all the excess water out from between the surface and the film adhesive so there’s no bubbles. Then you will have a really good bond between the media and the substrate.

Invest in high-tech materials

You don’t get bubbles with some of the new materials from Avery and 3M,These premium vinyls allow you to install dry whereas economy vinyls can be somewhat aggressive and more difficult to work with, leading to wrinkles.

3M’s Comply Performance is technology that allows air to easily escape through micro-replicated channels under the surface of films as they are applied. The technology was designed to allow installers to apply vinyl faster and more easily while eliminating air bubbles hence getting quality vinyl banners.

Help! I still have bubbles!

Know that it happens even to the best installers from time to time, and pull out your air release tool, or use a straight pin or sewing needle, to pop those aggravating air pockets. Do not use a knife or a razor blade because you will do more damage to the vinyl.

Unless your installation is purely riddled with bubbles, once you pop them there will be no sign that they were ever there because quality vinyl banners are self-healing when it comes to a few minor pin pricks. The trick is to press around the air bubble to gather the air in a single point to merge into one larger bubble so that you only have to make one prick.

What about wrinkles?

Removing larger wrinkles is an altogether different story. That requires slitting the material and then overlapping the vinyl. While this is far from a perfect world scenario, it is much better than leaving an air pocket in the vinyl because that air pocket will cause premature failure that is not covered under the vinyl manufacturer’s guarantee. You may be off the hook, though, if a large wrinkle is at the edge of the graphic because you can use a little heat to soften the film, lift it up, stretch the vinyl out until the wrinkle is gone, and then reapply the film.

Quality Vinyl Banners