Thursday, 5 December 2013

Curvorama Banner Stands

There are hundred of types of banner stand available in the UK most of which are designed to be used as stand alone displays. In many situations customers have a requirement to link several stands together in order to create a larger display wall but with conventional banner stands, this is not possible given that the cassette that accommodates the print forces the banners to be slightly spaced apart.

Although a a few solutions already exist in the market such as the Twist Banner Stand from Eve, Stealth Banner Stand from Ultima and more recently the Linkwall system from Expand, these products are all relatively heavy and also pricey when compared to traditional non-linkable banner stands.

UK supplier Curvorama have produced a product however that is linkable and also cost effective. Better still, the printed panels can be hung directly onto an exhibition shell scheme wall.

So, how does it work?

Panels are printed onto specific stay flat material that allows them to butt-up together with the minimum amount of edge curl. The printed panels are attached to fixings rails at the top or bottom that can be of a straight or curved variety. These fixings rails can be 600mm or 800mm wide depending on the requirement of the exhibition space.

Once panels are printed and the fixing rails attached, they can be supported with legs and feet for free standing (see picture) or can be hooked over an exhibition shell scheme where they will sit relatively flush to the stand wall.

Curvorama is now available from a selection of dealers in the UK although that due to the specific requirements of materials involved for the printing of the graphics, you should check to ensure the supplier has experience of the system and is printing onto suitable products.

Find more information about Curvorama

Monday, 2 December 2013

Edge Curl on Banner Stands and How To Avoid It

The perfect banner stand graphic should always sit nice and flat when the stand is assembled. Unfortunately some suppliers do not use the right materials and so the finished result does not always look like it should.

I received an enquiry from a customer recently who sent pictures of a roller banner suffering from possibly the worst edge curl I have ever seen (see below)...




You can see here that the banner stand graphic is pulling-inwards quite severely and this is especially noticeable when the stand is seen from the back.

The reason why many banner stands curl like this is due to the fact that they are printed onto a display film such as polyester that is then laminated with a protective film made from a material with different properties (such as PVC).

When a polyester print is laminated with a PVC film, the two materials will expand and contract differently as the air temperature fluctuates. This in turn causes the banner graphic to curl forwards or backwards.

Many years ago almost all banner stand graphics were printed with ink jet machines using aqueous or water based ink. The water based ink combined with the delicate ink-jet print material meant that lamination was a prerequisite for any type of display that had to be durable.

Modern print processes such as latex, UV and dye sublimation enable print shops that have invested in the right material to produce prints for banner stands that are already durable and without lamination. This in-turn provides graphics that don't curl like the example above.

If you are using a supplier who laminates graphics, you should ensure that compatible print materials and over lamination films are used that will not create edge curl problems like this although it is worth noting that with laminated graphics it is almost impossible to eliminate altogether.