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.