HIGH-VOLUME PRODUCTION

When I say “professionals” in the above statement I am talking about the companies that make banners every day and make thousands of banners a year. If you get into the right company, you can make huge money on banners. A few weeks ago one of my clients landed a job for 1,500 vinyl banners for a coffee company. Each of the 72" x 36" banners required grommets and a pull-string for hanging. To do this job with anything other than professional equipment would just be silly. The total cost per banner for this job was $15 (including labor) and the sell price was $29 each. In other words, this company made around $21,000 on the job. One low-cost eco-solvent printer did all the printing in 75 hours, and two people did the finishing in a single week. How did they do it? They used a hot air welder that seamed and inserted the pull-string rope on the fly. Hot air vinyl welding is only one option of many for handling seaming on high-volume banner jobs. Let’s look at the options.

 

High frequency (or RF) vinyl welding equipment, such as this model from Forsstrom, is ideal for jobs that require a very long, very straight weld.

Smaller, hand-held hot-air vinyl welders—such as the one used here by Leister—are great for welding very large jobs where you do not want to move the graphics.

Hot Air Welding—This is a technology that has been used for years and is very fast and dependable. This is the process of holding two pieces of vinyl banner material apart from each other and then sliding in a thin plate that fires hot air onto both surfaces of the vinyl. The hot air heats the vinyl to a melting temperature and then a heavy flat roller comes right behind the heat and pushes the two pieces of vinyl together. This bonds the material together and makes a connection that, if done properly, cannot be torn apart under normal conditions. 

 

Hot air vinyl welding is a great solution. Units are available in just about every size and style, and some of the units have the options for inserting rope, hemming, and many more options. Smaller hand-held units are available that are great for the very large jobs where you do not want to move the graphics—you can just leave the graphic on the ground and walk the unit around and seam the edges. 

 

RF Welding—RF (radio frequency) technology—also known as high frequency (HF)—uses a high-intensity radio frequency to cause the banners to heat up. The operator aligns the two pieces of vinyl to be welded in the center of the machine and presses with both hands (safety setup) the start buttons. A metal head then travels down a long track and applies the RF wave to the banner causing the two pieces to bond together. 

 

These machines typically come with a four-foot head and so are ideal for large jobs. Billboard companies often use these machines to finish their banners.

 

Dielectric Heating Bar—This unit functions almost in the same way as the RF welder, but instead of a bar that you can move around and place on the material, this unit has a fixed top and bottom bar. When the top bar comes down onto the vinyl banner material, the electricity is applied and the unit bonds the two pieces of vinyl together in a few seconds. 

 

High-strength reinforced banner tape can be used to hem and seam banners, either by hand or with a new automated banner finishing system from US Banner Corp.

The major difference between these two technologies is that this system is simpler to setup and is ideal for long jobs. One of my suppliers has one that is 16' long, and I know of a company that has a 40' long unit. This technology is mostly found in shops that weld together large banners for billboards, tents, build covers, roves, etc.

 

High Speed Tape Application—There is a new machine in the market (see chart) that applies banner tape to the banners while at the same time folding over the material to make a hem. When you look at the time and the accuracy of people doing hemming on banners, this machine takes the guess work out and makes every job perfect. Something to consider for those who do a lot of banners and want to keep the equipment expenditure at a minimum.

 

I have used all of the above welders and I love them all. When I do large banners, I find the small handheld hot air welders that run along the floor are great, fast and easy. I like the same machine for out in the field work as it only needs an extension cord to make it work. 

 

For smaller sized long-run banner jobs I love the RF welding machines because they make a floating bar system where the weld bar (1.5" x 1" x 24-48" long aluminum bar) can be placed on the banner in the spot that needs to be welded and this holds it in place so when the large head comes down, it hits the weld where you need it to weld. The long bar hot air welders are wonderful to use for longer banners, banners that need a rope inserted, or a pocket welded.

 

The Weldmaster 112 Extreme uses hot wedge and hot air heat sealing technology.

A print shop joins two prints together in an overlap-style weld. Photo courtesy Sinclair

IMPORTANCE OF BANNER MATERIALS

Regardless of the technology they all achieve the same goal, bond the vinyl to itself. What you must recognize is that these machines are only as good as your banner material. You must understand that there are two ways to make banners, laminate and extrude. Most banner material sold today is laminated, meaning multiple pieces of material are bonded together with glue to make a vinyl banner. The bond between the outer vinyl coating and the rest of the banner is crucial to the long-term success of your job. If you purchased a poorly made banner material and you weld the top coat vinyl to another panel of the same banner material, and these layers let go, you will have a job fail in the field months after you have finished the job. Failure could be as small as a seam splitting all the way to a complete failure. 

 

The operator of the welder has everything to do with the success or failure of the job. If you do not apply enough time and temperature to the material, it could pull apart from each other. If you apply too much heat and pressure you could mark the banner with heat marks, all the way to burning it. Each banner material is different. A 10 oz. banner will take very little to weld where an 18 oz. banner material will take more time and temperature to weld properly. 

 

CONCLUSION

Your return on investment will be different for each company; at my company we have all three solutions and we used them based on the job. Clearly you can see by my 1,500 piece example that there is money to be made doing banners provided you have the right equipment and can find the right clients.

 

Good luck, be smart with your money, and I will see you on the show floor!

 

Click here to view the Vinyl Welding and Seamer Resources PDF.