PVC advertising banners - Hints and tips PART 1

Summer is well and truly upon us and fetes, sports events and garden shows need to capitalise on the weather and attract customers to their events. One of the most popular and cost effective ways is to use printed PVC banners. Despite new material on the marketplace by far the most popular are PVC banners. PVC banner material also know as vinyl is strong, cheap and totally weather proof.
If you type PVC banners UK or vinyl banners UK into google you will see a huge range of companies offering pvc banner printing.

For example:

BANNERS FOR ALL - Banners, Vinyl Banners, PVC Banners, Sign Banner ...We produce quality printed PVC and Textile Banners,Feather Flags and Sail Banners. Sail banners - Digital Vinyl PVC Banners - Vinyl PVC Banners. www.bannersforall.co.uk/ - Cached - Similar

Online Design Tools For Personalized Banners, Best Poster Design ... - Our PVC banners are also popular as sports event banners, ... Whatever you requirements or specifications,
www.quickstepdesign.com/ - Cached - Similar

advertising banner - printed pvc advertising banners vinyl - advertising banner - pre printed in stock Sale banners from discount displays. PVC vinyl advertising banner.

Confusing isn't it? So how do you choose? Most people think a banner is a banner is a banner, but since yours is going to be an advert for your company or event you want it to look good and last the course.

As with most things cheapest may not be the best. When you look at material the questions to ask when your looking for a banner printer are:

Is the material reinforced?
What weight is it?
How are the edges finished?
Does it allow any show-through?
Is it Fire retardant?
What are the eyelets made of?

Reinforced material is essential unless you just want a very short term small indoor banner. The PVC banner material has a nylon weave fused into it which prevents it tearing. The heavier the banner the material the stronger it is, the typical weight for an outdoor banner ranges from 300gsm to 500gsm.

Finally how is the material finished? For short term banners people cut corners by having their banner "straight cut" with either plastic or metal eyelets. This is OK if the banner is small, say 6' x 2' or perhaps up against a wall but eventually the eyelets will tear out.

As soon as one eyelet goes the whole banner can look messy and a crucial bit of information such as a telephone number or date may be hidden. The alternative is to spend a little more and go for a banner with turned edges. This is where the outer couple of inches of the banner are turned over giving a double thickness hem. This strengthens the weakest vunerable part of the banner and gives a much better anchor point for the eyelets.

I'll discuss alternate banner materials and printing techniques in my next article.