Artgrafix Blog

As a custom house, we continually fabricate new items.  Most of these are for a customer who has an existing job and is having difficulty getting that job done.  We come up with a way to make that happen and often these needs have a wider audience.  Examples of this would be our Gator pouch board, matte film large pouches and Bubble-Free boards.  In each of these cases, we start with a solution which works, but has certain deficiencies.  The customer who we are working with happily works around these deficiencies because we are able to solve their immediate needs, but as we move further afield, these can become issues.  Examples would be with gator board where black is more difficult to stick to than white gator or that the process which creates the veneer surface sometimes is not as smooth as required.

Because of the internet, franchises and associations, we get demand to remake certain products for others because they feel they have the same need as the first customer we spoke to and believe our approach will work for them.  We also believe these products will work for them, but because they may use different materials we run into issues.  As we review these, talk with suppliers, learn by doing, we make changes which address those issues.  If you look at our gator products, our process has evolved and includes sanding boards and cleaning them with tack cloths and we worked with our supplier to modify the adhesive.  Compare to a year ago, we now have a smoother product which has a more consistent adhesive.  In our pouch products, we have a film which is top-coated, mapped and matched top and bottom which is easier to process and achieve flat results and by applying the adhesive with less pressure, our buuble-free boards have a deeper texture which lets more air escape.

There are times when I wish our products were as bullet-proof as say 3M, when they were introduced, but I know our customers have immediate needs which requires us to act fast.  I know that as we go forward, we always work with our customers and make them whole if there was something we should have foreseen and they appreciate that.  They also know that each time they re-order, they are getting a better product and over time these products become solid.

We are not a 3M, but as long as our products keep getting better all the time, I know we will be successful and our customers happy they came to us to fabricate a product for their needs.

We came under fire recently because a product we introduced, Liner Free films, we marketed as a waste reducing product and a ‘green’ oriented product as it eliminated the silicon coated liners which are disposed of in our landfills.  The criticism was that while they conceded reducing waste was okay, to be ‘green’ by their definition, the film should be biodegradable and should be used with other recyclable boards and papers.  The person saying this was someone we do a fair amount of business with and they wanted me to drop promoting the attributes which are good for the environment as a ‘green’ product because the whole product did not meet their standards. (By the way, there is not such a product I know of today)
To be sure, the focus on ‘Green’ products has been rapidly increasing.  There has been a lot of work done, particularly in the paper field on post content and recyclable standards.  To that end, we have been looking at boards made from pulp which can be recycled, liner free films, acid free adhesives and more.    Because of the wide range of applications, we test thoroughly and often err on the side of conservatism in deciding whether to launch a product because the bottom line is that the adhesive and films have to work in the applications end customers demand.  Accordingly, our gains in ‘going green’ are often incremental and made one step at a time.

But those steps are real progress and I believe that by highlighting this progress creates a pressure for others to follow.   It’s through that pressure that we may get to the products our critic wants to achieve.  Also by highlighting our successes in becoming more a more ‘green’ industry, we build confidence in the market that we are investing our research efforts wisely.  You can’t trumpet the total cure if you don’t have one, but I liken this to improved gas mileage.  Your goal may be to get to 75 miles per gallon (mpg), but if your new product raises your current 20 mpg average to 40 mpg, let people know.  It’s an important step on the path where you need to go.

Recently we helped a customer mount and laminate a graphic printed on adhesive backed vinyl.  We do not usually do this but as they only had a 40 inch laminator and the print was 50 inches wide, we helped them out.  Normally we mount all of our prints first and then over-laminate them.  The reason for this is that it is usually a lot easier to over-laminate second as the print is supported by the board and gives a more uniform pressure.

When we mount a print, we flip the print back over the main rolls after attaching the leading edge.  We the hold the print firmly against the roll to keep it smooth across the roll.  When we did this with a graphic printed on vinyl, we found that with only slight pressure, we could stretch the vinyl film and distort the image.  The good thing was that we noticed the stretching on the white film and not in the image.  To mount successfully, we ran very slowly and with two people holding the image lightly, we got it done.  But we could have made it 10 times easier and less stressful had we laminated the print first.

With the print laminated, we could have pulled it up if we were having any problems (but we couldn’t our way because we would have stretched and distorted the print) and the job could have been done with one instead of three people.   Also after the fact we laminated a print on a sled with a 2 mil cast vinyl laminate and it was a very forgiving film and easy to do.
So while we still linke mounting photos and paper prints first, our new rule is that when working with adhesive backed vinyl, over-laminate it first and that will keep waste to a minimum and make it easier to do.

Did you ever notice while that there are 100’s of different papers, many choices of laminating films and mounting boards, there are really a small number of factories actually making those products.  I was at a tradeshow recently and a colleague criticized us for being so open about who are suppliers are.  Companies go to great lengths to protect their sources so that it is more difficult for you to change from them and consider competitors.  They argued that I would be “safer” if I kept our suppliers invisible to our customers.  I disagree and I think that is really pretty short-sighted on their part.  While it may make it a little more difficult for customers to change suppliers, each of the suppliers has particular strengths and their products do process differently.  Accordingly, not disclosing your supplier makes it more difficult for new customers, especially those who know what they need, to try your products.

As a converter, we do not extrude foam board, coat adhesive on film or make equipment and we do not pretend to “develop” those products.  We bring those components together to make our customer’s lives easier and less complicated.  But when we say an adhesive is acid free and archival or that an adhesive has been certified by Xerox, it helps to know who stands behind that statement with the testing and qc resources to insure that.  Just as when you build your house, you want to know you have Kohler faucets or Pergo floors or Dupont laminate.  You want to know the quality you are getting because it is important and quality makes things better.

I have been through the plants and used the products of all of our primary vendors.  Our key vendors include the D&K Group, 3M, Gilman, Sekisui, Seal and Elmers.  These are all adhesive, board, film and equipment manufacturers with rigorous quality control, products engineered to meet the changing needs of a digital marketplace, and most important of all - people who know their product and can answer questions.  And all have significant local presence in the USA so the time to get supply and information is short.  So when you deal with us, we can tap into their resources and bring them into a conference call so our customer needs can be met quickly and you can have a double layer of quality control which definitely adds value.

I am sure that the private label products are also good quality (and I usually know where they come from), but when you need to know a specific attribute or need a certificate for any purpose, transparency to the manufacturer makes things a lot smoother.   And given our market niche to deliver products which are designed to make laminating less of a hassle, knowing our primary suppliers helps make using our products easier.

In a past post, I noted that you “can’t assume your competition is standing still” and that we are always looking for ways to add more value.  One of the ways we identify opportunities is to look at others and see what we like and try to replicate that in our way.   Perhaps that is not the classic marketing way to approach product and channel development, but for us it is cheap education and usually a sound way to go.

I don’t want to name the companies I really respect because I do business with a lot of folks and some companies are just way too big for us to emulate.  But I want to share a couple of observations we have seen and thought were neat.  If you are in those companies, you will probably recognize yourself.

The first company was going through some difficult times a couple years ago.  They decided the best way was to develop a new adhesive which stuck to a much wider range of surfaces and papers.  As you know with introducing a new product, it takes a long time to get sales traction.  But they stayed the course, and promoted their new adhesive aggressively.  As new papers and boards came out which had adhesion properties, they had the solution.  So while many folks outsourced products and became more “me too”, they developed their own strengths which became a more valuable resource for us (because I can get the “me too” products anywhere).  We also have some items which are unique to us.  We fabricate them in-house and it furthers our internal knowledge of mounting and laminating.  Like this partner, they take time to take hold, but we know that if you need to depend on us, we must make a commitment to these products and we do.  So just like this partner, we think this builds trust with our customer’s and further’s our knowledge which is also a valuable commodity to our customers.

The second observation comes from a company which is really “tight” with their customers.  They identify needs and have developed the resources to source those needs and satisfy their customers.  As such, their customers have no where else to go.  To communicate this, they put a lot of information on their website and are very generous with their knowledge with me and others.  Knowing that they are forthcoming with information, makes me want to call them first when I have a need, and I do call them first.  We try to replicate this by also putting a lot of information on our web-site and will help people secure what they need.  As a custom house, we are often accused internally in our fabrication area of being like Burger King (”Customers, Have it your way”) and all the demands that puts on us.  But without questions, it keeps folks coming back, focuses on value added and not price and is a good model.  The company we took this from does this really well in their area and we look at them frequently to see if we can do something better.

There are a lot of other observations I like too but I do not have time enough to write about them.  We do not hide who we do business with and will always tell our customers the adhesives, boards and laminate manufacturers we use.  I think it gives us more credibility because we partner with some outstanding companies and reflects well on us.

When we look at new products, we usually are looking at ways to streamline the mounting and laminating process.  And to be fun, that is fun and we like to do this.  But this month we have been working on a new concept to combine equipment and supplies purchases and by combining the revenue streams, help to lower costs for our customers and give us a more secure annuity on supplies business.  We have termed this program our “Purchase To Own” (PTO) Laminator program.

The  PTO program allows customers to receive a Free laminator by making a 2 year commitment to buy supplies from us and buying a certain level of supplies.  We built-in a deposit on those purchases up front to secure the 2 year commitment and amortize that at a 25% rate over their purchases.  This gives the customer a very tangible reason to stay “loyal” to us and insures the supply stream.  When compared to the cost of sales calls, customer attrition rates and alike, this helps to justify paying for a laminator to secure that business.

We also needed a partner to build a program around and be comfortable that we were not going to hurt the market pricing on their products.  D&K worked with us to do different things such as free good and extended warranties.  This insured the equipment performance which of course is needed to consume the supplies.   In what we offered, the value was significantly higher than the cost which further helped the customer’s value proposition.

The major challenge is in communicating the program as not some form of black magic (although I always liked magic and believe you need some in business).  The key is that an average customer’s volume on mounting and laminating supplies is worth a lot.  For example, the average proseal customer sells $20K worth of mounting and laminating services a year.  Based on a 4 times mark-up, their average purchases are $5K a year - hardly an insignificant sum.  To secure that business is worth a lot to me.  And for larger laminators the averages are even higher.  And this values is actually worth much more than the cost of a laminator.   So what we are trying to do is have our customers understand how valuable their business is to us.  We think this would be better than any loyalty program we could create.

We are also looking at this angle from our purchasing side and seeing what reaction our key vendors may have to blanket 1-2 year commitments and what that would be worth to them to secure our business with them.  I think this may be a way for us to stay very competitive over the long term - both securing our volume of business and procuring supplies at competitve prices to support that.

We have all heard the observation “you can never train enough”.  Being the slightly cynical person that I am, I always thought that was a philosophy of those neer do well HR people who always wanted to justify someone’s poor performance by blaming me for not training them well enough.  And when I sat in their training sessions, all I was really thinking was that my competitors were calling my customers saying “I can get you the same thing as Stover only cheaper!”  Needless to say, training was never high on my agenda.

But that being said, I do attempt to keep everyone relatively well informed on our new products and programs.  What I missed however was that most of the things we do here build on our previous experience and knowledge.  Our basic product drive is to analyze how mounting and laminating is done and try to fabricate products which take steps out of that process.  So what we think we know (always a questionable commodity!) is critically important.  And as much as you as you document and communicate, you still make assumptions.  And as we all know, assumptions can lead to some very bad results.

What brought this home was we were fabricating a board we have made for 4-5 years and we had to change the adhesive to be compatible with a certain paper.  When we went to process the order, we ran the board in an opposite orientation to how we always have processed it before.  When we had issues and we talked about it, it was noted that the order details did not mention orientation and the notes in the file were for other the adhesive so folks did not think that was important.  And remembering things is difficult as everyone wears several hats and is doing more than I ever asked them to do.

So, being humbled and understanding that I have been that 1950’s type of boss (and need to change yet again!), we have asked all of our major suppliers to come in and work with us to provide a training review of their products.  They have all been very agreeable to supporting us in this and while I may have glimpses of a relapse to see my competitor talking to my customers while we train, I know we will be more competitive as we will minimize the expense of mistakes and provide more consistent products going forward.

Over the past several months, I have seen our competitors invest to fabricate similar products, make deals with our suppliers to promote similar products and have seen others bring out new products which may have an impact.  It is common to get so absorped in your new products and promotions to assume you are the only company moving forward, but I can assure you everyone is moving forward or they are going to go out of business.  Knowing what is going on is critical to our success so we can adjust to it, learn and get better and counteract those moves.  It keeps you from some unpleasant market surprises.

We spend a lot of time talking with others in the industry - both customers, manufacturers and distributors who are usually a little different than us, as well as monitoring the web sites of our competitors.   Our suppliers are successful and as such supply a number of our competitors (after all we can’t guarantee their mortgage payment and we need our manufacturers to be very successful so they are in a position to do things for us).  We often ask our suppliers about things we see on our competitor’s websites.  If it is not their product they will be more than happy to tell you why the item is not that good!  And if it is a good product, it may be a product your customers need you to offer them.

Also, you may find that your competitor is going in a different direction or focusing on a different market than you and that is good to know too.  While most of the things that drive us originate from our customers, knowing what is going on helps us do a better job, and that is what it is all about.

So cultivate your network of contacts.  I encourage everyone who works for me to do the same.  Also it can be fun.  I have spent 25+ years in this industry (don’t guess my age now!) and know and like a lot of folks in our industry and it can fun to gossip about them (always in a nosey, but positive way - and I assume they gossip about me too!)  It may not sound adult, but I only say that to illustrate that it can be fun to keep up on everything and make your business better at the same time.

An exciting new product we are working on is our pressure sensitive or cold Liner Free Laminates.   Most conventional cold over-laminating films have a crack and peel liner which you need to remove to expose the adhesive. Removing this can be a little tricky and require a learning curve.  You need to insure they are afixed to the take-up mechanism securely and you need to take them off in a continuous motion so you do not get lines in your finish.  This is the toughest part of learning to use a cold laminator and the leading reason people spend more money to buy a hot laminator to use heat adhesive films. 

We have been working with polypropolene films top-coated with a non-stick silicon coating which eliminates the need for the crack and peel liner.  These can be used on any cold laminator, even those without a take-up mechanism such as the Drytac Jetmounters and inexpensive laminators.

What we have found is that while you can get some silvering (which you can also get with conventional laminates), the results are more than acceptable for short-term graphics which need protection.  And you have to give the adhesive some time to flow which eliminates and ridges in the adhesive.  But you won’t get a line in your in your print and your success rate will increase tremendously.  And as with all cold adhesives, they will stiock to more types of papers than heat adhesives.

we are at the beginning of this product category and if you want to try a sample, all it will cost you is to call us up with your feedback.

While we can not replicate all of the embossed textures and hard coat surfaces of traditional films yet, the represent a good choice for many applications and with their speed and success rate, can help to improve the profitability of laminating jobs.

We have all been there.  Your doing a job you have done many times with success and all you are getting are failures.  The adhesive doesn’t stick, you are getting wrinkles, etc.  And when you review all the steps you have taken, they all seem okay and identical to what you have done in the past.  Don’t think you are alone.  This happens to us several times a year.  What has happened is that something has changed.  Your first reaction may be to look at your laminator and see if it needs service, but many times, that is not the case.

Papers changes, boards change and adhesives can change.  So when things aren’t working, you need to become a detective and examine your process to determine what to do.  We always start with a quick review of the laminator.  We use an IR thermometer to check the temperature of the roll and make sure the nip is okay by placing a board between the rollers and closing them with minimal pressure and make sure we can’t move the board left or right.  If the speed seems normal, we move onto other things.

 If you are experiencing wrinkles, we check the thickness of the boards.  All boards have tolerances and if they are towards the thicker part of the tolerance,  you can have too much pressure and create wrinkles - if so turn the nip to the next largest setting.  If you are running hot prducts with wrinkles, if the board doesn’t seem too thick, the paper may have changes and need might be expanding or moving towards the heat and sticking prematurely.  Papers, like boards, have tolerances too.  You can turn the heat down or just hold onto the end of the print to keep it from moving towards the roll.

If you print is not sticking to the board (as was the case earlier this year when Gator changed their manufacturing process) try preparing your board by wiping it with rubbing alcohol to neutralize any chemicals in the surface.  If that fails or if you are having issues with adhesive sticking to your print, you may need to try a more aggressive adhesive.  If using a heat process you may need to try a cold adhesive.

The key thing to keep in mind is the issue probably has nothing to do with what you are doing.  One of the manufacturers could have a small change (often unbeknowned to their dealers), that while within their tolerances does not react well with the other components you are using.  Just review your process and see what can be tweaked.  Call your laminating supplier.  It is possible that we have heard of similar issues (in addition to Gator changes, Epson has changed their premium papers this year too) and we know how others have worked through the problem.  Five minutes on the phone can sometimes eliminate an hour of frustration.  And just so you know, we do call others who we know run similar films and laminators and picked their brains when these happen to us.