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.