Alternatives to vinyl

[Quickpoint9]

Does anyone use Trigon imaging's line of vinyl seems they have some good prices on there product just wanna know how comparable they are to say 3M etc the say they have direct match's to all the name brand stuff

 

[BigfishDM]

Does anyone use Trigon imaging's line of vinyl seems they have some good prices on there product just wanna know how comparable they are to say 3M etc the say they have direct match's to all the name brand stuff

Nothing compares to 3M that is an off brand material that I have found. Are they talking about the calendered vinyls or the cast vinyls?

 

[Quickpoint9]

they have claimed to have both calendered and cast

 

[BigfishDM]

they have claimed to have both calendered and cast

I have been approached by a multitude of companies that claim to have "Cast" vinyls comparable to 3M and not a single one has lasted long term. They might be good for a year if you are lucky but it's really not worth the potential problems you will probably encounter. Cast vinyl is not cheap and anytime you see cast vinyl at a low price you should be suspect.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

Is there a link for this stuff? I'm not looking to buy any, but am curious where you found these films. When I Googled it, I only found a link to a wide format print company.

 

[ikarasu]

I have been approached by a multitude of companies that claim to have "Cast" vinyls comparable to 3M and not a single one has lasted long term. They might be good for a year if you are lucky but it's really not worth the potential problems you will probably encounter. Cast vinyl is not cheap and anytime you see cast vinyl at a low price you should be suspect.

Does this include brands like Avery / Oracal, or just the "No name" brands? Our shop usually sticks to just 3M... I'd like to try something different for home though. I was thinking of Avery / Oracal, but of course I don't want to send it out and have people pissed off it doesn't last as long as 3M. And I'll probably never hear about it if the vinyl fails in a year either... I've seen some nice looking film that claims to be better than "Control-tac", mainly by Avery. I've been wanting to try it. I'm mainly looking for something besides 3M For my home printer. I don't want to use the same material as my work place, They seem to trust me, but I don't want them to have any doubt and start thinking that they're subsidizing me for all my home projects

 

[BigfishDM]

Does this include brands like Avery / Oracal, or just the "No name" brands? Our shop usually sticks to just 3M... I'd like to try something different for home though. I was thinking of Avery / Oracal, but of course I don't want to send it out and have people pissed off it doesn't last as long as 3M. And I'll probably never hear about it if the vinyl fails in a year either... I've seen some nice looking film that claims to be better than "Control-tac", mainly by Avery. I've been wanting to try it. I'm mainly looking for something besides 3M For my home printer. I don't want to use the same material as my work place, They seem to trust me, but I don't want them to have any doubt and start thinking that they're subsidizing me for all my home projects

No sir, I would consider those "Name Brand" vinyls with alot of history and R&D put behind it. I love some of the Oracal materials and also Avery and Arlon.

 

[ikarasu]

Arlon doesn't seem too popular in Canada... It's one of the ones I wanted to try though. I think 2 of the smaller places carry it... and only limited styles.

I'll do some price comparisons and maybe order some this week! Do you carry all brands? I've been meaning to place an order with you guys, but it's been a busy couple months. Some of your films look pretty cool too!

 

[ams]

Nothing compares to 3M that is an off brand material that I have found. Are they talking about the calendered vinyls or the cast vinyls?

I refuse to touch 3M, I've found some of their products to fail more quickly and the price is highly expensive. You can't say "Nothing Compares" because you haven't tested every brand and every product. You may be a hardcore 3M user and that's fine, but don't knock other brands.

For instance I use Oracal products, some of their products aren't good like their 751 line, had many failures. However their 651 line is top notch and have never had a single issue in the many years I've used it. I barely use Avery but I've had bad luck with it and had failures with their products. Same goes for 3M, some was good, some was bad. Nobody makes a perfect vinyl, no brand has every product in their line better than others.

By the way when I was talking to Avery corporate about their caulkboard vinyl, he said frankly I wouldn't use ours, there are better ones out there. That was a salesperson/tech from Avery saying that.

 

[BigfishDM]

I refuse to touch 3M, I've found some of their products to fail more quickly and the price is highly expensive. You can't say "Nothing Compares" because you haven't tested every brand and every product. You may be a hardcore 3M user and that's fine, but don't knock other brands.

For instance I use Oracal products, some of their products aren't good like their 751 line, had many failures. However their 651 line is top notch and have never had a single issue in the many years I've used it. I barely use Avery but I've had bad luck with it and had failures with their products. Same goes for 3M, some was good, some was bad. Nobody makes a perfect vinyl, no brand has every product in their line better than others.

By the way when I was talking to Avery corporate about their caulkboard vinyl, he said frankly I wouldn't use ours, there are better ones out there. That was a salesperson/tech from Avery saying that.

Yes you're totally right about that but I was referring more to the chinese materials that are a dime a dozen. Many of them are calling their polymeric vinyls "Cast" material which is not possible to MFG in china yet. I don't sell 3M or Oracal or even Avery. I also think they all have pros and cons but I think 3M is the dominant player in the vinyl game as a whole, there are definitely some good alternatives.

 

[ikarasu]

I refuse to touch 3M, I've found some of their products to fail more quickly and the price is highly expensive. You can't say "Nothing Compares" because you haven't tested every brand and every product. You may be a hardcore 3M user and that's fine, but don't knock other brands.

For instance I use Oracal products, some of their products aren't good like their 751 line, had many failures. However their 651 line is top notch and have never had a single issue in the many years I've used it. I barely use Avery but I've had bad luck with it and had failures with their products. Same goes for 3M, some was good, some was bad. Nobody makes a perfect vinyl, no brand has every product in their line better than others.

By the way when I was talking to Avery corporate about their caulkboard vinyl, he said frankly I wouldn't use ours, there are better ones out there. That was a salesperson/tech from Avery saying that.

We go through probably 10-20 rolls of 3M per week. Using everything from Prismatic street sign material, to wraps / normal signs. Even their cut vinyl.

I've been here for 2 years... and in them 2 years I've seen 1 failure, and that was something we laminated moments after it got off the printer.

We use High tac Oracal for plywood... We havent found anything better in its price point. Avery we only use some of their laminate, mainly for the oracal stuff. All 3 brands make good stuff... Each brand will eventually have a bad product hit the market. We had a roll of 3M Laminate that could be peeled off by hand with ease after it was applied to the vinyl...which we of course noticed after we laminated and split a whole roll of material.

It took us a day to peel all the laminate off and re-do it. 3M gave us 2 brand new rolls to make up for it. 3M stands by their product, I'm not saying 3M is for everyone... as everyone has their own preference. But if you've had failrues with 3M, I'd contact them about it.

 

[ams]

Yes you're totally right about that but I was referring more to the chinese materials that are a dime a dozen. Many of them are calling their polymeric vinyls "Cast" material which is not possible to MFG in china yet. I don't sell 3M or Oracal or even Avery. I also think they all have pros and cons but I think 3M is the dominant player in the vinyl game as a whole, there are definitely some good alternatives.

I believe the reason 3M is a leader is mainly due to the name and with their wrap school and dominating the market with advertising, classes and sales people, it makes people want to buy it.

Avery had that splicing issues many years ago that cost people hundreds of thousands of dollars and many people got rid of it and stopped buying and stopped trusting them.

Oracal barely advertises, doesn't have many sales reps, etc so a lot of people are afraid to try it.

Companies like Arlon and others some people call Off Brand, because it's a lesser known company than 3M, Avery and Oracal. Even though it's not an off brand. SEAL makes a few great products but again is lesser known to many.