wonderings
New Member
How do you all pack your extra large decals? We have some products that are kiss cut and premised and can be 120" ish x 40" ish. Any tips or solutions to pack these up safely for shipping to clients?
Them cores, boxes, and plastic sleeves and roll holders are worth hoarding (a moderate percentage of).Ship it out in the same boxes you receive the vinyl in
Parting ways with the old cores is a real struggle.Them cores, boxes, and plastic sleeves and roll holders are worth hoarding (a moderate percentage of).
We do quite a bit that is 120" or longer. If premasked the minimum size roll I'd ship something that large in would be the boxes the vinyl is shipped to me in (roughly 7" interior dimension). Even that is iffy. If you can ship in 10" or larger that would be optimal. Roll them decal side out. I put all of my shipped products in polytubing before it goes in a box because customers dont know how to pull rolled media out of a box without it binding and potentially damaging the decals...the polytubing just allows them to pull it out of the box easily and it protects the goods from weather if (when) the mail guy leaves the box in a place it can get rained on.
Important! We've rolled them decal/transfer tape facing in and always have either issues with the tape or laminate having wrinkling or lines that you cannot get out. I'd leave them flat or don't transfer tape (if you do) until you're ready to ship.Roll them decal side out.
The problem with us is rolling that tight cause the vinyl to release from the backer, not the transfer tape. We’ve had customers that unroll it and install and can clearly see “lines” in the adhesive where there was just too much stress from being rolled too tightly.We ship out everything we make and roll it up pretty tight, 4 panels of 108" each rolled up to fit into a 4" x 4" box. No issues, key is to use transfer tape with release lines adhesion feature such as R tape 4075 RLA, the "RLA" makes a big difference for shipping
If you can roll it around some sort of core, it will help with that issue. As mentioned already, I would get mailing tubes that are larger than the 3” cores the media comes on. Roll around the outside and tape it tight to the core, graphic out, put the plastic bag that print media comes in around it and place it in a box. Shipping cost will be a little more but the customer should be paying for that. If it’s small enough, sandwich between 2 cardboard sheets is ideal, but it sounds like you’re dealing with panels that are too large for that to work.The problem with us is rolling that tight cause the vinyl to release from the backer, not the transfer tape. We’ve had customers that unroll it and install and can clearly see “lines” in the adhesive where there was just too much stress from being rolled too tightly.
I rolled up a set of graphics today, two 110” panels and I could barely squeeze them into a 4” tube. Opted for a 7” square box. I wish I could feel good about smaller packaging because it is cheaper.