Premium calendar vinyl or cast vinyl

[Nick Nie]

Hi All:

I found Avery and Orafol has some premium calendared vinyl, they are still calendared vinyl but last longer and can be used for simply curve vehicle wraps, the cast vinyl seems all target for vehicle wraps only( at lease in my understanding). so i am wondering is there any one who use both and can tell the different? what's choice for the daily print cast vinyl?

thanks!

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

There are YouTube videos that do a good job of explaining cast vs calendered.

 

[equippaint]

Cal vinyl such as oracal 3551 is listed for vehicles, simple curves and rivets. This would be with the proper laminate like 290. As far as wraps, I would say that it depends on your definition but as long as it fits the listed use, it should be ok on van sides, box trucks etc. I dont think 3551/290 is near as easy to work with as a good cast film like avery 1105 but it may be for other people.
I use 3551 with 215 or 290 laminate depending on the application and its easy to apply but not to reposition. Once it sticks its usually stuck. Its thicker than a cast so in that respect its easier to handle without distorting it. It also will shrink a touch so any contour cut graphic can end up with an adhesive border but that could be from using cal lam with it. I never paid much attention if it was from the laminate. It doesnt matter much with what were doing.

 

[White Haus]

Anything that goes on vehicles, we use 3M IJ180cv3 w/ 8518 lam. We used to use Avery 2923EZ w/ Oraguard 210 gloss at first (before we knew better) but have since switched to cast only to eliminate the risk of failures/shrinkage.

For temporary graphics you can still get away with calendared but anything permanent I would stick to cast.

 

[Nismoasfuh]

Calnedred vinyl is always going to want to go back to being straight. It’s not ideal for curves, it’ll hold probably for a while, but it’ll eventually lift because it’s not meant to conform to shapes/curves. I have tried to convince customers before that they need to pay the premium if they want the job done right, unfortunately sometimes I’m reluctant to say no to a job / customers don’t want to pay... ya know, typical.