Shipping vehicle graphics?

[Spencer McMurtry]

Anybody have suggestions on shipping print vinyl (no mask)? We are beginning to get a lot of print jobs we will have to ship. We have had an installer who recommended rolling the print vinyl on a 3" tube, shrink wrap ends, place the round to square end caps on, bubble wrap and slide in square box. We are having trouble sourcing the round to square end caps anyone have a source?

Uline doesn't have them but could source them for us but we would have to order in the thousands per order.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[jfiscus]

Roll it up tight and put it in an appropriate sized box, no core necessary, but it does help if you have a pile of cores/ends.
If you're worried about the outermost roll, put some scrap around it.
Uline carries the boxes.

 

[mesheau]

We have a contract to do "large fast food chain" tractor trailers. The wraps come shipped from the US in the box the media originally came in. Rolled up, no core, no black plastic holders on either end. They're usually fine.

 

[Mosh]

I save all our cores and the black plastic end deals and the box our films come in. That is about the best way I have seen...but I don't ship a whole lot, 2-3 boxes go out a day is all.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

badgerplug.com

 

[Richard G]

Seems to me that your going overboard.. Go back to uline and type in round plastic caps and buy a bunch of em and use your print rolls to send it out make any length with a chop saw. We have done this for years with not an issue.....

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

Seems to me that your going overboard.. Go back to uline and type in round plastic caps and buy a bunch of em and use your print rolls to send it out make any length with a chop saw. We have done this for years with not an issue.....

That's pretty much my thought. We get a lot of digital prints shipped from Signs365 and they just roll them up with the backing facing out, tuck them into a tube, and cap the ends. They come perfect every time.

 

[Snydo]

For some of our anal customers we roll prints in the uline corrugated carboard, cut a piece of corrugated slightly larger than your prints, then roll that up in another piece of corrugated exactly the lenght of your box, stuff any gaps with paper. It's huge overkill, buts its effective and we charge for it. Good Luck.

 

[Spencer McMurtry]

Thanks for the replies this will give us something to think about. The reason we are trying to source materials is that we can get at least 3 jobs from one roll of vinyl so re-using the packing materials would not provide us with enough packing material.

 

[Stormyj]

I must be cheap. I log on to usps and order the free priority mail shipping tubes. I think their about 36" long. and free. I roll up the material and hold with rubber band. Never had a problem. Oh, and their free. They will ship them right to you, any amount. Priority mail is not that much more than reg and by the time you bought a box or tube, boom.

 

[MikeD]

I've never had to ship graphics, but have had to store rolls of laminated prints. From what I've read, if the prints are going to be on a core for a while after processing it's best to use a large diameter core; 6", to prevent the material from separating from the liner.