Wind slit placement

[Jet Fast Printing]

If your customer wants holes in the banner, do it. But make sure you tell them flat out that you will not warranty it.

It's the same thing I tell my customers. (And remember, I wholesale to folks like you) I've never had a customer cancel the order due to the warranty (or lack of one if you want holes in it)

I hate putting holes in a perfectly good banner.

 

[Vinyldog]

Nuther side to it

And here's a scenario not yet mentioned that I can easily see happening to me - I persuade the customer not to have the slits and due to a freak situation the banner is quickly destroyed.
Now instead of making a replacement at their expense, I appear incompetant and they want a replacement at my expense.
But let me be clear here - no one hates disfiguring their work more than me - that's why I'm stressing over this in the first place - I just want to minimize the impact of what I see as an inevitable unpleasant sitatuion.

 

[Replicator]

Best to make your own mesh . . . There very easy to read with nice big holes in the pattern !

:ROFLMAO:

 

[Flame]

Without wind slits banner will fail ..unless up against wall... just don't get carryed away with the amount ...every 2 ft is fine

Get out of the stone age Craig! Windslits cause premature failure, they do NOT improve the banners integrity.

 

[sjm]

Beginning to understand the need of webbing reinforcement and proper banner reinforcement hardware.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

LOL I may be in the stone age but have yet to see a banner last without wind slits except mesh
Then again how long are we talking about months.... 1...2....3 years or more
simple 2x4 on a pole.. with 2 wind slits lasts 5 years ..without not even 3 months same location and others ... and yes seen plenty without ... and many torn

 

[Flame]

LOL I may be in the stone age but have yet to see a banner last without wind slits except mesh
Then again how long are we talking about months.... 1...2....3 years or more
simple 2x4 on a pole.. with 2 wind slits lasts 5 years ..without not even 3 months same location and others ... and yes seen plenty without ... and many torn

Only banner I made with wind slits tore apart in the wind.

I made a 4' x 25' banner, 13oz, grommets every 3', double hemmed. Put it 20' up in the air 3 years ago, lasted until we had a bad windstorm and it broke a pole. NO SLITS.

So, from personal experience, slits are bs.

 

[sjm]

LOL I may be in the stone age but have yet to see a banner last without wind slits except mesh
Then again how long are we talking about months.... 1...2....3 years or more
simple 2x4 on a pole.. with 2 wind slits lasts 5 years ..without not even 3 months same location and others ... and yes seen plenty without ... and many torn

Do you stitch the wind slits?

 

[SeaWriter]

Perhaps I am showing my age……

When I was an apprentice hand painting canvas banners they actually had sewn reinforced 6” holes in them. As you would mark-out the banner you would have to accommodate the lettering and design to flow around the holes.

Point being….. if the customer insists……. “no take backs” and then I would space them evenly and uniformly, end of the day it looks better even if they cut through lettering……. Also do not make them too small!

 

[GAC05]

I think wind, much like outgassing, is a myth.
Anyone ever seen the wind? Didn't think so.
Wind was made up so banner manufacturers could sell more banner material after people cut them up to foil this mythical "wind" effect ....

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Vinyldog]

Great advise all much appreciated

Okay here’s what I’ve decided: Using the simplest form of banner, a square with grommets at each corner, as an example. When pressure is applied two stress lines will form in the shape of an “X” between the supporting grommets. These would be area’s most likely to tear if a wind slit were placed across them. Assuming wind flows similar to water it would collect in four triangle shaped areas around the “X” pattern. I think centered in these would be an area of high pressure and lower material stress and would be the optimum location for the vent.
Now if you have four grommets top and bottom that makes it more complicated. If you draw a line between each of the supporting grommets to represent stress areas, you get twenty something possible locations for slits. I plan to use about six of these on a 4 x 8 banner.
So I’m not going to mention slits. And if a customer ask my opinion I’ll tell them I don’t recommend them, but if I have to make slits, this makes the most sense to me.

 

[Si Allen]

Quote:

I have a competitors banner in my shop right now putting wind slits in it at my new customers request - is he no longer doing business with that shop because he refused to do wind vents?

Unquote.

It seems to me that your competitor is going to be around when you are long gone!

He was smart enough to say "No!" to the wind slits!

Quit trying to justify placing slits in the banner ... because it is against the advice given to you by many people who have been in this business long before you were just a gleam in your father's eye.

Now either listen to experienced sign people or go ahead and put in slits. Your choice.

Why is it that you Noobs come here and ask for advice ...then argue if it is not what you wanted to hear?

If you are that desperate for a simple banner, in order to make your monthly payments ... go ahead ... BUT ... don't come back and complain when the customer sues you and bad mouths you all over town!

 

[Billct2]

We have the same requirement for wind slits here, city will not install without them.
We've had banners used over and over again for years made that way, they're also made with webbing & reenforced corners, installed on steel cable with bungees at bottom two corners. Really didn't see any damage from the wind slits over the last 20 years doing them. The banners seem to pretty much fall apart evenly.
As for mesh, most of the double sided ones I ve seen didn't look that great.
It's a pointless debate anyhow, banners aren't meant to last forever.

 

[fixtureman]

When I was installing satellite dishes we learn that a mesh dish acted like a solid in a wind of 30 mph

 

[smott]

Just figure a wind load calculation on entire banner without wind slits, then refigure accounting for wind slits area. Calculate the percentage difference and you will see how little difference the slits make. Just simple math and over 45 years experience.

 

[Techman]

today, banner material is no longer good old heavy canvas. It is thin vinyl. It is only about 1/20 the strength of the old days banner..

Most I see here use plain old 10 OZ material. It will not last in any wind. Period. I don't mean that little old 3 mph breeze. I mean this good old Midwest windy city stuff. Nor will thin material last in Shreveport LA during the rainy season. I know this for fact.
I have a roll of 12 oz in the closet so long it has cobwebs because it will not last outdoors and my clients will not purchase it knowing I have heavy stuff..

Now add in some slits to that flimsy cheap junk and there is a perfect storm for a ruined banner at the first hint of a windy day. I also know this for a fact after living in the wind land.

Now if using good old 18 - 22 oz material and it gets windy there is a good chance the banners will last.. And for those wind slits... like "they" insist on using here.. It is not to relieve wind pressure. It is to help prevent the banner from gaining airfoil status and whipping up down and all around in a regular wind. But slits will not save it during one of our good old straight line wind storms..

Recently there was an event banner over the street. It was sailing around up and down at least 5 ft in each direction.It did not last the night.

Farther down there was a real banner and it lasted teh entire weekend. Real heavy weight and some slits.. It did not whip around hardly at all.

So that is where the confusion comes from. Too many think those slits are to relieve pressure. They do not. Properly placed with properly sewn grommet round at the starts...they will help prevent the whipping up down all around until total destruction...

But then again,, I wager almost no one here less than 55 yrs old has ever observed a properly sewn banner..

 

[FireSprint.com]

I really don't like thinking this way, but if you make it clear to a customer that wind slits are a bad idea, they get it anyway, and the banner tears, isn't that good for business?

I see sign shops shops all the time sending out email blasts after storms.