Media Choices for Vehicles and Fleet

Digital media for fleet and vehicle work comes in two main categories of vinyl, cast and calendered. You must know which material to use for the application. Here is an overview of the materials origins. Most vinyl films are made from the same basic raw materials. We begin with polyvinylchloride (PVC) polymer, which is simply basic plastic, and is by nature, relatively rigid. Other ingredients are then added to the PVC.

These ingredients include: plasticizer to make the film flexible, pigment to make the desired color, and additives to help achieve specific properties such as UV absorbers to improve resistance to UV radiation, heat stabilizers, fillers and processing aids. These raw materials can be chosen from a wide range of quality levels. Of course, for a film with limited durability, often the least expensive raw materials are chosen.

Apart from the type of raw materials that are used at manufacturing, both the process and the type of plasticizer used create the main differences of vinyl films. Vinyl films can either be made by calendering or by casting. Each of these processes renders different qualities of films. Casting generally results in higher quality films. The grade of plasticizer that is used to make the film flexible also greatly affects the properties of the film. Generally for pressure-sensitive adhesive films a choice is made between polymeric and monomeric plasticizers. We won't go into detail on the plasticizers right here, but for simplicity's sake consider polymeric to be the higher grade and monomeric to be the economy grade plasticizer. The combination of these factors greatly determines the durability of vinyl films.