Cross the finish line

Whether you dedicated April 23rd to running or watching the race, this year’s London Marathon, run by over 40,000 people, once again demonstrated an incredible feat of endurance. It is also an environment where banners are commonplace, from start and finish banners to wayfinding banners.

Of course, the finishing process for banners is highly important and manufacturers have worked hard to invent systems that make it easier to finish or install banners, ensuring they look the best that they can. As well as taking a look at the systems currently on the market, it is also interesting to see how the current UK economy is affecting banner production.

One person who has a wealth of knowledge about the current banner market is Clive Day, technical director of Welwyn Tool Group, who comments: “The need for promotional banners, marquees and tarpaulin has increased over recent years. Growing confidence in the UK manufacturing economy means businesses are willing to spend more money on promotional banners for exhibitions or point-of-sale displays.

O Factoid: There are many types of banner shapes; from the more standard rectangular banners, to teardrop banners and flag banners. O

“With the weaker pound consumers are increasingly spending their holidays in the UK, and with festival going increasing exponentially over the last five years, more marquees and pop-up shades are required to shelter the festival revellers from the sun, wind and rain. Camp sites are in turn seeing more tents particularly with the rising popularity of ‘glamping’ sites and caravans requiring awnings. 

“This general increase in UK manufactured products in turn drives demand for logistics and road freight, which increases the need for tarpaulin commonly used for lorry side curtains.”

It is for these reasons that Day believes the UK climate for the production of banner equipment is better now than it has been for many years.

Increasing efficiency

However, Day highlights the problem of more machinery meaning more staff and bigger premises—an expansion that can be costly. This is why Welwyn Tool Group has brought the Hemtek ST hem welding machine to the UK, which has been developed by Switzerland-based technology manufacturer Leister.



“The Hemtek ST is a brand new and compact bench mounted single user operated machine which enables manufacturers to cost effectively produce banners, marquees and tarpaulin with much greater efficiencies,” explains Day.

He continues: “One of the most significant advantages it brings to banner, marquee and tarpaulin industrial textile manufacturers is its efficiency, as it can complete the whole welding process from the beginning to the end (with welding speeds of up to 12m/min). It is no longer necessary to complete the welding process with a hot air hand tool afterwards. This not only saves on time but also labour costs.”

The single guide on the Hemtek ST can produce a fully welded hem (closed) in 20, 30, and 40mm sizes, an open hem (up to 100mm), and with keder/rope and pipe welding too. This previously required using different guides for the different applications.

The company says another bonus with the machine is its ease of use. Operators can mount the machine to a table top using a clamp mechanism, and control it by a single foot pedal, freeing the operator’s hands to guide the material through, resulting in a better quality finish.

Day concludes with optimism for the future of this market in the sign industry: “Even though there is a level of uncertainty in the UK economy following the Brexit referendum in June 2016, consumer confidence levels remain relatively high and spending levels continued throughout 2016 into 2017.”

Roaring trade

Venture Banners, a company producing large-format printing to the print trade, has been producing banners for many years for applications such as corporate entertainment, dealership banners, as well as everyday banners.



The company’s materials include 440gsm PVC standard banner-grade material, which is ideal for outdoor poster displays to large advertising banners and is the company’s most popular material. Customers can also choose from 500gsm coated premium banner-grade material, 340gsm mesh material, and 740gsm heavy-duty block out material—the latter of which is ideal for double-sided banners.



Scott Conway, managing director of Venture Banners, explains how the company has a number of systems for finishing banners: “Firstly, you have to cut the banners out of the roll of material, we use a 3.2m wide Zund digital cutting table for that. Once they are cut out they need to be hemmed. We use a Miller Weldmaster hemmer (of which we have two), which in our experience is the fastest way of hemming banners and allows us to easily finish over 1,000 linear metres of hemming per day. Then you need to eyelet the banners, which we use a laser guided fully automatic eyelet machine.



“For banners with pole pockets, we use a Fiab high frequency welder, which literally fuses the molecules of the material together to create an incredibly strong weld. Our Fiab has the benefit of a sixteen-metre bed allowing us greater flexibility and capability.”

Similar to Day from Welwyn Tool Group, Conway sees more opportunities available for banners in the summer and holiday months, with it being outdoor advertising season the main factor for Conway; although the market in general is in a healthy position.



Conway explains: “Banners always gets even more busy during the summer months as it’s outdoor advertising season March to November so we always see a huge increase in banner sales during those months.”

Flexible working

Another company with an innovative solution for banners is Spirit Displays. Owner Hadley Weight started the company in 2003 and now has a team of 20. Weight says he does see a lot of banners being put up currently and offers its Spirit-Flex banner tension system to the market to make installing banners easier.

Weight explains: “Our customers, who are trade sign customers, want to use banners because it’s more cost-effective than using rigid panels in a lot of cases. Also, they can get larger signs or banners put up without joins, which they would get if they used solid panels. These are the main reasons for going down the PVC stretch banner route, to avoid joins and put up bigger signs that are more cost-effective.


“We also find a lot of customers who have had banners put up on their buildings using eyelets and screws worry that there are a lot of holes in the building, so when the banners get replaced, the eyelets are never in the same place and there are then holes everywhere. By using the Spirit-Flex system, the frame goes up on the building once, then those screws are fit in place, the frame is in position, and it’s very quick and easy to change the banners after that.

“It doesn’t require any specific finishing equipment, such as eyelets. The banner is flat cut with some bleed all the way around the outside, then it gets clipped into the frame with a plastic bead hammered in all the way around the outside.”

There are a range of profiles to choose from depending on the size of the banner and what wall substrate the banner is going to be installed on.

Weight continues: “You would choose a heavier weight profile, for example, if it’s going onto corrugated cladding, which has got peaks and troughs in it. Whereas if you’re going onto a solid wall such as brick or concrete, then you can use a lighter weight profile because the wall itself provides a lot of the structure.”

Weight says the system is great as many sign and print companies have printers, but do not have a high frequency welder. He adds: “As long as you print on a good quality, outdoor grade banner material you can create massive banners on the side of buildings. The system’s also compatible with a wide range of materials. We have customers not only using PVC but also using mesh and canvases.”

So, it seems that the need for banners has in fact increased over the last few years and manufacturers have responded to this by coming up with compact solutions to make the job easier. With clear benefits over rigid panels, banners provide just the ticket to finishing in record time.


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