Location, Location, Location All floor graphics—such as this for Dock 86 on FLEXcon substrates—are installed with an overlaminate on top of the graphic. The graphic and overlaminate need to be tested using UL standards for slip resistance. Floor graphics are looking up By Richard Romano Imagine walking into an elevator, casually looking down, and noticing that the floor is missing, below you a fiery inferno. Your initial reaction is to jump back out, perhaps uttering an expletive of some kind. Upon closer examination, you discover that you’re not in an Irwin Allen movie; it’s only a realistic 3D graphic applied to the floor of a perfectly safe and normal elevator. “Customers are being more and more creative with their content,” said Tammi Johnson, Business Development Manager, 3M Commercial Solutions. The elevator inferno example had been sent by a customer of 3M’s floor graphics substrates. “Some of these 3D programs are allowing them to create these different levels of effects.” Other examples include what looks like a spilled bottle of soda, or even fleas jumping off a lolling dog. Floor graphics have evolved—like virtually every other print application—from long-run analog processes to shorter-run digital production. “Floor graphics started out very standard; you go to a 27 x 38 sheet that you probably print offset for a national campaign, and print 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 sheets, and they go in Walmarts all around the country,” said Dennis Brunnett, Product Manager, FLEXcon. FLEXcon is a converter of substrates for floor, wall, window, and many other types of graphics. “The shift has been more towards regional or local graphics. That brings the print job volumes down, and it changes the equipment, so instead of doing offset or screen, they’re more wide-format inkjet.” Today’s floor graphics are printed using any of the major inkjet printing methods, from solvent and eco-solvent, to UV, to latex. When producing floor graphics, it is important to know exactly what type of surface the graphic is going on, be it concrete, to tile—or tile with grout lines, small or large—or textured surfaces. Different floor graphics films are more or less compatible with different surfaces. Floor graphics that don’t adhere properly are not just an aesthetic problem, they’re also a safety hazard. “We manufacture two types of film for floor graphics, a cast film and a calender film,” said Joey Heiob, Technical Specialist, Avery Dennison Graphics Solutions. “Calender film is designed for smooth surfaces only, like a smooth type of concrete, or sometimes you’ll see them as promotions on basketball courts. Cast films are for a tile floor that has grout lines, or any kind of textured or pebbled surface.” It is also for safety reasons that all floor graphics need to be installed in two processes: the graphic itself, and an overlaminate that both protects the graphic from damage from foot traffic and protects pedestrians from slipping. Any reputable supplier of substrates for floor graphics tests their materials for slip-resistance using, typically, Underwriters Laboratories’ UL 410 standard. (And, in fact, it is a legal liability if they don’t.) It’s a standard that measures the coefficient of friction of a graphic and compares it to a leather strip that simulates a shoe. It’s also important to not test just the overlaminate in isolation, but the combination of graphic and overlaminate. “FLEXcon has four different overlaminates for floors,” said Brunnett. “So if you have a single base film, you would have to do four different tests because the slip surface is impacted by the surface its laminated to. All floor graphics should be sold, if they’re using the 410 method, for the entire construction not just the actual overlaminate.” (There is a second test standard developed by ASTM, ASTM-D2047, which can be used in addition to or instead of UL 410.) Substrate suppliers have been keeping up with new wide-format printing technologies—the growth of LEDcured UV inks, which cure under lamps that generate much less heat than traditional UV, means that thinner plastic films can be used without melting, warping, discoloring, or getting otherwise damaged during printing. But the real action has been on the content and the placement of floor graphics. “People are being more and more creative with location and with content,” said Johnson. “They’re trying to find unique spaces to meet their objectives.” Indeed, there is no shortage of surfaces to which floor graphics can be and are applied—even carpets. Obviously not deep-pile shag carpeting, but commercial grade carpeting such as you find at trade shows or other events have been increasingly festooned with graphics. However, you can’t always use the same ma- 20 Wide-Format Imaging | July 2015 MyPRINTResource.com
Wide-Format Imaging July 2015
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