When a business is looking to get the word out on a new product or service, promote an event or announce a grand opening for a new location; nothing makes more of a visual impact than a custom made banner. Over the years, banners have become the most commonly utilized application for sign shops and have come a long way in form and function from cut-vinyl to four-color printed vinyl to dye-sub fabrics.
当一家企业想要推广一个新产品或一项新服务时，通常会举办一个活动或者在一个新位置进行盛大的开幕仪式，但是，这些做法也许都比不上定制的横幅所带来的视觉效果。多年来，横幅打印已经成为标识商店最常见的应用，它从乙烯基面料的打印到四色打印、从四色打印到染料织物打印，它以自身的特性不断地在优化其功能，拓宽市场的渠道，成为标识行业中一枚独特的旗帜。
The growing popularity of custom-made fabric banners has really pushed the envelope in this market. With a plethora of indoor to outdoor applications, fabric banners make excellent advertising solutions, not only because they are lightweight, but because they also have become much more easier to install.
在当下，定制型织物横幅越来越受欢迎，推动了横幅打印市场的发展。随着室内外应用程序的不断扩大，形成了众多优秀的织物横幅解决方案，这种织物面料不仅轻巧，而且它们使安装变得更加容易方便了。
Fabulous Fabrics
绝佳的面料
“The trend over the past five years has been the shift to fabric and soft banners,” says Todd Freeman, president,Beautiful Displays, Carbondale, Illinois. “Fabric has many advantages over vinyl such as it can be folded up smaller and is cheaper to ship. Its also easier to handle and you can throw it in a washing machine if it gets dirty. Vinyl on the other hand is very stiff and if you fold it, it creases. However, there are still many applications where vinyl is king such as with pole banners and other outdoor uses,” he adds.
美国展示公司总裁Todd Freeman表示：“在过去五年，横幅打印面料的趋势一直在转向柔性织物横幅。织物比乙烯基具有的优点多，比如，它可以折叠、轻便而且便宜。此外，它容易处理，如果变脏了，你可以直接把它扔进洗衣机。而乙烯基，它非常僵硬，如果你折叠它，会立马出现折痕。但是，乙烯基仍然是最普遍的应用，尤其应用在户外标牌的制作等。”
Freeman says they specialize in dye sub fabric, which is well suited for short-term use for outdoors such as with teardrops and outdoor flags. “It’s a product that’s in huge demand. Event banners are another big area and ideal vehicles for promoting concerts and festivals. Lastly, the trade show market is still big for us with retractable banner stands and hanging banners,” he explains.
Freeman表示他们专注于染料织物的生产，这种织物非常适应于一些短时间使用的户外标牌，并且需求量很大。他解释说：“横幅是促进音乐会和节假日活动氛围高涨的有利催化剂，不仅是音乐会和活动，贸易展览市场对横幅打印的需求也相当大，比如可伸缩旗帜架和悬挂横幅等。”
Freeman reports that the banner market today is being driven by the web. “Clients need everything faster than ever before. The bottom certainly has dropped out on pricing over the years and it has gotten tougher to compete on larger jobs with some of the bigger shops turning out vinyl super cheap.”
我们清楚的是，今天的横幅打印市场同样可以利用网络遍及各地市场，了解客户的一切需要比以往更快。了解客户的需求是一方面，但是多年来，标识制造商之间的竞争一直在放在了定价上，一些较大的标识商店他们出售的乙烯超级便宜，但并没有赢得太大的竞争优势。
Trending Upward
上升的趋势
Michael Compton, product marketing manager at Top Value Fabrics, a Carmel, Indiana-based distributor of banner materials, says the current state of the banner printing market is trending upward with explosive growth. He reports that while the vinyl banner printing market continues to show steady growth, there is rapid growth in digital banner textile printing for many types of soft signage, banner applications and increasing creative applications.
Top Value Fabrics公司的产品营销经理Michael Compton表示：“横幅打印市场的份额总体呈上升趋势，相当于一种爆发式增长。在以乙烯基材料为主的横幅打印市场，继续保持稳定增长的同时，织物横幅打印应用在软标牌的业务也在不断增长。”
“Current trends show rapid growth in the textile banner market for environments such as in-store retail, tradeshow graphics, backlit applications, banner stands, backdrops, pop-up displays as well as stretch frame systems and interior décor,” Compton points out. “High quality digitally printable textiles offer printers and end users tremendous variety in look, texture and feel and provide designers the ability to create brilliant graphics for a multitude of applications,” he adds.
Compton指出：“目前的数据显示，织物横幅市场在诸如零售店、展览图形、背光应用、横幅展示架、背景幕、弹出式显示屏、拉伸框架系统和室内装饰等环境中都呈现快速增长的趋势。高品质的数字可喷印织物为终端用户所需的产品提供了外观和质地优越的改变，同时也为设计人员提供了创新能力。”
Tight Turnaround Times and Tighter Margins
周转时间的缩短
Compton says that print on demand and the need for tighter turnaround times from clients continues to increase. “With this comes the increase in speed-to-market of printed product. Latex printing has grown tremendously due to versatility in printing substrates and continuing increases in technology that allows printers to print finished product on board the printers with turnaround time decreasing significantly. The same is true of high-speed dye sublimation printer technology. The growth and placement of new high-speed printers has given end users the flexibility to print multiple designs and large volume jobs for immediate shipping to end users.”
Compton表示：“随着客户紧密需求的持续增长，也加速了打印产品上市。由于打印基板的多功能和技术的更新，允许在打印机上直接打印成品，有效地降低了周转时间。新型高速打印机的应用和设置能够在短时间灵活地打印出多个设计和大量的作业，立即向终端用户发货。”
Compton agrees that while tighter margins are more common in the vinyl banner market, margins on digitally printed textile are relative to the quality of the fabric being utilized. “This is especially true as print providers and end use customers have become highly educated in textile quality relative to consistent white point from batch to batch, consistently rolled, dependable fabrics sourced from their vendors which provide high quality graphics and presentation,” he adds.
乙烯基横幅市场能实现最大化利润，是由材料的质量所决定。Compton补充说：“终端用户非常看重打印材料的质量，可靠的面料来自供应商，所以选择好的供应商非常重要，好的面料决定是否能形成高质量的图形。”
One way that shops are gaining more control over turnaround times on banner projects is through in-house banner finishing capabilities. Steven L. Kaplan, owner and president at S. Kaplan Sewing Machine Co., Newark, New Jersey, says that it’s a real production hurdle for sign shops to take a banner or a large-format graphic panel and send it out to be sewn or finished and then have to wait for it to be returned.
通过对横幅打印市场内部的整理，标识商店越来越能很好地控制项目的周转时间了。位于新泽西州纽瓦克，卡普兰缝纫机有限公司的创始人Steven LKaplan表示：“标识商店采取横幅格式或大幅面格式打印图形时，会遇到一些制作障碍，我们研究了最新的一种解决方案，通过缝纫技术来完成，会使图形更加出色。”
“We provide industrial sewing equipment for banner finishing. Our customers are printers and graphics companies who realize that taping banners has significant limitations. They typically start out by contracting out the sewing required to finish their banners or large format graphics. However, tight scheduling makes this a production hurdle, often delaying completion as banners have to leave their facility, be sewn by an outside contractor and then returned back to the printer or graphics house,” he explains.
卡普兰缝纫机有限公司经常为标识制造商提供整理横幅的缝纫设备。Steven LKaplan解释说：“我们的客户意识到横幅打印有显着的局限性，紧凑的周转时间会对整个制作流程产生一定影响，在这样的情况下，通常会延迟整个产品完成的时间，因此他们会将项目外包给我们，让我们对横幅图形做最后的整理工作，这样能够有效地缩短制作时间。”
Sewing Solutions
缝纫解决方案
Kaplan states they have found success in providing easy to use sewing equipment at a variety of price points, which allow customers to bring the sewing operation in house, dramatically reducing production time and allowing a significant increase in profit and flexibility. The company also supplies training on the machines.
Kaplan说：“缝纫解决方案提供了易于使用的缝纫设备，使客户能够在内部进行缝纫操作，大大缩短了生产时间，并提高了利润和灵活性。此外，越来越多的公司对缝纫机器的使用做了内部的培训。”
“Our entry level SK-Highlead GC20518-PUL machine is a simple double needle sewing workstation that allows for virtually all banner finishing operations to be done economically with a small investment. For customers requiring larger scale sewing capabilities, we can offer the Miller Weldmaster Digitran, a complete digital transport sewing system for high volume production with a variety of automation options,” he says.
Kaplan补充道：“我们的入门级SK-Highlead GC20518-PUL机器是一个简单的双针缝纫机，几乎对所有横幅图形都可以进行操作。对于需要更好缝纫能力机器的客户，我们可以为他们提供Miller Weldmaster Digitran，这是一款全能型的数字缝纫系统，可进行大批量生产，具有多种自动化选项。”
Kaplan adds that one popular application that their customers are asking for is the sewing of a silicone rubber edge onto printed material for display applications, also know as silicon-edge graphics. “Both the simpler manual machines and the automated Digitran system can be equipped for SEG sewing, greatly increasing production flexibility,” he concludes.
我们有个客户要求将硅橡胶边缘缝合到用于显示应用的材料上，这种应用被称为硅边缘图形，SEG缝纫机器配备自动化Digitran系统，为我们的产品进一步提高了生产效率。
Standing Out
新材料的涌现
Compton reports that their clients are always looking for new substrates to differentiate themselves from their competition. “At Top Value Fabrics we pride ourselves on bringing the newest, most innovative print media to the banner display market. Some of these include our DigiPanorama, DigiCompetition and Midnight Blockout.”
Compton说：“我们的客户一直在寻找新的横幅打印材料，以区分自己与竞争对手的差别。 现在，我们以顶级的面料——柔性织物为荣，将这种最新、最实用的打印媒介引入横幅打印市场。包括我们的产品DigiPanorama、DigiCompetition和Midnight Blockout。
He says that DigiPanorama was created specifically for the latex print market with their proprietary coating to enhance scratch and scuff resistance of latex inks providing the printer with a finished product off the printer that doesn’t require the extra steps and cost of heat pressing, transfer paper and tissue paper.
其中，DigiPanorama织物是专门为乳胶打印市场专门设计，能为专有涂层提高油墨的耐刮擦性和抗磨损性，在打印时不需要进行额外的热压转印成薄纸。
“Our new DigiCompetition is a lightweight knit polyester that provides outstanding color consistency and image sharpness as well as wrinkle resistance for printers requiring a high performance yet competitive banner display product. Midnight Blockout is a knit polyester engineered with a durable black back to insure opacity for applications that require blockout providing outstanding color consistency, image sharpness and a wide color range. This fabric as well as our additional banner display fabrics fit a wide variety of banner display applications,” he explains.
新型DigiCompetition是一种轻质的聚酯织物，能为横幅图形提供丰富的色彩、图像清晰，以及抗皱性；Midnight Blockout是一种聚酯织物，采用耐用的黑色背面，可确保图形不透明，能提供卓越的色彩和高质量的图像清晰度，这种织物适合各种横幅图形应用。
He adds it is also important that the printer work with their trusted print media vendor to choose the substrate that provides the optimal finished product for their clients.
标识制作商与供应商合作，为客户提供最佳的材料是相当重要的。
Planet Tradeshow Takes Banners to New Heights
恒星展会充实了横幅打印市场
Compton says one of their cutting edge customers in this area is Planet Tradeshow, a digital dye sublimation firm based in Ball Ground, Georgia that specializes in fabric printing. “We currently produce point of purchase materials for the bedding, banking, retail, and tradeshow industries,” explains Jared Hager, project manager at Planet Tradeshow. “We have printed on a variety of Top Value Fabrics print media including Midnight Blockout for roll-up banners stands and framed wall displays, DigiCompetition for banner displays, DigiHeavy for multipurpose banners and Supernova for backlit displays. All of the product prints and provides our clients with the highest quality and performance.”
Compton说：“我们在该市场中，最大的客户之一是Planet Tradeshow，这是一家位于格鲁吉亚地区的数字打印公司，专门从事织物印花打印。”Planet Tradeshow公司的项目经理Jared Hager解释说：“目前，我们正在生产用于日用品、银行、零售点和贸易行业的材料。我们已经生产出了各种顶级面料，包括用于卷起横幅展示架和框架显示器的织物Midnight Blockout和DigiCompetition、用于多用途横幅的织物DigiHeavy，以及背光显示器的织物Supernova。这些材料都能为我们客户所需的产品提供最佳的质量和性能。”
Hager says they are also seeing a huge increase in Backlit and non Backlit Silicone Edge Graphics. “With recent price reductions, what was once available to large corporations has become affordable to end users. Whether permanently mounted extruded aluminum frames, large extruded trade show displays or the new more modular and portable pop up SEG, these frames offer a clean, modern, fantastic way to stand out from the competition,” he adds.
Hager说：“我们看到了背光和非背光硅胶边缘图形的增长速度。随着近期价格的下调，大型企业已经能最大化满足终端用户的需求。无论是永久性安装的挤压铝框架，还是大型交易显示屏，又或者是弹出式变频器，每一个能吸引客户的产品都是赢得竞争对手的重要因素。”
Freeman sums it up by saying the market for banners is still on the rise compared to other markets because they are so simple and they are still very affordable. “People will be buying banners until the end of time because they are still the most economical way to get your message out there,” he concludes.
Freeman总结说：“与其他市场相比，横幅市场的发展仍然呈现上升的趋势，因为它们制作简单，而且价格实惠，是打广告最经济的一种方式。”
