All About Perforated Film

The creation of perforated film has made the life of outdoor sign manufacturers much easier. Due to the unique characteristics of this material and its good light transmission capacity, it became possible to exhibit large information stories in the windows of retail outlets and offices, decorate shops and advertising and information stands, as well as use stickers in the metro and city public transport.

Perforated film (perforated film) - This is a 3-layer vinyl self-adhesive film with small holes (perforations), evenly made over the entire plane... It is this feature that determines the name of the coating. The product has, as a rule, one-sided transparency due to the white outside and black inside. This type of film has appeared in the advertising industry as an alternative to banners.

This image will become visible exclusively in outdoor lighting, since the film is adhered to the outside of the glass. At the same time, everything that happens in the room will be hidden from prying eyes. In the evening, external light sources are directed at the surface to render the picture on the surface. When illuminated indoors, only the silhouettes of objects in it are visible from the street.

The visual effects obtained with this film are achieved thanks to the black color of the adhesive and the presence of a suitable number of perforations. Strong daylight outside the office, shop or salon makes the holes on the film almost invisible and does not interfere with the perception of the picture.

Material advantages:

• easy installation, the ability to use on curved surfaces;
• the temperature in the room does not increase in bright sunlight, as the film protects against its radiation;
• the image is perfectly visible from the outside and at the same time does not prevent the penetration of sunlight into the interior;
• the colorful image stuns the imagination and arouses interest;
• the film is resistant to negative natural factors and has high strength.

Perforated film can be white or transparent. The adhesive composition is colorless or black. The black color makes the image opaque. The product is available with one-sided and two-sided viewing. The most in demand is punch film with one-sided viewing. Outside, an image is provided, and inside a building or vehicle, the glass looks like tinted glass. Perforated film with two-sided viewing is rarely used: it has poor picture quality. It can be used, for example, in an office separated from a large room by means of a glass partition.

In the first version, polyethylene is simply punctured, which, as a rule, leads to the fact that the perforated film loses its strength and integrity. Therefore, only a very plastic material is punctured: high-pressure polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride stretch films.

Hot perforation is more common. In this case, holes in the material are burned through, melting the edges of which makes it possible to leave the film strength at the original level. In some cases, the film is perforated by means of hot needles with parallel heating of the material.This procedure is performed on specialized perforating devices that support heating. The film can be heated from both sides.

There are many manufacturers on the market.

• Microperforated film Water Based of the Chinese company BGS. The company produces self-adhesive perforated vinyl with high light transmission characteristics. It is used to apply advertising information on the windows of shopping centers, glass of public and private vehicles and other colorless surfaces. Suitable for printing with solvent-based, eco-solvent, UV-curable inks. The product price is reasonable.

• ORAFOL (Germany). ORAFOL is considered one of the world favorites for innovative self-adhesive graphic films and reflective materials. Several lines of Window-Graphics perforated film have been released. The characteristics of these products are pretty good. The cost of products is slightly higher than the cost of similar products from other brands.

• One Way Vision (America). The American company CLEAR FOCUS has created a high-quality perforated film One Way Vision, which transmits sunlight by 50%. When there is weak lighting inside the building, the image is perceived as a whole from the street, and the interior design is not visible from the street. The street is perfectly visible from the premises. The glass seems to be tinted.

Due to its good light transmission properties, perforated film is often used for gluing on the rear and side windows of a car. From the street, the product is a full-fledged advertising medium attracting the attention of pedestrians, with information about the company: name, logo, slogan, phone numbers, mailbox, website.

More recently, this type of tuning has become one of the options for artistic car tinting. In comparison with art films, perforation makes it possible to make the image completely impenetrable. Typically, a film with a picture has only an outline, and the background and key elements are partially darkened. This is the only way not to lose the functionality of the glasses.

Perforated film must be laminated before gluing (preferably cast laminate). This requirement is due to the fact that dampness that gets into the holes during rain, washing or fog significantly lowers the transparency of the perforated film for a long time. Lamination should be done so that the edges of the laminate overlap the edges of the punched foil by 10 mm along the entire contour. This increases the reliability of adhesion at the edges and protects against the ingress of dust and moisture under the perforated film. Lamination should be carried out by the cold method on devices with adjustable pressure and tension.

Perforated film for shop windows, glazed walls or doors of shopping centers, hypermarkets, boutiques is suitable when you do not want to block the flow of light inside and you need to use the available space for advertising. The film can be glued both outside and inside objects, for example, in shopping or business centers.

The glass on which the film will be glued must be well washed and degreased. It is not advisable to use alcohol-based windshield wipers. The gluing takes place from top to bottom. For high-quality work, you need to correctly position the material. For this purpose, adhesive tapes with a low degree of adhesion, such as masking tape, can be used.

The longitudinal strip of the perforated film peeled from the backing is carefully glued to the glass. The scraper, meanwhile, should move along a path from the middle to the edges. Then, smoothly removing the backing, continue gluing the punched film, moving the scraper from top to bottom and alternately overlapping movements to one edge, then to the other.If during the event there were errors and wrinkles or bubbles appeared, the defect must be eliminated immediately. You need to partially peel off the film and re-stick it. It is almost impossible to correct the shortcomings after some time after the completion of the work.

Often you come across windows, the area of ​​which exceeds the maximum width of the roll. Images for these windows are printed on punched film, which consists of several elements. The sticker can be done in 2 ways: end-to-end and overlapping. An overlap looks better because the pattern is seamless.

For overlapping gluing, a dotted line is drawn on the drawing, indicating where to start gluing a new fragment. When gluing end-to-end, the punched film can be cut along the dotted line. The image on the strip behind the dotted line is duplicated on the adjacent fragment of the figure.

For the properties and advantages of perforated film, see the video.