Annual UV Resistance Testing Underway
Published Monday, April 17, 2017
We test all of the products we sell on GardenCenterMarketing.com regularly. We started UV Resistance Testing on March 24, 2017.
The material signs are printed on is important, but the ink or toner and how it is applied is what really drives UV resistance. We are currently testing:
- Xerox® Performance Never Tear® for bench cards and hang tags
- Full sheet Xerox® Revolution Never Tear®
- Coroplast Signs
- Vinyl Banners
- Mesh Banners
- Pot Labels
As the season progresses, we remove items from testing and document how many days they were tested.
Full Sun
Our testing area is facing southwest, so they get FULL SUN the better part of the day here in central North Carolina, so it's a fairly rigorous test.
Banners
The coroplast and vinyl banners typically last 2-4 years so we typically take pictures of them every 6 months to document their durabilty. We will also pull one of the Aloe and one of the Clematis signs down a year after a year or 18 months to have one our customers can 'touch and feel' to see how they hold up.
Bench Cards
The bench cards fade much faster than the banners. We printed multiple copies of the bench cards and our Rainbow testing sheet on both the Xerox 660 and Xerox 6700 to document how the two printers compare. The first three columns of cards are from the 6600 and the next 3 are from the 6700. We will remove the first row of cards after 30 days, the second row after 60 days, and the remaining rows at 90, 120, 150 and 180 days.
The last two rows of rainbow testinng sheets are printed on the new Xerox Revolution full sheet never tear. We are testing it on both the 6600 and 6700.
We will provide an update later in the year.