With 20 years of people in the vinyl industry arguing about the benefits of Cast vs Calendered vinyl films, let just clear some things up.  To speak of cast or calendered vinyl means identifying the manufacturing process used to create the film. And with each process, comes positives and drawbacks to the materials and the end consumer.

Cast vinyl films are are formed by taking a liquid PVC, while a solvent is suspended in the mixture, and pouring into a sheet.  The mixture is then heated and the solvent is dried out of the mixture, leaving a sheet of cast vinyl film to cool.  These films have very little memory and are better films for us to use on a surface that has curves or bends.  Mainly we like these films for vehicle wraps, bus wraps, boat graphics, and things of that nature.  These films are generally thinner, and don't retain a memory, but with that comes a much higher price.

Calendered vinyl films are formed from an older process of taking the dough-like PVC and rolling it through calendered rolls that gradually form the material to the desired thickness, thus the name calendered vinyl.  This process generally results in a film that retains a virtual memory of it's original shape.  Thus, we use it for signage and flat applications, mainly because of the difficulty installing a film that retains a memory.  These films are generally cheaper than cast films, so using them for short term applications is a common trend in the vinyl industry.

Overall, the battle between cast and calendered will continue on.  But a full service sign and graphics shop, like we are here at Adnormous, will carry both calendered and cast vinyl films to make sure that the customer gets the product that best suits their needs.

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