By Sarah Davis, Blue Sky Digital Printing

We have had a lot of people ask us “Which product performs better, the 7 oz. or the 13 oz.?” One might say because the 13 oz. is heavier, it must be stronger, right? Not necessarily. There are three different pieces to the vinyl. The top layer is the white sheet which is the weight of the vinyl and that is what is printed on; the center is the netting that gives the tensile strength; and the back of the vinyl is either the black or white backing. The ounce of the vinyl doesn’t matter; what makes vinyl strong is the tensile strength. The difference between the two is that the top layer of the 13 oz. is thicker than the 7oz., which only makes the material heavier and harder to stretch.

We have interviewed several installers and here is what they have to say: “I like the 7 oz. because it is lighter and a lot easier to install in general. It is easier to work out the wrinkles as well. Installing the 13 oz. is more difficult in the Winter because the material is colder, which makes the vinyl become brittle and stiff and does not have any stretch to it.” To put it in comparison, installing a 7 oz.-14’ x 48’ vinyl at 40 lbs. is much easier than installing a 13 oz. 14’ x 48’ vinyl at 70 lbs.

98% of all our production is printed on 7 oz. It is becoming more difficult to find good material at a reasonable price and 13 oz. vinyl has become obsolete.

Click on the video below to view a ripping demonstration between the standard 13 oz. material made in China verses the standard 7 oz. Ultraflex material made in South Korea. The guys in the shop were asked to cut a small slit in each of the vinyls and try to tear it. As you can see the 13 oz. was in pieces whereas the 7 oz. was a lot more difficult to tear apart. This was a shock to a lot of us, but our installers warned us.

https://youtu.be/nI2u849fd-k

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