Thirty-five questions we are actually asked.

Start from the standard your project is inspected against, not from the brightest film on the page. A municipal car park that references Type I does not benefit from Type XI — it costs three times as much and fails nothing that Type I would pass. Send the clause and we will name one grade.

No. Above roughly 700 RA the limiting factor stops being the film and becomes the sign's maintenance: dirt, surface damage and edge sealing dominate. On a corridor that is never cleaned, a Type VIII sealed properly outperforms a Type XI that is not.

Glass bead reflects over a wider cone and tolerates contamination; prismatic returns far more light but only within a narrow cone and degrades faster if water gets behind it. Urban signage with short viewing distances is well served by bead. High-speed approaches need prismatic.

You can, but the inspection will measure the weakest element. A Type IV background with Type I legend fails as a Type I sign. Mixing is common in cost-engineered designs — just make sure the specification states which element sets the class.

Wet-night visibility is a package, not a film. It needs wide-angle prismatic film, correct sign orientation and, above 80 km/h, external lighting or a fluorescent backing. We will tell you when the film alone will not solve it.

It drops — typically 20–35% by year five in a temperate climate, more in high-UV regions. The warranty covers a floor value, not the original. Ask for the retained-value clause, not just the warranty length.

No. EN 12899-1 uses a different geometry and different minimum values, and a notified body will not accept an ASTM report as evidence of CE conformity. The film is usually the same; the paperwork is not.

Two-inch alternating red and white conspicuity marking with a minimum 250 RA, applied to specified surfaces of heavy vehicles. It is self-certified in the US — there is no DOT certificate, which is why some suppliers claim one.

Check the scope line, not the logo. Our IATF 16949 certificate covers the licence-plate line only; ISO 9001 covers both plants. If a scope does not include your product, the certificate is decoration.

Yes, for EN 12899-1 products under our notified body. It is a legal document with our name on it, so it is issued per product family and per factory, not per order.

A test report records what a laboratory measured on a sample. A certificate is issued against a scheme, has a validity window, and is what a tender asks for. We supply both and label them so they are not confused.

A4 swatches from stock colours ship in three working days, freight collect. Custom colour or adhesive is twelve to eighteen days because it needs a trial coating run.

It should be, and we make that verifiable: every sample carries the lot number of the run it came from, and reorders are measured against the approved first article rather than a fresh opinion.

Stock swatches are free; you pay the freight. Custom samples are charged at the trial-run cost and credited against the first order above 5,000 m².

One roll for stock items — 50 m of 1.22 m film. Private label starts at 2,000 m² per SKU, Pantone colour at 5,000 m².

Yes, and most first orders do. The limit is pallet arithmetic rather than policy: a 20 ft container holds ten pallets, and a part pallet costs the same to ship as a full one.

Grade, width, roll length, adhesive, liner and quantity. Width changes the price more than people expect, because slitting loss is charged to somebody and it is usually the buyer.

All three. FOB Ningbo is the default; DDP is available to 14 countries where we already have a customs broker. We will not quote DDP somewhere we cannot clear.

Yes, above 20,000 m² per year, in a bonded area with monthly call-offs. Storage beyond 90 days is charged.

21–28 days for standard grades after approval, 35 days for custom adhesive, and 45 days in the pre-Chinese-New-Year window when every line in the industry is full.

Rolls on edge, moisture-barrier bag, 5 g desiccant per roll, five-ply carton, four-point strapping. Film is damaged by compression and humidity, in that order.

CIF, so we control the loading and you get a clean bill of lading from a carrier we have used before. Once volumes are stable, FOB with your own forwarder is cheaper.

Yes. Send the account number and the samples leave on the next working day, with the tracking number in the same email as the packing list.

30% deposit and 70% against the bill of lading for new customers. After four clean shipments, 30/70 against documents, and net 30 for framework contracts above 40,000 m² per year.

USD, EUR and CNY. EUR pricing is fixed quarterly; USD moves with the rate and is confirmed on the proforma.

Yes, at sight and confirmed, but the document set has to be agreed before production. L/C amendments after shipment cost more than the credit saves.

15 °C substrate and 10 °C air, minimum. Below that the adhesive never develops initial tack — it looks bonded and lifts within a week. This is the single most common installation failure.

Dry for anything under 0.5 m², wet above that. On a 1.5 m panel there is no third option; without an air-release channel, dry application traps bubbles.

Two passes with a 4 kg roller at walking pace, overlapping by half. One fast pass is the second most common failure after temperature.

Yes, with a heat-softened conforming pass and an anti-rivet adhesive. Expect a 30–40% life reduction at the rivet head regardless — design the panel so the legend avoids rivet lines.

24 hours at 20 °C, 48 hours below 15 °C. Adhesive strength builds over time; hanging a sign immediately is how edges lift in transit.

Retained RA above a stated floor, adhesion failure and delamination, for the period on the data sheet. It does not cover installation error, chemical exposure or damage — and the exclusions are written on the same page as the term.

Send the lot number, photos and the installation record. We pull the retained sample from that run, test it, and compare. Most disputes resolve on the lot number alone; the ones that do not are usually installation.

For confirmed material faults above 500 m², yes, capped at the material value. Below that the administrative cost exceeds the claim and we will say so rather than pretend otherwise.

The warranty follows the lot, not the invoice. If the lot number is genuine we will investigate it — though we will also ask how it was stored, because two summers in a metal container is not a manufacturing defect.