ORAFOL continues to be the hot brand in vinyl and media this summer season. Fleet graphics, wayfinding upgrades, window decals, and more have the factory working and delivering overtime. In fact, July 2020 ORACAL 651 deliveries set a single month record for the most 651 product ever shipped from ORAFOL USA.
ORACAL Series 651 has become the industry standard for high performance calendered films. Only 2.5 mils thick, ORACAL 651 offers six-year outdoor durability, flexibility, thermal print compatibility, and is available in a wide variety of colors. This high-quality vinyl is a great choice for moderately complex jobs that don't require the extra conformability provided by ORACAL's cast vinyl products.
What is calendered vinyl anyway?
Calendered vinyl is an intermediate grade of print and lettering media created by combining PVC with proprietary additives to create more supple, malleable, and UV resistant vinyl film. This formulation is mixed and extruded into large strips of material that are warmed and rolled through a series of industrial sized high-pressure rollers that spread and mold the material into a thin sheet with uniform surface finish and consistent thickness. This process is similar to the process of rolling out pizza dough with a rolling pin - but scaled to a massive, highly toleranced manufacturing operation.
Once the clear, solvent based permanent adhesive and backing paper are applied, the material is ready to cut, box, and ship to customers.
ORAFOL manufactures 60 different colors of 651, plus transparent, matte white and matte black.
ORAFOL 651 vinyl is arguably the most popular vinyl film used worldwide. You see 651 on everything from wall art, model car and aircraft graphics, home craft projects, and vehicle fleet graphics, to lettering for restaurant and business windows, or adhered to other rigid substrates for general signs and advertising projects.
"ORAFOL 651 vinyl is arguably the most popular vinyl film used worldwide."
Oracal 651 cuts exceptionally well on Summa roll-fed cutters, and weeding is a breeze. Always make sure your drag knife and tangential knife blades are sharp by using only genuine Summa blades. They are crafted from Tungsten Carbide which stays sharper and lasts 20x longer than cheaper steel cutting blades. Cheaper blades may seem cost-effective, but their lack of quality and durability will make them way more expensive over the long – run.
Application tapes recommended for ORACAL 651 include ORATAPE MT80P gridded tape, MT72 semi-transparent application tape, or ORATAPE MT95 transparent application tape.
Here are a couple more helpful ORACAL resources to familiarize yourself with the available color palette and review some best practices for graphic installations using Oracal 651.
You can view ORAFOL’s ORACAL 651 page with online color palette here.
And below is a short video highlighting several tricks and tips for applying surface graphics with application tape using the Hinge Install Method.