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Styrene vs Sintra, what's the difference?

Steenland

Old Member
What Boudica said.

I use the 16-lb, two-part Command Strips all the time for hanging temporary exhibit panels mounted on gatorfoam or PVC and they work perfectly. They stay up as long as you need them to, and remove cleanly when it’s time to take them down.

I get them in bulk on Amazon, 120 pairs for $66.

Also available at Sam’s in packages of 27 pairs for $15.
 
Sintra is a name brand and not a product. it was one of the first manufacturers to make PVC so a lot of people call it that but it's not the product. I think you mean the difference between PVC and Styrene.

Styrene is a type of polystyrene, while PVC Sintra is made from expanded PVC. Styrene is generally more brittle and less impact resistant than PVC Sintra. PVC Sintra is more water resistant and has better dimensional stability than Styrene.

Different pallets of this stuff weekly. Mainly for indoor signage and posters.
.020" -.030" Styrene in dead white for two sided prints, .040", .060" thicknesses as well
1,2,3,4.5,6,10,12,19 & 25mm PVC, with the most common being 3mm & 6mm

If you have trouble with the corners cracking when they fall, you can round the corners and router again to help alleviate this. But you are correct PVC is very fragile and not crack easily when dropped.

Hope this helps.
 

VizualVoice

I just learned how to change my title status
Sintra is a name brand and not a product. it was one of the first manufacturers to make PVC so a lot of people call it that but it's not the product. I think you mean the difference between PVC and Styrene.

Styrene is a type of polystyrene, while PVC Sintra is made from expanded PVC. Styrene is generally more brittle and less impact resistant than PVC Sintra. PVC Sintra is more water resistant and has better dimensional stability than Styrene.

Different pallets of this stuff weekly. Mainly for indoor signage and posters.
.020" -.030" Styrene in dead white for two sided prints, .040", .060" thicknesses as well
1,2,3,4.5,6,10,12,19 & 25mm PVC, with the most common being 3mm & 6mm

If you have trouble with the corners cracking when they fall, you can round the corners and router again to help alleviate this. But you are correct PVC is very fragile and not crack easily when dropped.

Hope this helps.
If I'm reading this correctly, really the only advantage styrene has over PVC is price. Is that correct?
 

ikarasu

Active Member
We use styrene a lot - the oil company here uses them for hang tags and other things, so we print thousands of sheets.

It's cheap.... And an upgrade from paper... But that's pretty much it. One parking garage uses styrene for their signs... And they're all cracked and shit. Coroplast would work better than styrene.... He'll, plain vinyl would work better than styrene.

They use styrene because they do a lot of pillar wraps and it conforms easily.... But I don't think I've seen one sign last a year without having a piece of it ripped off... They don't care because it's just a parking garage, but it looks so tacky imo.


I use styrene a lot for templating acrylic letters. It's so cheap, you can hang it with a few pieces of painters tape... And it's ridgid and easy to level. And durable enough to not rip when messing with it. It's way better than using paper.
 

johnnysigns

New Member
Styrene can yellow long term Vs PVC. We find a lot of retailers do not want PVC anymore because they want to appear 'greener' in terms of waste and recyclability. PVC was always a good alternative to a client that wanted acrylic, but didn't have the budget for it for store fixtures and POP stuff.
 

gnubler

Active Member
If you have trouble with the corners cracking when they fall, you can round the corners and router again to help alleviate this. But you are correct PVC is very fragile and not crack easily when dropped.
I've damaged PVC myself trying to round the corners with my manual corner rounder press - it cracks and disintegrates if you're not careful.
 

gnubler

Active Member
I see B2Sign has an "indoor banner" product that is described as "14mil Double White Popup"
Is that the same as retractable banner material?
 

gnubler

Active Member
I'm researching various materials because this project is a traveling exhibit. Now that the customer has seen the rigid PVC signs they're thinking they may want something a bit more portable/flexible for travel or shipping. So I'm thinking maybe an indoor banner material hanging from a metal banner hanger to keep it taut. I've done that for canvas prints before.
 
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