The Latex printer has tremendous versatility.
It prints on a whole range of different materials; canvases, banners, fabrics, decals, vehicle wraps.
But one of the big things that we're involved in these days is home décor, or digital décor.
And that encompasses wallcoverings, it encompasses canvases, and it can encompass some fabrics.
Digital décor kind of revolves around our software, called WallArt.
The WallArt software is a magnificent piece of software that vertically integrates all
of these different categories into a fully functional standalone, cloud-based program.
We'll discuss that in another video.
What I want to do is cover some of the different categories of wallcoverings; just the different
types of wallcoverings, so you have some kind of an idea of what they are.
And then we'll address each one in a separate video,
and look at the characteristics, what it's for, why people use it,
and then things you kind of have to need to know about those types of wallcoverings.
So, first, probably the most common wallcovering would be a commercial grade of wallcovering
that we refer to as PVC wallcovering.
And PVC wallcovering is wallcovering like I have here, which is a DreamScape matte.
Now, this is a matte finish on the surface.
This would be used as a commercial paste-up wallcovering.
And this is what is most widely used in the United States for commercial applications.
Here's another version of it.
And this is made by Ultraflex.
It's called Bali Hai.
This has a texture to it.
So, it has a textured wallcovering, and then the back of it, you notice, is waffle pattern.
The waffle pattern is to hide imperfections in the wall.
And again, this is a type 2 commercial wallcovering.
And we'll talk a little more about type 2 when I go into PVC wallcoverings in depth.
This, this is more of a temporary wallcovering, although it can certainly be permanent.
So, this Avery wall film is sort of a heavy weight PVC wall film.
And this is a linered film, so this is almost like a heavy decal.
It has a lot of memory to it, to go up on a wall.
Usually, you're going to have an adhesive that's not too strong.
The idea is that you could put this as a big mural, and it could be up for maybe six months,
and then when you're done you can take it down and put something else up,
and it doesn't affect the wall.
And there are considerations and things to know about this kind of material.
But this is something that people use all the time for murals.
It's more of like a repositionable or a temporary wallcovering.
Then you have what are called nonwovens.
And this is an example of a nonwoven.
Nonwovens aren't as big in the United States, but they're huge in Europe.
And increasingly, there's a larger and larger presence here.
This is an Ahlstrom product.
Ahlstrom is really big in the nonwoven market.
They usually have a nice, matte finish.
They come in all kinds of different textures on the surface.
And they're also making versions now that are either commercial paste-up, where you
use a traditional wallcovering paste, or versions that have a self-adhesive built right on,
and all you do is spray water onto it, get it wet,
and you can apply it directly to the wall.
And then more importantly, when you want to take it down, you just get it nice and wet
and it peels right back off the wall again.
Again, this is a nonwoven by Ahlstrom.
It is a PVC-free product.
There has no PVC in this.
And this is a paper-based latex; prints very, very well on papers.
So, another category is traditional wallcoverings with your waffle pattern,
but this is a PVC-free product.
So, this is made by DreamScape.
It's called Terralon.
PVC-free is increasingly become very popular in the market, because a lot of mandates for
environmental awareness would prefer not to use PVC products.
These PVC-free wallcoverings perform and have all the commercial viability of a PVC product,
but they're PVC, PVC-free.
And again, being paper-based, latex prints very well on paper-based materials,
especially the PVC papers.
This is a new product.
This is very important for us.
This is a new HP material that we've been developing.
This is a very big investment in HP into wallcovering décor.
This is a PVC-free product which I think is ideal.
I think that's a very interesting proposition in the marketplace.
It's got a commercial, waffle back.
So, you use this for commercial applications.
And here's the clincher: it is type 2 certified, with no lamination whatsoever.
So, this is a very innovative product that takes advantage of the scratch-resistance
and scuff-resistance and stain-resistance of our new Latex printers, with a media that's
perfectly paired to complement our environmental footprint with a PVC-free wallpaper.
And this is new from HP.
It's just been released.
And then just as sort of an unusual one, this Visual Magnetics.
Visual Magnetics specializes in magnetic wall systems.
So, in this case, it has an iron-based film.
And then you put the magnetic system on the wall itself.
And then this is attracted to it.
This is just sort of another way to print on magnetic-based wall systems.
I wanted to give you that overview just to give you an understanding of how many different
types of wallcoverings there are.
And then each on has its own characteristics.
So, we're going to do a separate little video on each one.
And then what to look for and what to be aware of to help you be a little better at wallcovering.
To understand the market, and understand the differences in the different type of applications