April 15^th 2024

Gate 7’s Superior Engineered Vinyls (SEV) series – the inside story

It was two years in development and is now favoured by some of the world’s largest OEMs… Yes, Gate 7’s SEV series – a unique product range of Superior Engineered Vinyls – has been a major success since it was launched back in 2013.

But what was behind the product’s launch – and why is it in such demand? We spoke to Chris McGough, Operations Director at Gate 7, to find out.

What are the origins of the SEV series?

We developed Superior Engineered Vinyls (SEVs) and the matching laminates to provide a five to seven-year outdoor life, no matter what kind of weather conditions our customers’ machines were operating in.

We then upgraded the adhesive to high tack, because although the standard SEV adhesive would be strong after 24 hours, we recognised that some of our customers needed to wash their machines just a few hours after they left the production line. The HT adhesive is aggressive and it is strong enough to withstand power washing within hours of the machine leaving production.

By enhancing the SEV series with the high tack adhesive, we created the SEV HT series.

Talk us through the development process…

We worked with Mactac (which is now part of Avery Dennison) in Belgium to develop the material. Mactac has the R&D capabilities to develop different face films and adhesives for any application.

After Mactac developed the material, we ran it through our on-site testing process, which is conducted to FINAT standards. At the final stage, we sent printed samples to our customer to see how the product would perform in the ‘real world’. Once the customer was happy with the material, it was added to the customer’s own internal standard.

What makes the SEVseries special?

The material was developed specifically for customers who require a long outdoor life decal with an aggressive adhesive. The industry standard High Tack adhesive is somewhere between 16 to 19 N/25mm (the standard FINAT measurement for adhesive strength) after 20 minutes. However, the SEV HT will reach a strength well above 20 N/25mm after 20 minutes, which shows just how powerful it is.

The long life of the material covers the face film and laminates, which means that the decal will not fade for at least five years, and the adhesive strength means the decal will never fall off (as long as our standard application procedure is followed).

In addition, the customer standard will show only a small list of materials which can be used for its decals: anything outside of this list will not be accepted until it has been tested. The list shows Gate 7 SEV HT- no other supplier can use this material.

What does it mean to Gate 7 to offer a product like the SEVseries?

The quality and attributes of the SEV series, combined with the high level of service we offer, has enabled Gate 7 to be the main supplier of decals to some of the largest OEMs of construction equipment in the world.

The development and subsequent roll-out of the SEV series has been a huge achievement for the Gate 7 team!

Interested in finding out more about our SEV series? Looking for support in finding the right industrial decals for your business? Contact us here.