Wall Murals That Could Save Your Life
We've always felt the quality of our custom wall murals was superior to the others we've seen on the market, with better durability, higher print quality, and a much greater selection of materials for wall graphics and wall murals than are offered elsewhere. However, it wasn't until recently that we started offering printing on a new line of textured vinyl wallcoverings that are formulated with a potentially life-saving Early Warning Effect® so that wall graphics and murals could actually be a safety feature.
Not only are these textured wall mural materials great looking with attractive textures that are better looking than our previous materials, they also can save lives in a fire by giving people extra time to leave a room before the there's smoke or open flames. This Early Warning Effect® formulation works by giving off an odorless and colorless vapor that will set off the alarm on ionization-type smoke detectors when as little as one square foot of material is heated to about 300 degrees - well below the ignition point of most common room materials. For comparison, newspaper has an ignition point of 445 degrees and pine shavings have an ignition point of 500 degrees, and those are two easily combustible materials.
We recently installed a photo wall mural in our office to show off these new materials, and we learned some interesting things about the different textures. For our mural, pictured below, we split the image into 3 panels, and used a different texture for each one. It's hard to see in the photo, but the left panel is printed on the matte textured vinyl wallcovering material, which is the smoothest of all these textures. It has a very slight tooth with a satin finish and offers excellent color depth, but because it's so smooth, it won't hide imperfections in the wall. The middle panel is printed on the artist canvas textured material, and as the name implies, it is textured to look like art canvas. This texture does hide some wall imperfections and has the lowest gloss level, offering virtually no reflection from any angle. This makes it a great option for photo studio backdrops, movie sets, or any environment where you want to eliminate glare off the surface of the print. The panel on the right is printed on the plaster textured vinyl wallcovering, and it turned out to be our favorite of the three. The plaster texture can hide some fairly significant imperfections in the wall, and the texture gives the print a definite artistic look. The color depth is gloss level is similar to the matte material on the left panel, so it's a great choice if you want the maximum contrast in the printed image.
Hopefully, we won't be testing the Early Warning Effect® in our office, but the manufacturer tells us that the extra time given by this feature can vary from only a few seconds, in the case of a fast moving fire, to as much as a half hour or more with fire that is slowly building in intensity. Consumer Reports magazine claims that more than 85% of commercial smoke detectors installed in the U.S. are ionization-type, which utilize a low-level radiation source to generate a beam that can be interrupted by charged particles. To check if your smoke detectors are the type that will benefit from the Early Warning Effect®, take the smoke detector off the wall or ceiling and check the back. There will be a radiation symbol displayed if it's an ionization-type.
For the Early Warning Effect® to work, the wall mural must be on a wall that is exposed to the heat. If the wall mural is on one wall of a room, and a fire starts in a different wall, the smoke from the fire would likely trigger the smoke detector before the wall mural heated to the point where it would cause the smoke detector to go off. However, the possibility that a photo wall mural could save lives is an excellent reason to consider these new materials. The fact that they look great with interesting textures like canvas, plaster or raw silk, and don't cost any more than our previous textured wall mural products, certainly makes them work considering for any commercial or residential wall graphic or mural. Visit our website for more information on these materials, and all our products for wall graphics and wall murals.
Hopefully, we won't be testing the Early Warning Effect® in our office, but the manufacturer tells us that the extra time given by this feature can vary from only a few seconds, in the case of a fast moving fire, to as much as a half hour or more with fire that is slowly building in intensity. Consumer Reports magazine claims that more than 85% of commercial smoke detectors installed in the U.S. are ionization-type, which utilize a low-level radiation source to generate a beam that can be interrupted by charged particles. To check if your smoke detectors are the type that will benefit from the Early Warning Effect®, take the smoke detector off the wall or ceiling and check the back. There will be a radiation symbol displayed if it's an ionization-type.
For the Early Warning Effect® to work, the wall mural must be on a wall that is exposed to the heat. If the wall mural is on one wall of a room, and a fire starts in a different wall, the smoke from the fire would likely trigger the smoke detector before the wall mural heated to the point where it would cause the smoke detector to go off. However, the possibility that a photo wall mural could save lives is an excellent reason to consider these new materials. The fact that they look great with interesting textures like canvas, plaster or raw silk, and don't cost any more than our previous textured wall mural products, certainly makes them work considering for any commercial or residential wall graphic or mural. Visit our website for more information on these materials, and all our products for wall graphics and wall murals.