In the world of wide-format printing, there’s almost no limit to what can be printed, wrapped, mounted … you name it. So, when a high school superintendent approached Logan Merz of Merz Ink in Auburn, NE, to reupholster the padded mats that line the gymnasium wall, Merz turned to LexJet for a solution.

Merz decided on HEYtex 15 oz TopazDS as the ideal scrim banner to not only produce great images of the school’s Eagles mascot, but it could also stand up to the wear-and-tear the mats would endure during basketball games.

In his Flexi RIP software, Merz set up each of the seven 24-inch panels with an 8-inch bleed. “That gave us enough to wrap around and still stay in line with the next panel,” he says. “Then we just stapled them to the boards … pretty straight forward.”

The heavier vinyl with a smooth matte surface was the ideal finish to wrap around the plywood and foam padding. “It definitely had to be a durable product,” Merz says. “The kids will be running into it all the time, so we needed something that would be tough and hold up to a lot of abuse. I’ve never printed on a banner that heavy, but we were able to just upholster it around the old mats.”

HEYtex 15 oz TopazDS is compatible with both latex and solvent printers; and Merz had purchased an HP Latex 330 a few years ago when he and his wife, Emilie, took over the company, which at the time, only offered screen printing.

“I really wanted to get into wide-format printing,” Merz says. “So we went from printing t-shirts to printing all kinds of wide format.” His shop now specializes in car wraps, banners, signs, logo work and more. “Since we took over ownership four years ago, we’ve almost doubled our business. The latex printer made up a significant part of that,” he says.