Fire Your Channel Letter Vendor!

Making signage sales has never been more difficult. As a buyer at the retail level, you have every right to expect top quality for each wholesale sign you purchase. What is your current vendor doing to make sure you receive that quality?

Here are three items to check:

LED Brand Selection When you buy an electrical sign using LED illumination, how is your vendor selecting their LED brand? Do they have a favorite “house brand”, or do they simply choose the lowest price? Either of those can spell trouble for you in the long run.

Almost all LEDs light well when they are new. What matters for your customer’s sign is the long term LED performance.

Here is what we do. We’ve set up an independent LED testing lab that operates 24/7/365. We’ve set up LED degradation chambers to assess the performance of each LED brand (see photos below.) We then compare the manufacturer’s claims to the actual performance. Only the brands that show a vibrant long-term illumination performance are selected for use in our channel letter signs.

The “T-Wall” in the DSW LED Testing Lab

If your vendor does not conduct independent LED testing, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise. We’ve found that many well-known LED brands are not necessarily strong long-term performers. Our lab gives us street level insight into “real world” LED performance. No other signage manufacturer offers you that service.

Some of our LED Degradation Chambers

UL Listed Components

Second, does your current vendor insist on using only UL listed components in your sign? If not, they can use any component– regardless of the quality level. Often, that component is chosen only on the basis of cost.

As a vendor of wholesale channel letters, we use only UL listed components which are an essential ingredient for manufacturing a long lasting, rugged sign. Add in our streamlined and lean manufacturing processes, and the result is a high quality, long lasting channel letter set.

Standardized Processes

Last, does your current vendor use standardized manufacturing processes? What “standardized processes” means is that each manufacturing task is performed in the same quality-oriented manner each time.

For example, take the task of wire crimping. A wire can be crimped by any tool that squeezes. If someone incorrectly uses a standard crimper (or uses any other tool) to crimp a wire, that can result in an incomplete crimp or a compromised splice.

Standard Wire Crimper – Not for standardized process (open to operator error)

What happens then? An unfavorable chain reaction. A poor splice can lead to bad wiring. Bad wiring can then result in one or more of your channel letters going out. Then, you have to spend time in the field tracking down and fixing the issue. As you know, a letter set has many electrical connections – it takes only one poor connection to “bring down the whole ship.”

Unidirectional Ratchet Type Crimper – Standardized Process Tool

Here, we always use standardized tools for each task. For wire crimping, we use a unidirectional ratchet type crimper that is marked on the crimping side. The marked side is always used to make the splice. No variance is permitted. The ratchet type crimper we use ensures that the proper force is consistently applied to each and every crimp. The design of this tool will not allow over or under crimping. This consistently results in a complete, uniform crimp, each and every time. That is a standardized manufacturing process.

Is your wholesale signage vendor doing these things for you? Why not insist on this level of quality control?

In today’s tough signage sales market, your vendor of wholesale channel letters (and any other wholesale sign) should have a strict level of quality control. If you are not receiving it, you are opening yourself up to future problems, which leads to “go backs” and, worst of all, fewer referrals.