Which perforation ratio suits a work van?

60/40 for most. It keeps a usable view out of the rear doors while holding enough film for the print to read at distance. 50/50 where the driver actively uses the rear glass, particularly on a unit that backs into tight sites after dark. 70/30 only where the glass is effectively a panel and the driver works from mirrors, because the view through it is genuinely poor.

Can people see in at night?

Yes, once the inside is brighter than the outside. The effect runs on that light difference and on nothing else, so an interior light behind the glass makes the sheet transparent from the street. Anything in the vehicle that matters after dark should not be relying on perforated film to keep it out of sight.

Can it go on a rear window with a wiper?

No, and we will decline that one rather than take the work. The blade catches the hole edges and the laminate and destroys the sheet quickly, and there is no grade of the material that survives it. Where the rear glass carries a wiper, the graphic goes onto the surrounding painted panels instead.

How is perforated film washed?

By hand, at low pressure, with a soft mitt and plain detergent. No pressure lance, no wax and no polish: wax and polish fill the perforations and turn the sheet cloudy from both sides, and a lance drives water in behind it. The optically clear laminate over the print is what keeps grit out of the holes, and on a vehicle that lives outside it is not optional.

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Perforated window graphics in Charlotte

Perforated window film is a printed sheet full of holes. From outside, at a distance, the eye reads the printed face as a solid image; from inside, close to the glass, it reads the holes and sees through them. That effect depends on three things holding at once: the ratio of film to open area, a light difference between outside and inside, and glass flat enough and still enough for a perforated sheet to stay bonded to it. Where any of the three fails, the product fails, and two of them are worth settling before the artwork is drawn.

From: Quote on request

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Specification

Coverage: Printed perforated film on rear and rear-quarter glass of vans, truck cabs and company cars. Never on a windshield, never on driver-side glass, never under a wiper.
Materials: Perforated print vinyl at 50/50, 60/40 or 70/30 on a hole grid around a millimeter and a half, finished with an optically clear perforated overlaminate.
Compliance: Kept off the windshield and the windows immediately left and right of the driver, which carry a minimum light transmittance a perforated sheet cannot meet. On rear glass, rear-vision and mirror requirements vary by state and by vehicle, so we look at what the mirrors give the driver before quoting rather than stating what a given operation is obliged to carry.
Expected life: Confirmed at quote
Warranty: Confirmed at quote

What the ratios trade against each other

Perforated film is sold by the split between material and open area: 50/50, 60/40 and 70/30, the first figure being film and the second holes, punched on a grid of perforations around a millimeter and a half across. More open area buys a better view out and a weaker image, because the printed face loses density and pale colors go milky against a bright sky. More film buys a stronger, more saturated graphic and a more restricted view. As a general commercial default, 60/40 sits about where most operators want it. A 50/50 sheet is the choice where drivers genuinely use the rear glass. A 70/30 sheet belongs on glass that is effectively a print panel behind a driver working from mirrors. The trade is not subtle at either end, which is why it is worth seeing a sample of the actual media on actual glass before the ratio is fixed.

The one-way effect is a light effect, and it reverses

The image only reads one way while the outside is brighter than the inside. In daylight that is exactly what happens: sun on the printed face makes the graphic dominant and the holes disappear into it. After dark it inverts. A lit interior turns the sheet into something people outside can see straight through, and at the same time the view out drops away, because a perforated sheet is already passing a fraction of the light clear glass would and there is far less light about to pass. Neither behavior is a defect and both catch operators out, so we put it in front of the customer before the order rather than after: perforated film is a daytime graphic and an after-dark restriction. Any vehicle whose driver relies on the rear glass at night is a candidate for the most open ratio, or for no film on that window at all.

Curved glass, and anything a wiper touches

A perforated sheet only carries adhesive on the land between the holes, so it starts with a fraction of the bond area a solid graphic has, and everything that stresses that bond matters more. Compound-curved glass is the common failure. Conforming the sheet means stretching it, stretching distorts the hole grid and closes holes on the outside of the curve, and the reduced adhesive cannot hold the sheet against its own tension, so it tents and lifts from the edges inward. A wiper is the other one. The blade rides across a perforated surface rather than over it, catches hole edges and the laminate lip, and chews a path through the film quickly. Flat or gently curved glass with no wiper is where this product belongs: rear doors on a cargo van, the rear glass of a truck cab, a fixed rear window on a company car. Pressure washing is out for the same reason, since a lance drives water straight through the perforations and behind the sheet.

Where it is not allowed, and the mirrors question

Perforated film does not go on a windshield or on the windows immediately left and right of the driver. Federal rules set a minimum light transmittance for those openings on a commercial vehicle, and a printed perforated sheet does not come close to meeting it, so no version of this product belongs there whatever a state tint provision might allow. The rear glass is the question that actually comes up. On a cargo van with a bulkhead, or on any box body, there is no rear view to lose and the vehicle is already being driven on its mirrors. On a passenger-bodied company car the rear window is doing real work. Rear-vision and mirror requirements vary by state and by vehicle, and we do not read them on a customer's behalf. What we do is look at what the vehicle's mirrors actually give the driver before quoting: where the rear window is the only rearward view the driver has, we advise against covering it, and where the operator wants it covered anyway that is a conversation about mirrors first.

Window Perf questions

Which perforation ratio suits a work van?: 60/40 for most. It keeps a usable view out of the rear doors while holding enough film for the print to read at distance. 50/50 where the driver actively uses the rear glass, particularly on a unit that backs into tight sites after dark. 70/30 only where the glass is effectively a panel and the driver works from mirrors, because the view through it is genuinely poor.
Can people see in at night?: Yes, once the inside is brighter than the outside. The effect runs on that light difference and on nothing else, so an interior light behind the glass makes the sheet transparent from the street. Anything in the vehicle that matters after dark should not be relying on perforated film to keep it out of sight.
Can it go on a rear window with a wiper?: No, and we will decline that one rather than take the work. The blade catches the hole edges and the laminate and destroys the sheet quickly, and there is no grade of the material that survives it. Where the rear glass carries a wiper, the graphic goes onto the surrounding painted panels instead.
How is perforated film washed?: By hand, at low pressure, with a soft mitt and plain detergent. No pressure lance, no wax and no polish: wax and polish fill the perforations and turn the sheet cloudy from both sides, and a lance drives water in behind it. The optically clear laminate over the print is what keeps grit out of the holes, and on a vehicle that lives outside it is not optional.