Our friend at Boral Australia contacted us to talk about an exciting project they wanted us to create - A custom inflatable cement bag
Boral is the largest manufacturer and supplier of integrated construction materials and building products in Australia. One of Boral’s main products they manufacture, and supply, are bags of cement.
They thought to have a giant inflatable replica would be the perfect advertisement for their business at marketing events. We were really excited to create their vision!
The Inflatable Cement Bag Concept
Boral Australia spoke to us about creating a transportable replica of a bag of cement for their reps to take round their different events, shows and displays.
They didn’t want the inflatable to be too big, so it would be easy to transport, set up and take down. It would mean the Boral reps would no longer have to carry around a heavy bag of cement for advertising props.
Our client had seen a similar inflatable cement bag online and wanted the scaled down version to use for advertising.
In our consultation Boral expressed that they have a number of different prints for their cement bags due to producing different types of cement.
We didn’t want to limit the inflatable to a single design for them so they could use it at all events or if they changed their product design. Therefore it was agreed that the cement bag would be made in a manner that allowed for the outer “skin” to be replaceable, if the client wanted to make new ones in the future.
We couldn’t wait to get started on this project for Boral Australia, we love a challenge!
Special Features Of The Inflatable
We really wanted to make this inflatable cement bag unique and practical for our client, so we had to think outside the box when it came to its features and design.
We needed to take into account the desired shape of the inflatable. Due to the pressurised air, inflatables naturally become rounded. We needed to take measures to ensure the inflatable cement bag had flat sides and corners to make it look like realistic rectangular packaging.
For the surface to be flat our designers decided that we needed to use a dual layer construction so the bag could take shape and accurately represent the real cement bag.
Following the consultation, it was evident that the cement inflatable needed to be compact. The designed mock-up dimensions are quite small, approximately 2m x 1.5m x 0.5m making it easy to transport when deflated.
The Manufacturing Process
Luckily our creative team know from previous experience, the best techniques to ensure an inflatable will stay in shape.
In order to stop the surface from dimpling a dual layer construction is required. Our manufacturers made an inner bladder for the inflatable cement bag.
This is the first part of the dual construction which consists of internal ropes that pull the surface into shape. The second is an external sleeve that goes over the bladder which consists of the printing.
This layer also covers any dimpling or pillowing of the surface which is caused by the internal rope structure that prevents the inflatable form rounding.
Being a smaller unit, the cement bag was made so it was easy to set up and stabilise using tabs at both the top and the bottom to help fix it to the ground when being used at outdoor events.
The Final Product
One of the other major benefits of using the dual layer construction for this project is that the ‘skins’, which is the external layer, can be interchanged.
For Boral Australia this solves the problem of branding changes or switching up the cement they are marketing at different events. At Inflatable Anything, we do everything we can to ensure our client can make the most of their custom designed product.
We made a number of skins for them that replicated their different cement bags, this gave our inflatable design versatility and longevity making it a worthy investment for our client.
We delivered the finished product to Boral Australia, who were really pleased with the outcome; the shape was fun and really grabbed attention.
It was the perfect compact size for their reps to bring with them to marketing events rather than physically carrying a heavy bag of cement. As a showpiece the colours of red and white really draw attention and the smaller details of the replication such as the bag weight and Boral logo really added to the authenticity. Making the inflatable cement bag a realistic inflatable replica of the real product.
If you need an inflatable for your display or an event our team would love to sit down with you and talk through designs and costs. No shapes or sizes are too elaborate for our design team. If you can think it, our manufacturing team will find a way to make it work.
