Frequently Asked Questions

Your Questions, Answered!

Materialised supplies wholesale trade clients and interior designers in Australasia with high performance fabric, wall covering and acoustic products. Whole room solutions, fit for purpose, so that your design projects stand the test of time. Since our launch in 1980, there have been a few frequently asked questions along the way!

Here we highlight General Questions / Fabric / Wall Covering / Printing – Fabric & Wall Covering and Acoustics with answers to guide you…

General Questions

No, all Materialised sales are to trade / wholesale / contract customers.

Consumers are welcome to browse our website for ideas to send to upholsters / manufacturers / interior designers.

If you’re not a trade customer, please visit our wallpaper retailer or fabric retailer pages.

Alternatively, have your upholsterer or interior designer contact us with information about your project and they will be able to order for you.

We have Design Studios in the major capital cities in Australia and New Zealand as well as representation in Singapore and Malaysia. We welcome all trade visitors to these showrooms. Please refer to the contact pages of our website to find the closest office and to arrange a suitable time to visit.

Please sign up for a trade account to be able to order samples.

For assistance with sampling, please contact your Project Manager or make an appointment at one of our Design Studios so that we can learn more about your project and assist you with your selection.

For standard range products and fabric it is 1 metre. Some of our wall covering is sold by the roll.

Custom print designs are quoted based on quantity and design requirements. As we print digitally the minimum is the same but design fees are costed in to the overall project.

Custom weaves will involve minimums and these will vary greatly depending on the style.

Please contact us to discuss your requirements.

Our pricing is by linear metre.

It ships from Sydney, Australia.

Cut pricing is applied for orders from the minimum 1 metre to 19.9 metres.

Roll pricing is applied for any order over 20 metres.

You may order whatever meterage you require.

This varies depending on the goods ordered. Please be aware in these Covid times there can be unforeseen delays with both mills and freight however, we pride ourselves on excellent customer service and endeavour to keep you informed at all stages of your order.

Printed fabrics (narrow width) are usually sent within 7 days.
Printed fabrics (wide width) usually within 10 days.
Cuts, wovens, vinyls, cubicle screens and sheers are usually sent in 3 days (if in stock) Otherwise, approximate dates are quoted on order confirmation.
Indent goods coming from overseas a standard 2-3 weeks VIA AIR (if in stock) Otherwise quoted at the time of order.

Commercial Grade Fabric

There is no best or worst – just appropriate and inappropriate. We have concentrated on polyester for the following reasons:
Polyester has good resistance to UV exposure.
It is stable for draperies etc.
It can be dye sublimation printed.
Has inherent flame retardation.
Offers excellent abrasion resistance.
Launders easily and economically.
Resists creasing.
Feels wonderful.

We offer an incredible range of high-performance, base substrates for commercial fabric and wall covering.

We refer to the fabric bases that we print onto as BASE CLOTHS. You can see the range here. These are sourced from the world’s finest mills and proudly, wherever possible, from Australia.

Each fabric has passed an array of industry compliant commercial grade tests for strength, washing, abrasion and flammability. Quality fabric extends the life of your project by years, reducing waste and therefore adding long term value for your client.

We also digitally print print onto vinyl wall covering BASE SUBSTRATES. You can view the range here. All substrates are flame retardant and recommended for commercial applications.

Under the Australian Building Codes most public spaces are now required to have fabrics that comply with the flame retardancy requirements.

Other suggested areas may include:

Class A buildings.
Licensed premises.
Public halls & theatres.
Where ‘Local Authorities’ deem it necessary.
Public and private hospitals.
Nursing homes without sprinklers.
Hotels, motels and public accommodation buildings like hostels.

Materialised range of fabrics carry certification to Australian and New Zealand test AS1530 Available on request.

Topical flame retardant is where a chemical treatment is applied to a fabric. When that treatment is exposed to flame a gas is emitted and oxygen precluded, causing the flame to be extinguished. As this is a topical treatment it can be subject to deterioration over time, and also the emitted gas is usually fairly toxic.

Inherent flame retardant is where the fibre itself contains the flame inhibitor. The latter is a more permanent for the life of the fabric and cannot wash or wear off.

All our polyester base cloths are permanently flame retardant / flame-resistant / fire retardant (as opposed to a treated, topical flame retardant fabric) This is due to the structure of the fibre being inherently flame retardant.

You may see the composition of some of our fabrics consisting of part polyester and part FR polyester. So what is the difference?

FR polyester meets an even higher performance requirement sometimes necessary for public spaces or different building codes such as in New Zealand. This is why you might see products like Midnight and Midnight FR – the difference being that Midnight is 100% post-consumer recycled polyester and has a flammability index of 15; whereas Midnight FR contains 42% FR polyester / 58% polyester and has a flammability rating of 1.

There are two well-known test methods assessing the abrasion-resistant of upholstery fabrics – Martindale and Wyzenbeek. See both tests in action.

The minimum order for both wovens, vinyls and prints is 1 metre.

The size of rolls supplied depends on roll size availability of stock and also weight of the goods.

For OH&S reasons the handling limit by couriers is approximately 25 kgs. For this reason:

Wovens, vinyls and narrow width prints are usually supplied not larger than 30- 40 metres.
Drapery narrow width 40-50 metres.
Sheers and cubicle screens up to 50 metres.
Wide width bed fabrics approx. 40 metres.

Some of our fabrics are printed using the dye sublimation method to print onto various fabric base cloths in Sydney, Australia, as well as digital direct UV printing onto roller blind fabric.

As well as our printed fabrics we have a large range of decorative fabrics from wide width sheers, to faux leather.

Materialised also proudly distribute fabric for companies such as Crypton and Momentum Textiles & Wallcovering.

The standard way for our patterns to be printed is up the roll, but you can specify them to be railroaded.

The term RAILROADED or railroading refers to a fabric with a pattern or print that is designed to run across the roll, from selvage to selvage (the selvage is the finished edge on the width of the fabric.)

The specification depends on the design and application.

Note that we can also print onto wide width fabric and wide width railroaded prints are perfect for drapery.

Commercial Grade Wall Covering

Yes we have an amazing range of commercial wall covering solutions that you can view here.

Yes, we print on demand onto a range of commercial wall covering substrates at our manufacturing facility in Sydney NSW.

We also distribute readymade wall covering and are exclusive distributors for Momentum Textiles & Wallcovering.

We print onto a number of commercial vinyl wall covering base substrates.

Wallpaper 10 metre rolls.

Printed wall vinyl up to 25 metres.

All other wall vinyls 27.4 metres.

Cut lengths can also be ordered.

There are three types of commercial grade wall covering on the market. The classification of type 1, 2 and 3 is based on the weight / linear yard, which will drive the suitability of a wall covering in a specific environment. You can read more about this topic on the blog.

We can provide a list of recommended local installers for wall covering quantity as they are the experts on measuring, calculating and providing the supply/installation rate.

Commercial Wall Murals

For our Commerical Wall Murals we have a selection of high-performing wall covering substrates.

Click here to find out more.

Our in-house murals are sold as fixed sets. This means that if a mural is a set of three or four panels, it must be sold as a complete set. Individual panels are not sold separately.

All mural sets include 10cm bleed at the top and bottom; 1cm bleed on the sides.

They are available in two heights: 2.7m and 3.3m.

They are sold at a fixed price based on the selected wall covering substrate.

Most murals are designed to repeat horizontally, meaning the sets can keep continuing across wider walls. A small number of

Yes, all our murals are printed with bleed.

We set up all our murals with a standard of 1cm on either side of the width, and a 10cm bleed on both the top and bottom of each panel.

Yes, each mural product page houses a downloadable specification sheet. These sheets include:

Panel layout for both heights
Number of panels in the set
Measurements
Whether the design repeats or is placement based

1-2 weeks + delivery once the mural has been approved and signed off for production.

Digital Printing Process – Fabric & Wall Covering

Materialised digital printing wall covering Australia

We use the dye sublimation method of printing commercial fabric at Materialised, and direct-to-substrate UV digital printing for our commercial wall covering and roller blinds.

With both types of printing we house the very latest, cutting-edge technology, capable of fast, economical, environmentally-friendly printing, as well as wide width options for both.

This is how we print designs onto our high-performance fabric base cloths. Disperse dyes are printed onto a prepared tissue, which in turn is transferred by heat and pressure into the fabric.

There are many benefits:

The fabric onto which we print can be as varied as robust waterproof upholstery, to a light reduction drapery, through to a fine sheer.
The dye sublimation process enables a more rapid response as we have the design or plain in stock – awaiting the choice of fabric.
Dye sublimation doesn’t adversely affect the performance of the fabric (flame retardant, waterproof finish, etc).
Not committing the stock design to fabric until required gives us lightness afoot to respond rapidly to demand. It reduces the stock holding costs which in turn keeps the price lower.

Our process of printing relies on the fabric substrates into which we are transferring. This only works satisfactorily on polyester. We have an excellent range of fabric base cloths that are suitable with an amazing diversity of look and handle.

For the transfer paper printing for dye sublimation (fabrics) we use FSC Certified paper and water-based, OEKO-TEX PASSPORT certified inks.

Our wall covering and roller blinds are printed directly on a digital UV printer. Direct UV printing is all about lean processes and efficiency.

Our eco-friendly direct-to-substrate digital printer uses solvent-free,VOC-free, GREENGUARD Gold certified inks.

Endeavouring to tread lightly on our one and only planet is at the core of Materialised’s philosophy and practices. We see the sustainability questions as not being just about which fibre is used. The most extravagant act, in a sustainability sense, is to make a poor decision that requires premature replacement.

Read our sustainability statement and understand our practices by visiting our sustainability page.

Acoustic Products

Yes we offer a range of acoustic curtain fabric for window furnishings and blinds as well as acoustic art and pinboards. You can find an overview of these acoustic solutions here.

Factors that influence the acoustic properties of fabric include its density and construction, but without testing, it’s hard to determine how a fabric will perform.

Some fabrics may work well, while others might not, and many suppliers don’t test their products due to the high cost.

The only way to accurately confirm whether a specific fabric construction is effective, like ours, is having the NRC test.

NRC stands for Noise Reduction Coefficient. The NRC rating relates to the absorption effectiveness of the material, and is calculated by averaging how absorptive a material is at 4 different frequencies. You can read more about this here.

Yes! Watch this video. You won’t believe what you (don’t) hear!

Woven with a ribbon-shaped Trevira CS yarn, this filament is the key to the sound absorption of acoustic sheers, managing the flow of sound waves repeatedly passing through and bouncing off a reflective surface. This changes the tone, becoming muffled, and results in the reduction of sound levels.

Trevira CS yarn can be woven into dense, textured fabrics. The density and structure of the fibres create numerous small gaps and pores within the material, which helps trap and absorb sound waves, reducing reverberation and echo in a room. This is particularly important in spaces like offices, theatres, or auditoriums, where controlling sound reflection is essential.

The texture and weave of fabrics made from Trevira CS yarn create a non-reflective surface, helping scatter sound waves instead of reflecting them directly. This improves sound diffusion and makes spaces more acoustically balanced.

While thinner materials often absorb high-frequency sounds, thicker Trevira CS-based fabrics can absorb a wider range of frequencies, including low-frequency sounds, which are harder to control. This makes Trevira CS fabrics suitable for a broader range of acoustic treatments, from curtains to wall panels.

Yes! Watch this video. You won’t believe what you (don’t) hear.

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