Corflute is fluted polypropylene board: light, waterproof and cheap enough to treat as temporary. We print it on 3mm or 5mm stock at Ravenhall and fit the eyelets before it leaves. Corflute signs start from $20, with no minimum order.
Corflute is a fluted polypropylene board. Two thin plastic skins with hollow ribs, or flutes, running between them, which is where the stiffness and the very low weight come from. It behaves like plastic cardboard. Water does nothing to it, the ink is UV-cured onto the surface, and a full 2400 × 1200 mm sheet is light enough for one person to carry.
Made by Melbourne Trade Signs, a large-format print and signage company on Unit 6/43 Orbis Drive, Ravenhall VIC 3023, in Melbourne’s west. Printed in-house and installed Australia-wide. Phone 0415 743 691.
People pick it because it is the cheapest rigid board that survives outdoors. It is also temporary by design. Flutes crush underfoot, cut edges scuff, and northern sun pulls colour out of the print inside a year or two. If a sign has to look sharp on a shopfront for five years, corflute is the wrong choice and an ACM panel is cheaper over its life.
We print corflute at our Orbis Drive workshop in Ravenhall, so board, print, cut and eyelets happen under one roof with no broker in between. There is no minimum: one board for an open home, or five hundred for a rollout. Our own crews install too, which matters when signs go onto hoarding or temporary fencing rather than into somebody’s ute.
Corflute is specified by thickness and by the direction the flutes run. Those two choices drive wind behaviour, whether an eyelet holds, and how long a board stays flat.
| Spec | Standard | Options | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thickness | 5mm | 3mm, 2mm | Thicker board flexes less and holds an eyelet |
| Sheet size | 2400 × 1200 mm | Any size cut from it | Sizes that nest into a sheet waste less board |
| Flute direction | Vertical | Horizontal | Stiffest along the flutes, and stakes only fit vertical ones |
| UV-cured to board | One or both sides | Flutes block light, so the two faces never ghost | |
| Outdoor life | Six to eighteen months | Longer in shade | Fade and flute crush set the limit, not water |
| Material code | Polypropylene, code 5 | Clean board only | Recyclable in theory, though kerbside acceptance varies |
Anything between those sizes is fine. Corflute cuts on a flatbed, so rounded corners and odd shapes cost no more than a rectangle. Sizes that divide evenly into a sheet leave less offcut.
Most corflute decisions are about how the sign gets attached and how long it has to survive. Here is what we get asked for, and when each one earns its place.
The everyday board. Stiff enough for anything up to about 900 × 1200 mm fixed flat to a fence or a wall, light to post and easy to store. Most real estate boards and short-run promotional panels get printed on it.
Noticeably more rigid and roughly twice the weight. Worth it once a panel passes a metre in either direction, or when it hangs exposed on temporary fencing. Also the right pick for A-frame inserts and boards handled repeatedly across a job.
The board runs through a second time and prints on the reverse, which suits signs read from both directions: hanging aisle markers, footpath frames, entry arrows. Registration front to back is close but not exact, so avoid shapes that must align through the board.
Metal rings punched through the board stop a fixing tearing out. Standard is one per corner, about 15 mm in. On wide panels we add them top and bottom, because a board pivoting on two fixings works itself loose in wind.
A wire H-frame pushes into the flutes of a vertical-flute board and stands it in soil or turf, which suits open homes and wayfinding on grass. For footpath frames we cut inserts to a frame you own, from a measurement or a model number.
Flatbed cutting follows a contour rather than a rectangle, so arrows, shields and logo shapes cost the same as a square board. Rounded corners are also the sensible choice for a sign sitting at head height in a public area.
Site identification boards, safety messaging and hoarding infill on jobs running months rather than years. Corflute goes onto temporary fencing fast, survives a wet winter, and nobody minds when a damaged board gets swapped out. On longer projects we suggest the permanent entry sign in ACM and the changeable messaging in corflute, which keeps the cost sensible across a long programme.
Photo boards, auction and sold overlays, and open-for-inspection arrows going up on a Saturday morning. The 600 × 900 mm and 900 × 1200 mm sizes cover most of it. Agencies order in batches with the agency branding printed and the property detail added as an applied panel, which beats reprinting a whole board per listing. Boards going up and down every week last longer in 5mm.
Fete signage, sports club boards, market wayfinding and seasonal messaging that only has to last a few weekends. Corflute suits work that goes up, gets stored in a shed and comes back out next year. Keep it flat and out of the sun between uses and one set of boards will do several seasons of that. Cable ties through eyelets beat stakes on hard ground.
Window and footpath signage for a sale period, launch signage for a new store, or bay markers for a car park promotion. Because there is no minimum, one cafe can order two boards and a franchise group can order two hundred to the same spec. If the campaign needs stickers too, our sister company Sticky Sitch covers that. Tell us the store count and we pack per site.
Corflute prints at full size, so artwork wants to be built at size or to a clean scale. A vector logo and live text will beat a screenshot pulled off a website.
If none of that means much to you, send the logo and a rough idea of the wording. Artwork setup is part of the job. We lay it out, proof it, and keep changing it until you are happy.
Corflute is one of the faster jobs we run. The board is printed flat and finished in the same building, so nothing waits in a queue we do not control. Tell us the date the signs have to be up and we will say straight whether we can hit it — corflute is a regular on our same day printing list. Pickup from Ravenhall, delivery metro and regional Victoria, freight interstate.
Corflute signs start from $20. The final price depends on the size, the quantity, whether it is printed on one or both sides, and fittings such as eyelets, ties or stakes.
Larger runs cost less per sign because the setup is shared across the order. Send the size and quantity and we will price it within two business hours.
Yes. Polypropylene does not absorb water, swell or delaminate, so rain on a corflute sign is a non-event.
What ages a board outdoors is ultraviolet light and handling. The plastic goes chalky and the reds soften first. Water sitting in open flutes can grow algae in a shaded spot, which looks untidy but does nothing structural. Capping the top edge helps on longer jobs.
Six to eighteen months is the honest range, and sun exposure decides where a sign lands inside it.
A board on a south-facing fence in an inner suburb still looks presentable at eighteen months. The same board facing north on an open site can look tired at eight. A UV laminate buys a little time but adds cost better spent elsewhere. For three years or more, look at ACM.
The board is polypropylene, resin code 5, and is technically recyclable. Your kerbside bin is a separate question.
Acceptance of code 5 plastic varies between Victorian councils, and a large printed board is often knocked back on size alone. Some transfer stations and commercial waste contractors take clean corflute in volume. On a rollout, ask your waste contractor first and strip the eyelets and tape, because mixed material is what gets loads rejected.
Vertically on almost every outdoor sign. That is the direction the board is stiffest in, and the only direction a wire stake will slide into.
The exception is a long low panel, something like 2400 × 600 mm on a fence line, where horizontal flutes stop it sagging between fixings. Tell us how the sign is being mounted when you order, because changing the flute direction later means recutting the board.
Use 3mm up to roughly 900 × 1200 mm fixed flat to a wall, fence or frame. Use 5mm above that, or anywhere the board hangs exposed on temporary fencing.
The other reason to go thicker is handling. Boards taken down, stacked in a ute and put back up every weekend last far longer in 5mm. Weight roughly doubles, which matters for freight on big quantities.
Yes, and it is the normal choice for anything read from two directions. The board goes through the printer twice, once per face.
Because the flutes block light there is no show-through, so each side can carry completely different artwork. A double-sided board is handled twice, so we allow a small margin on the second pass rather than printing hard to the edge. It costs more than single sided, and much less than two boards.
Still deciding? See our sign materials guide and the sign and banner sizes guide.
The indoor equivalent. Lighter, flatter and much sharper to look at, with a smooth printed face, but it warps and delaminates the moment it gets wet.
See the detail →Footpath frames that take a printed corflute or ACM insert. We supply the frame with a panel, or cut replacement inserts for frames you already own.
See the detail →Photo boards, auction overlays and open-home directional signage sized the way Victorian agencies order them, with repeat runs held on file so reprints match the originals.
See the detail →Browse the full list on our A–Z of everything we print, or see how this fits into signage in Melbourne.
Send the size, the quantity and the date you need it on the fence. We will come back with a price inside two business hours.