There are several replaceable cassette banner stands available in the UK and the Imagine banner stand by Ultima Displays is perhaps the most popular selling model on the market.

Following on from the original Imagine banner stand, the new revised model was launched by Ultima Displays in 2007 and offered a range of improvements according to the manufacturer including ‘revised styling’ and a ‘streamlined profile’. More recently the cassette mechanism was upgraded with a clever ratchet mechanism which allows the amount of ‘pull’ on the spring to be adjusted if needs be.

As we have been supplying Ultima products for almost 10 Years we can testify to the fact that the original Imagine banner stand was not without it’s flaws. In particular the locking mechanism which was intended to keep the folding lid of the unit closed consisted of two small pieces of plastic. These red pips were quite annoying in the respect that they could frequently become detatched from the base althogether. To open the casing the red pips needed to be slid upwards but we frequently found them to be very stiff to the point where sometimes they could seriously hurt your fingernails when trying to shift them!

The new model Imagine banner stand has done away with these ‘pip’s and replaced them with an efficient snap-open hinge which when opened allows the mechanism to be removed. The old sandpaper feel silver/grey paint job has been superceeded by a smooth anodised silver finish which is far easier on the eye. The old style matt black plastic clip-on end plates were also a weak point of the old design and are swapped in favour of smoked black versions on the new imagine banner stand which can be removed and replaced quickly if broken thanks to the magnetic fixing.

The new imagine banner stand features an adjustable twist lock pole, allowing the assembled height to be varied which is useful should you wish to use your banner stand as a table top display. We feel that it is worth noting that we had problems with this pole on some early imagine banner stands as the twist-lock mechanism failed on several stands. We are told that this issue was overcome by using stronger metal internal components on current models which replaced the plastic internal used in the poles of some early imagine banner stands. Certainly of all the units we have sold since mid 2008 we have had no further problems.

The only thing we think could be improved is the universal gripper style rail that attached to the top of the print. From an assembly point of view it takes several minutes to undo the small grub screws and re-tighten them to the top of the graphic. The imagine banner stands universal top rail does feature an adhesive slider rail which can be used instead of the grub screw attachment method but we found the grey plastic profile overhangs the front of the print slightly which we find unsightly.

Our overall rating on this product is 8/10 and it’s a big improvement on the original imagine banner stand.

Plus points: Nice to look at, easy to use, fast to swap cassettes

Negative points: Replacement cassettes for the imagine banner stand system retail at £45 plus vat each and that’s more than the cost of an entry level banner stand.

If you would like to purchase an ultima imagine banner stand just click the link below. We offer great pricing and guarantee to beat any like for like quote!

Click here for pricing information and to purchase an imagine banner stand