Anyone flatbed printing clear plexi?

[soundhound]

I saw something recently... might have been a new plexiglas finish or formulation that would allow it to be flatbed printed without warping or causing the problems it has been causing.

Wondering if anyone has tried or is using this tech, and if they are doing outsourcing.

I have some clients that need a small amount of this...

And I am interested in determining the outdoor durability of such a process.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

We've been printing in cast acrylic for 4+ years on our machine... never had a panel warp, so don't know what this "new" formulation is.
We prefer to stick with using Optix DA as it has inbuilt adhesion promoters, otherwise Shinkolite is our next go-to media.

 

[boxerbay]

cheap thin acrylic will bow with heat from the uv lamps. if were running thin acrylic with 2X passes and white - its really slow and gets a lot of lamp time causing it to warp up. We just turn one of the two lamps off when we run those types of jobs.

 

[ChrisN]

I haven't seen anything marketed as not warping - the only specialty print acrylic I know of is designed for better adhesion.

I've had problems with the sheets being warped from the supplier, but rarely from the actual printing process. The advantage of a true flatbed is you can tape the edges of the sheet down to seal it to the bed.

 

[chinaski]

I print 4mm extruded acrylic regularly and I've never had problems with warping while printing. Sometimes it's warped from poor storage but since it's double-sided I flip the material over and that solves it. The vacuum works better when corners are bent "down", rather than "up". Make sure you're getting the most out of your vacuum by masking off the rest of the bed. If your vacuum is weak, you could always use a bit of thin double-sided tape.

We've been printing in cast acrylic for 4+ years on our machine

Is cast different from extruded in rigidity or sensitivity to heat? I've read otherwise, but I was told by my supplier that both have same sensitivity to scratching and are practically the same. Anyone test this?

 

[KSTrooper]

Same here. I print on clear acrylic pretty often on our Arizona flatbed and the only times I've had issues is when the material was warped to begin with. I've also used our HP FB500 hybrid with good results.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Is cast different from extruded in rigidity or sensitivity to heat? I've read otherwise, but I was told by my supplier that both have same sensitivity to scratching and are practically the same. Anyone test this?

No idea... our suppliers only sell us cast, not extruded so we have never tried it.

 

[Pica Grove]

We print on Plexi and acrylic all the time with an Arizona 360 XT both indoor and outdoor applications, thin to thick. Lamps are hot as hell. What do you want to know?

 

[Modern Ink Signs]

We print on acrylic nor problems. Inks are UV cured so no heat to the substrate to cause any warpping