anyone printing on magnetic sheeting?

[csc]

I do a lot of magnetic signs and recently purchased an HP designjet 9000S, originally the Seiko color painter 64S. So far Life has been easier printing on vinyl then applying to the magnet instead of cutting, weeding and transfering. I would like to take it one step further by printing directly to the magnet with my HP 9000.
The front and back heater panels of the printer are metal and the print area is aluminum. Has anyone printed on magnetic sheeting with their printer and are there any suggestions. I normally use .030 mil magnetic material.
Would appreciate any feedback.

Many thanks,
CSC

 

[Jackpine]

I would not do it on my Mutoh. It is not worth the problems that could happen.

 

[Replicator]

I do on my Gerber, but that's because the mother boards do not come near the mag . . .

I would never do it on my roland !

 

[Fred Weiss]

You'll get a lot more work out if you just print and laminate on calendared film then apply to mag sheet and trim out.

 

[Sign Works]

Although a lot of people say they do it I'm not willing to screw up my printer just to save a few pennies & minutes, simply print on vinyl, laminate and apply to the mag material.

 

[grafXnj]

i was told by a distributor no problem they make a thinner one for that reason

so i bought it

then my print head crashed into it

then the distributor said i would not recommend you use it

 

[csc]

Looks like the majority says nay,so I wount do it that way!

Thanks to all for their input.

 

[Replicator]

i was told by a distributor no problem they make a thinner one for that reason

so i bought it

then my print head crashed into it

then the distributor said i would not recommend you use it

:Oops:

 

[Gordy Saunders]

I just saw an article in last months SIGN Business Magizine. They have apparently invented a new magnetic material that can be printed on directly. I tried to find the magizine today to show it to somebody else but I seem to have mislayed it.

 

[jagsouthern]

Try these folks. Theirs works...and it's glossy.
http://www.magxdirect.com/index.php

 

[djcoldzero]

seiko tech recommendation

i do not recommend you to use any magnetic substrate

 

[The Big Squeegee]

Most magnetic materials are only magnetic on one side.

The heads are in little danger of getting changed from the magnetic Field of magnetic vinyl.
Most magnetic vinyls are not of a quality to print on. There are some that are made for printing. The ones I have seen are too thin to be of any use other than fridge magnets.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Be careful with applying vinyl, we just went through 2 rolls of Magnum and the edges curled on all the magnets we made. Magnum said we cant use the Vinyl we were using IJ35, they recommend a cast.

Never had the issue before that with IJ35 and we go through about a roll a month. We got a new roll from a way different batch and so far no curling.

The point is that they may not support you if something goes awry.

 

[fresh]

Be careful with applying vinyl, we just went through 2 rolls of Magnum and the edges curled on all the magnets we made. Magnum said we cant use the Vinyl we were using IJ35, they recommend a cast.

Never had the issue before that with IJ35 and we go through about a roll a month. We got a new roll from a way different batch and so far no curling.

The point is that they may not support you if something goes awry.

We realized that all full color magnets must use cast vinyl. For this reason, I now HATE making magnets. We don't print cast that often, so its a big PITA to switch out rolls for a 3 or 4 sq ft of print. Not to mention the laminate. Oy.

 

[bob]

Some years back I bought a roll of magnetic media that was coated for solvent printing. I printed on it maybe twice before I gave up and just used it for regular magnetic media.

The problem wasn't that it was magnetic, the miniscule magnetic field has zero affect on anything. Nor the thickness, it feed through the printer just fine with no hint of head violence. Neither was it the quality of the print, it printed just fine.

The problem was weight. The stuff weighs a ton. Unless you're some sort of steriod-monster gym rat it's a feat of physical prowess just to get a roll of the stuff mounted on the printer. It's so heavy that it doesn't feed at anything resembling the same rate as vinyl and other media. It was feeding somewhere around 8" to 9" for what should have been a 10" feed. That's a 10% to 20% shortage. It was sufficiently erratic that the feed compensation could not be set to properly accommodate it. Even if the compensation could be set, the image was also compressed the same amount, an amount even the blind would notice.

It's orders of magnitude more efficient to print on vinyl and apply it to the magnetic media.

 

[boxerbay]

piezo electric heads and a magnetic sheet = banding prints. too much of a hassle to get it to finally run. then end up with crappy print. we had to tape foamcore strips over the metallic parts of the printer to get it to go through. pain. print on vinyl then mount.