Banner material and EPSON GS6000 help

[Rage Wraps]

Ok guys so whats the magic number for banner material on a GS6000? All I can get to work right now is KEY Banner material and confident enough to let it run by itself. Every other material I have messed with so far has been a joke. Head strike after head strike. I have messed around with heat setting and head height adjustment. It keeps warping between the rollers. I have a large job and don't have time to screw around. Any help will be great. I am using Pinnacle Banner 13oz glossy single sided. Please advise.

Thanks, Phil

 

[Rage Wraps]

Anyone out there have an idea or a suggestion?

 

[acothran]

We mainly use Ultraflex Jetflex FL banner material, matte and gloss, 38", 54", and 63". We set our heaters at Pre - 39, Platen - 35, Post - 35. Also, make sure your platen gap (head height lever) is in the highest position. I occasionally have a head strike but rarely. Good luck.

Allen

 

[Letterbox Mike]

We can't run ANY banner on our GS6000 no matter what we do. Heat off, head high, nothing works. Epson installed the new media feeder for us claiming it would solve the problem, but it didn't. They finally threw their hands up and said "it's not approved media" and/or tried to blame the material itself (even though we can take if off the GS and throw it in our Mimaki and run a full roll with zero problems) and they couldn't do anything further.

Some people have no problems with heavy media at all in their GS, others (like us) cannot run anything thick in it at all. I don't know why it is, but there seems to be some serious issues/inconsistencies with the media feed system in it. We bought our GS specifically to print Korographics wallpaper media and after trying for a year, writing custom profiles, and having Epson technicians out several times, we've determined the machine cannot do it without getting head strikes.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it sounds like you're in the same boat as us, you may not find a solution. I will say the cheaper the material the more likely it is to buckle from heat, Grimco's Pinnacle is pretty darn cheap so I'm not overly surprised it's warping. About the only thing you could do is trade up to a higher-end material...

 

[Rage Wraps]

I can get Key banner to work great, but this is a job where these banners are stollen, ripped and torn after one weekend. They are ment to be thrown away. That's why the cheap material. I was just told to try the print with out the rollers pushed down and use the tension from the take-up roll to pull it threw. I don't think a GS can work that way. This place was referencing their 9000.

 

[Anicom]

Hi, the only trouble I have ever had when printing banners or awning material on the GS6000 is when the media is rolled the wrong way so that the feed edge is coming from below the input area. I just use our laminator and re-roll the media on another tube so that the feed is coming "over" the roll directly into the machine. I run everything from 13oz Super Smooth to 16oz scrim, matte or gloss and also 3M Panagraphics III awning material with no issues at all. The head position needs to be on it's highest setting and the profile that I find works best for us is the generic Epson GS Canvas Gloss at 48C pre, 47C Platen, 50C post. I've tried the manufacturers profiles along with some of my own but always come back to this one, just seems to work.

 

[jfiscus]

We mainly use Ultraflex Jetflex FL banner material, matte and gloss, 38", 54", and 63". We set our heaters at Pre - 39, Platen - 35, Post - 35. Also, make sure your platen gap (head height lever) is in the highest position. I occasionally have a head strike but rarely. Good luck.

Allen

Same results here, very occasional head strikes - usually operator loading errors. Also print on many other kinds of super smooth, etc banner media with same results, but 90%+ goes on Ultraflex jetflex 13oz.

 

[Rydaddy]

I threw away 2 different rolls of pinnacle banner material. Could not get the stuff to print on our gs6000. Multiple issues. I like the ultraflex 13oz. matte. I can also print 18 oz. bantex and 16oz. koma. The 15oz. thin double-sided key from grimco does not prit well for us.

Don't bother with the pinnacle. Use key/ultraflex... i realize it costs more. But you'll be happy you did it. What resolution/passes are you printing at?

 

[Freese]

I don't use much of anything but Key Banner but it works great in my machine even with low head height. Pre and print heaters off, though

 

[Rage Wraps]

Key banner is a top load vs others that are a bottom feed. That is an interesting suggestion. I will try that.

 

[tollerdad]

We use all Ultraflex Jetflex and it runs well on our GS. Head height high.

 

[Brian R]

I'm struggling with this same issue right now; sporadic head strikes with 13 oz scrim banner. My meida is rolled the "wrong" way on the core- "right side in" so it's feeding from under the roll. This is my second roll of this material. I had a similar problem with the first roll but I was playing with profiles and I thought that was the problem. I finished the roll fine. But now with this second roll I'm really struggling. I'm using a brand of media not mentioned in this post yet, I may try another brand.
Also, the core on this roll is longer than the media by about 1/2 an inch on either side. I wonder if this is allowing the media to travel just a bit side to side? My sales rep is extremely helpful and cooperative and just by chance someone high up in the media manufacturing company will be in our area tomorrow so my sales rep is bringing him here on their way from the airport. I'll post any new insight I might learn.

 

[WinGraphics]

We found an easy solution

We were having problems with most every materiel we printed on with our GS6000. Vinyl, banners and paper would always have occasional head strikes. We finally figured out how to eliminate the problem. We use 3/16" foam core cut into 3/4" x 5" strips and use them to lift some of the wheels on the outside edges of the materiel we are printing on.

For example: if we are printing on 3' banner materiel we lift the far left (from behind the machine) and slide the foam core into to keep the wheel elevated off of the materiel. On the right side (from behind the machine again) we lift 3 wheels total. The one that is off of the edge of the materiel and 2 that are directly on the materiel. This has worked 100% of the time. We can now leave the machine without any possible chance of the materiel head striking even on the low setting.

Another example: On 5' banner materiel we only lift one on the left side (same as on 3' banner materiel) but on the right side we lift 5 or 6 wheels, always making sure that we lift at least one off the side of the materiel in case the materiel drifts.

We now do this for ALL materiel. Vinyl, paper, polyester, banner etc. We have been doing this for about 6 months and all of our head strike problems have disappeared.

I hope this helps.

 

[noregrets]

Also check that the media is underneath the rollers with about 5mm to spare on each side, this made a difference to ours