Can you use a flatbed without A/C or heat

[equippaint]

Can you reliably use a flatbed printer in a non climate controlled building? We’re in south florida so cold isn't a major deal but heat could be. If you can, does anyone here do that?

 

[clarizeyale]

We have both a FB550 and R1000 and there is no climate control in our building. It gets hot, the gates go up... It gets cold, we freeze our a$$es off. LOL But we're also in the SF Bay area where it probably doesn't get as hot as Florida but we are in what is considered the warmest neighborhood in our city. It does get pretty humid at times...

Only issues we really have are with static with the FB550 but for the most part, prints come out lookin sharp.. Though we pretty much exclusively use the R1000 as of late. I think the static issue was because our ionizing bar was broken...

hope this was helpful in some way.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

5+ years of un-airconditioned UV prints here. Heat has never been a problem... inks need to reach 46C before the printer will even begin printing (Oce Arizona).

Cold is more our issue. Can take up to an hour to warm up the inks sometimes.

 

[ikarasu]

We use the fb500. When it's hot and hasn't rained, we get lots of static problems on coroplast.

Usually wiping down with alcohol combined with a humidifier fixes the issue... But it's definately doable.

 

[Gino]

We have heat and cold in our place at various times of the year. The room where our flatbed is, is not air conditioned, but we do have plenty of ceiling fans to at least stir up the air on those horrible hot days. In the cold, as mentioned, we have to wait longer for the machine to heat up the inks. Ours is 49° and 50°. We have two heat controls on ours. Seems to me, if your lamps are up to snuff, the thing'll print on just about anything without a problem.

What kind are ya entertaining ?? Make sure it fits your needs and potentially other things, you haven't thought of.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Do you guys not have color shifting with changes in temp and humidity?

 

[ExecuPrintGS]

Our CET hates any climate change, we have gotten to the point that our print room is heated/ AC and humidity controlled to try and keep it printing halfway decent day in and day out...

Seems like most others don't seem to have a problem with the flatbeds they have, so maybe just don't buy CET

 

[Gino]

Do you guys not have color shifting with changes in temp and humidity?

Very seldom do any color shifts take place. Only if we change the profile and that could really do a number on it. Also, we must rip in the proper ripping box and then print from the proper profile box. If you mix them up, you can have a slight change, but that's not caused by heat/cold, but user error. Also, number of passes will cause a color change, but not too bad. We have a special area; just for red sensitive colors alone..... again regardless of how cold or hot it is.

 

[equippaint]

We have heat and cold in our place at various times of the year. The room where our flatbed is, is not air conditioned, but we do have plenty of ceiling fans to at least stir up the air on those horrible hot days. In the cold, as mentioned, we have to wait longer for the machine to heat up the inks. Ours is 49° and 50°. We have two heat controls on ours. Seems to me, if your lamps are up to snuff, the thing'll print on just about anything without a problem.

What kind are ya entertaining ?? Make sure it fits your needs and potentially other things, you haven't thought of.

Been looking at used FB500 and FB700s, primarily for printing aluminum and acm safety signs. Being that I know nothing about them, I thought it would be a safe bet as many people run them. Also, since it wont be going in a clean space a hybrid setup may be easier to keep clean and crap out of prints? If it works out then we can budget for a new or better machine down the road. If it doesn't then it won't sting as bad as a $100k+ screwup. I'm all ears for other opinions. At this point in time, I don't want to build out more space for this so if it wont work in a hot box shop, it's gonna get put on the back burner.

 

[Bly]

We have AC but only turn it on a couple of months a year.
The flatbed doesn't seem to care much what the temp is although we don't get extremes here.

 

[equippaint]

In the afternoon, it has to be over 100 degrees inside. It feels like you walk into the ac when you step outside and its in the 90s. We keep the doors closed to minimize dust but even with them open the afternoon sun bakes the front of the building.
Not too humid yet but its coming once the daily rain starts.

 

[TimToad]

In the afternoon, it has to be over 100 degrees inside. It feels like you walk into the ac when you step outside and its in the 90s. We keep the doors closed to minimize dust but even with them open the afternoon sun bakes the front of the building.
Not too humid yet but its coming once the daily rain starts.

The manual on ours tells us not to let temps go over 90, or humidity under 30%. I've noticed that low humidity seems to affect print quality more than high humidity.

Considering the ink is cured by the lamps, I didn't think temperature would matter much, but the service guy told us that high temps wear extra hard on the fans that cool the lamps that Gerber decided to put in their machines.