Clear decal, murky situation

[NotAPrinter]

I have searched all 50+ pages and have found threads concerning similar problems, but not exactly like this one. I learned a lot, though!:U Rock:

We are a small Mom & Pop operation and have gone from 100% screen printing on all jobs to 90% digital for certain kinds of jobs two years ago. Last year I inherited the responsibilities for the digital printing (Roland XC-540). Everything I know is OJT and trial and error. Unfortunately, due to the need to keep our heads above water, jobs are taken that we shouldn’t do because they expect me to engineer a way to make it happen. Should I bother to mention that I am just a glorified Inventory/Materials Manager?

So the problem is the customer needs several hundred serialized parking decals. 2.5” x 2.5” and cut into individual units. Reverse printing/cutting these on clear adhesive vinyl isn’t a problem. The problem is that the customer wants them on white.

We do not have the ability to laminate a sheet of white onto them, and the “artist” and the owner won’t take my suggestion of outsourcing the project (the owner is afraid of loosing too much of the markup). Instead, they want to screen print the sheet after the print/cut with a full flood of white. We tried this once before and you want to talk about a weeding nightmare!

I suggested nesting bullseye targets, print the units 0.25” apart, and using that to set up a screen that would print nice little white squares onto the sheet so that we could weed it and cut it down. That went over like a lead balloon.


Any suggestions on how to do this without having to try to weed a sheet that has had the contour cuts filled with ink?

 

[Fred Weiss]

Is this a contour cut decal or a full cut and weeded decal? If it is the first, then tape over your registration marks before you flood coat the white and then remove for realigning the print for cutting.

 

[gnemmas]

Laminate white vinyl (make sure it has clear adhesive), use sharpie & light table to mark registration on white vinyl, then cut.

 

[Bill Modzel]

We're flatstock screen printers too and Fred's suggestion should work fine. It's a great idea.

Also, I dont' understand why it should be a problem printing your white squares inset from your cut line too. The main problem there is accurate registration for the screen print. Many commercial parking decals are printed leaving a clear edge on the decal.

 

[gnatt66]

i just did some of these...use a Big Squeegee to laminate a layer of 3164 on the backs...did 300 2" round decals in no time.... just be mindful of the reg. marks and they are no problemo.

 

[Mosh]

+on what gnatt66 did. SIMPLE!

 

[visualeyez]

If you don't have a big squeegee just apply transfer tape to your white vinyl and use a regular squeegee. Just break the sheets down into managable sizes if need be.

 

[jasonx]

We've got a roll of white vinyl with clear adhesive cut down to 1200mm.

We setup our artwork and make sure our reg marks are 1300mm wide and our art is within the 1200mm. We then use the laminator to apply the white to the clear.

The clear is a 1370mm wide roll.

We've done tens of thousands this way.

 

[NotAPrinter]

Thanks for the great response/advice. I am, however, very ignorant about many of the capabilities of digital printing.

If I understand what Fred is saying (since we really do not have the ability to laminate), there is a way to place the material back into the Roland for cutting after hitting it with the white. I know how to make the Roland print marks for "Print and Cut Alignment"... but can someone clue me in as to how to get the material realigned for cutting?

 

[sfr table hockey]

Thanks for the great response/advice. I am, however, very ignorant about many of the capabilities of digital printing.

If I understand what Fred is saying (since we really do not have the ability to laminate), there is a way to place the material back into the Roland for cutting after hitting it with the white. I know how to make the Roland print marks for "Print and Cut Alignment"... but can someone clue me in as to how to get the material realigned for cutting?

If you can dig up the manual it should have something about base point or align point. On the older Roland you print the media, hit setup and remove to laminate then get the material loaded back in and try to line up the crop marks in line with the cutter head ( close as possible ) and on the pannel setup sheet as piece and then hit the base point and then choose base align.

 

[NotAPrinter]

I really appreciate everyone's time and help!

So, the manual did not seem really clear, but between it and the "Help File", I managed another learning opportunity. I played around and printed with the registration marks, then I removed the media and reloaded it as if I had laminated it.

The print/cut registration is dead on normally (I just recalibrate it yesterday)... but once the machine reads the registration and proceeds to cut for this kind of "Cut Laminated Media" configuration, the registration is slightly off.

Is there any way of calibrating this without having to set it up for Manual Cutting (I doubt that I will be able to get it any closer by hand)? Or do I have to set a 0.35 MM or greater margin as is suggested and live with it (the standard for our decals is 0.25 MM)?