Dirty 3m 680cr?

[SellersSign&Design]

I used 2/3 of a roll of 680CR today, and I noticed there was what appeared to be dirt on the vinyl as it was coming into the printer on the last print of the day. I only saw it in one spot so I went ahead and laminated, but then I noticed it's all the way across the width of the vinyl in this one area. I cut and peeled the laminate back over one of the bigger specs and it appears to be a glob of adhesive?? So now I'm going to have to reprint 7' worth of material because some of the bad spots are in long stripes. Has anyone ran into this before? This roll also has a splice in it, if that makes a difference.

 

[ikarasu]

I was under the assumption 3M No longer splices any of their material thats made for printing. Is your roll really old? Like.. years old?

Wouldn't explain how it got contaminated, just pointing out splices don't, or shouldnt exist anymore, according to what I was told by a 3M rep over a year ago.

 

[SellersSign&Design]

I was under the assumption 3M No longer splices any of their material thats made for printing. Is your roll really old? Like.. years old?

Wouldn't explain how it got contaminated, just pointing out splices don't, or shouldnt exist anymore, according to what I was told by a 3M rep over a year ago.

Nope, this was a brand new roll just delivered from Grimco. That's interesting, I'll ask my rep about it Monday. I go through a lot of 680, and this is only the second roll I've ever gotten with a splice. It's aggravating, if I wasn't normally on such tight deadlines I would send spliced rolls back.

 

[ikarasu]

I took a wrap course, and that's where they said it. There was an official 3m rep there who confirmed it. I've seen splices in their non printable media, like 3290... But never in their officially printable media.

We go through maybe, 15-20 rolls of material a month, mostly 180, and I've never seen a splice. Only about 3-5 rolls of 680 in the past 2 years, but still no splice.

Send them the pictures.. it's definitely from the roll, and not your shop. I've had 3290 with a ton of black specs in it, looked just like that. It appeared through the whole roll... So if you have any media left, might be worth checking a few feet before beginning a print.

680 is too expensive to have a 7ft failure. I'd definitely email your 3m rep to at least inquire.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

I can't remember the last time I saw a splice in IJ180 (if ever), but I see it in rolls of 680- and we get ours directly from 3M. Just printed 9 rolls this week and 3 of them had splices.

 

[SellersSign&Design]

I can't remember the last time I saw a splice in IJ180 (if ever), but I see it in rolls of 680- and we get ours directly from 3M. Just printed 9 rolls this week and 3 of them had splices.

So I found out something interesting today. My Grimco Rep told me that I'm getting splices in my 680CR because I'm not getting IJ680CR, it's just 680CR which is classified as cut vinyl. I asked why I've been getting the non printable version when I specifically asked for 680CR to be printed on my HP Latex, and she said since I use 30" reflective the IJ series isn't available, it only comes in 48" and 54". But, she said that they say it's fine to print on the regular 680CR there just isn't a way to guarantee that I won't get a spliced roll. But, she is filing a claim on this contaminated roll for me and she said from what she can see 3M should be ok with sending me a new roll.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

So I found out something interesting today. My Grimco Rep told me that I'm getting splices in my 680CR because I'm not getting IJ680CR, it's just 680CR which is classified as cut vinyl. I asked why I've been getting the non printable version when I specifically asked for 680CR to be printed on my HP Latex, and she said since I use 30" reflective the IJ series isn't available, it only comes in 48" and 54". But, she said that they say it's fine to print on the regular 680CR there just isn't a way to guarantee that I won't get a spliced roll. But, she is filing a claim on this contaminated roll for me and she said from what she can see 3M should be ok with sending me a new roll.

Well that sucks. I hope they're going to be refunding you the difference in price!
As for what we get, they are absolutely IJ680, or at least that's what the tags on the boxes say. Since it's material we print for 3M (as in, it's their material), I'd have to assume they're sending us correctly marked rolls.

 

[ikarasu]

As luck has it, I just opened a box and got a splice. so I came back to read here and saw your post. I look at the box.. and sure enough, it's not IJ. Checked the core on my old roll.. and it is IJ. A different supply person ordered this roll, and I guess he got the wrong one...

I just went and asked our usual purchaser if it was ok to use. He told me IJ is for digital, non IJ is for screen printing (We screenprint on it, so its fine!) he said the difference is Non IJ can be contaminated... It can have oil marks, splices, and other stuff in it, while IJ has stricter control on it.

I have no idea the price difference between the two - So it may, or may not be worth it for you to start bringing in IJ. Especially since you'd need to move to a different roll size. First time I've used non IJ, and I see theres a splice...thats going to be quite a bit of wasted material depending on where my cut ends up. I haven't tried printing on this one yet, but if I get the same thing you're getting, I have a feeling my boss won't be too happy throwing it all away ;p Luckly we need over half the roll for screen printing, so worst case I get a roll of IJ680 in, and keep this one for screen printing only.

Learn something new everyday it seems!

You can also see the difference in the spec sheet -

http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/...emovable-reflective-graphic-film-680cr-pb.pdf

http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/...ite-comply-reflective-slideable-removable.pdf

One mentions screen, the other mentions digital.. screen printing doesn't need to be as contaminate free as IJ does, paint tends to not blotch like what we see in your pictures.

 

[SellersSign&Design]

Yep, I had no idea I was getting regular cut vinyl, but like you said that explains the splices and contamination. The problem is, I'm set up to run 30". It works great for me, and would be a huge ordeal to change. So at this point I guess my only option is to keep running the regular 680 and hope for the best. I'm going to try to have my Grimco Rep contact 3M and see if there is any chance of them offering the IJ in 30" width. I don't know why they wouldn't, there are a lot of 300 series 30" Roland printers out there, and I'm sure plenty of other people with bigger printers like me would use it.