fabric bunching on 360

[briant1362]

We're trying to print 40' runs of Ultraflex UltraPoplin PES C240 (7oz knitted polyester). This is a new material for us on the 360. The media appears to be bunching/rippling on the feed side of the rollers and some of bunches/ripples are making it through to the platen and getting light head strikes. We open the window and can straighten it out with some effort but they come back after another few feet. We do have this on the takeup and the takeup side of the media is flat as can be. This seems like it would be a skewing issue but we didn't get any skew errors during the loading process. Any tips/suggestions on how to get worry free printing with this material? Thanks in advance.

 

[dypinc]

We're trying to print 40' runs of Ultraflex UltraPoplin PES C240 (7oz knitted polyester). This is a new material for us on the 360. The media appears to be bunching/rippling on the feed side of the rollers and some of bunches/ripples are making it through to the platen and getting light head strikes. We open the window and can straighten it out with some effort but they come back after another few feet. We do have this on the takeup and the takeup side of the media is flat as can be. This seems like it would be a skewing issue but we didn't get any skew errors during the loading process. Any tips/suggestions on how to get worry free printing with this material? Thanks in advance.

Have you experimented with adjusting the feed tension on direction of the other?

 

[danno]

We have an L26500 and I have noticed that I have to drop the temps and increase the passes on some of the fabrics. I have also had success with the edge guards, to a point.

 

[greysquirrel]

Lower temp, use edge guards, try without ink collector if you are using it

 

[briant1362]

thanks for the suggestions. i'm using the "certified" media profile with the default temp 230deg and but I'll try reducing it. We're already using the regular platen (not the ink collector) and edge guards. TBH, i'm not sure how to adjust the tension on either the feed or the take up on a 360...I don't believe there are any mechanical adjustments and couldn't find any digital settings in the setup/media screens.

 

[dypinc]

thanks for the suggestions. i'm using the "certified" media profile with the default temp 230deg and but I'll try reducing it. We're already using the regular platen (not the ink collector) and edge guards. TBH, i'm not sure how to adjust the tension on either the feed or the take up on a 360...I don't believe there are any mechanical adjustments and couldn't find any digital settings in the setup/media screens.

In the Media seeing screen when you go to edit the setting, in the first edit screen at the lower left corner in Advanced Settings. In the Advanced Settings screen you will find Input Tension.

 

[briant1362]

Thanks dypinc. Actually, we did find the tension setting after my last post and increased from 15 to 30 on a 20' run this morning. I think it helped a little but we're still getting ripples. We're planning on maxing it out to 40 on the next run. I actually think its a media load/skew issue (even though we don't get any warnings during media load)...the tension on the left side of the roll seems greater than on the right. The current plan is to divide the 40' runs in half (and just sew them back together) and re-load/reset the media after each half. Thanks again.

 

[eahicks]

I think you should adjust the Vacuum setting as well...if it's pulling too hard that will cause the material to bunch.

 

[briant1362]

update. maxing out the tension and resetting the media after 20' did not work. still getting ripples. note the ripples seem to appear consistently in just one spot (which would seem to rule out temp or vacuum as the source of the problem). attached are a couple of pics. we're thinking that it might be a media issue. You can see that the media doesn't lay flat when you roll it out on the table and then also shows before it ever reaches the platen. Thoughts?

 

[briant1362]

(note that second pic of the roll on the printer is upside down)

 

[briant1362]

some more interesting observations...if we "pre-feed" the material (unrolling a few feet so printer isnt pulling it off the roll) there is no bunching at all and no head strikes...yea! the side effect though is that the material doesn't track well and is moving to the left creating a skewed print. (For this job it's not an issue as we're printing 36" on 54" material so there's plenty of material available on the sides). Could the printer be pulling it through at an uneven rate across the width of the material?

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

We have a 104" Mutoh Dye Sub machine and I had the same problem when I first started at this company. We ended up using stops to lift the pinch rollers on each side and one in the middle and it solved the problem. Later I found the manual that suggested lifting the pinch rollers on each side. Not sure if thats an option on the 360 though. Good Luck