Gerber Edge FX Spotty Prints.

[timjitsu]

Hey Guys,

Within the last 2 weeks my Edge FX has been putting out spotty prints. All these prints were done with a freshly cleaned print head and I even cleaned the squeegee on the print head and the 2 squeegees on the vinyl press arm that holds the vinyl on the feed wheel. All foils I used were Gerber foils, and all vinyl and printer settings are the same as before I start getting these problems and the prints were good.

I will say this, I ran out of the Gerber Thermal wipes and have been using 91% Iso Alcohol and the lint free cloth that was provided with the printer. There is a warning label on the printer that says anything other than 98% Iso Alcohol will damage the print head but I called the rep who sold me the printer and came to install it if 91% was okay, he said that it's fine, just don't go any lower. I hope the problem the cloth, maybe their lint free cloth isn't so lint free? Here are some examples of my prints. Let me know what you think.

The problem is really noticeable when I use spot foils at anything less than 90%. Here is an example of cobalt and intense blue at 60%. I was using cobalt blue on a job and it came out bad so I tested an intense blue to see if it was a foil problem.

A friend of mine who also uses an Edge FX told me he also had this problem but with blue foils mostly. So I tested other colors at 60%. Here is Cobalt Blue, Green, and Ruby Red.

This one is a process print.

Here is a spot Black print I did the next day to warm up the printer.

 

[Jburns]

well your warmup bar print looks good.
Have you tried switching your vinyl to a scotchcal 220 or 3m vinyl?

 

[timjitsu]

well your warmup bar print looks good.
Have you tried switching your vinyl to a scotchcal 220 or 3m vinyl?

I'm using Oracal 651. There isn't an option for Oracal vinyls in Gerber so I'm using Scotchcal 220 for the settings. But the thing is that the settings and vinyl never changed. It just started printing like this.Those spots are in the print, it's not dust on top of it.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Switching the vinyl to Gerber 220 to see if it prints better is an essential step in isolating whether you have a materials problem or a machine problem.

I always used the Gerber Quantum 2000 vinyl palette in Omega for Oracal 651. It is a closer match in characteristics than is the Gerber 220 series.

 

[jfiscus]

Looks like a materials problem to me. Some materials are just defective. You can have a roll that is printing good then after a bit it is unprintable. Put a different roll on and try again and post results.

 

[Browner]

That spot black print looks like it’s just really shotty (pitted or dirty) vinyl. Sometimes, I find that if I’m near the end of a roll of vinyl (last couple of yards), it gets worse. That said, for the most part we use 3M 220 or 3M SC50, and rarely encounter this issue.

The halftone prints look like an overtranfser of foil. Apply some premask to the print to remove it. Try lowering your heat settings - though, as Fred said, applying a different material setting could (should) do the trick as well.

 

[Russell J. Bean]

I agree with Fred & Chris. Gerber sent out a new "print file" about a year ago. Ever since then my prints are also coming out spotty. Seeing your using Orcal 651 the end of the rolls are very spotty. I usually cant use the last yard or so printing solid colors. Choosing Scotchcal 2000 or 4000 will help with the spottyness. However your warmup bar looks good so it might just be a heat setting on the print itself. (In the print screen hit F-11 and Try changing your heat settings. Or try adjusting the Vinyl Settings and go "Darker" this should help the foil. If none of these work you can always substitute the vinyl. When I have very stubborn prints I switch to 280 Reflective. (Just in the print setting) then when I go to plot I switch it back to Scotchcal or 220 for the cut. The Gerber wipes are just to cover the bases. I use a Q-Tip and Isopropyl alcohol to clean the print head. This has been done for well over 5 years with no issues.