Head strikes on Banner - Suggestions?

[cmcerniglia]

I'm printing on 13oz Matte Banner (63" Roll), on a Mimaki JV3 160-SP. I'm getting small head strikes every 2 feet or so. The roll does not appear to be damaged and we store it vertically. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to avoid head strikes? Are there optimal heat settings for this type of banner?

 

[J Hill Designs]

I lower my pre-platen temp when I see media buckling that causes head strikes...I operate at 20-30-50...just my 2¢

also, roll out the media by hand so that the printer isn't tugging on the roll (esp when full)

 

[Circleville Signs]

+1 to changing temp settings. On my VJ1304 I turn the pre and platen OFF when printing to banner, and crank my dryer up to 60. (This was based on advice received here)

Also, one thing you way want to do is REALLY give your head a good clean. I had all kinds of little craziness going on there that I had to really work at getting un-gunked.

 

[petepaz]

what jhill said
and not sure if mimaki has this adjustment but on our rolands we can adjust the print head height for thicker materials

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Lower the heat a bit. We run banner on our JV3 at 40/38, but if it's a cheaper banner material it may need lower heat than that or it will continue to buckle.

You may also consider raising the heads to the high position. You may need to do a bidirectional calibration when it's raised and then again when you lower it back down, but that's easy to do and should take about a minute.

 

[GoodPeopleFlags]

I highly recommend keeping some slack in the banner material as it's coming off the roll. Everytime I forget to do that, it will buckle and head strike. Also keep the printer head up to high. And lower the temp a tad. But definitely leave slack in the roll.

 

[Ghost Prophet]

I highly recommend keeping some slack in the banner material as it's coming off the roll. Everytime I forget to do that, it will buckle and head strike. Also keep the printer head up to high. And lower the temp a tad. But definitely leave slack in the roll.

+1 on slack, this helps heaps and it's so simple.

 

[CentralSigns]

Are you using the right profiles. You did't mention that. Profiles will fix heat, and head height issues for the materials used, which is where most problems come from. This comes from experience on a Roland, your must be simular.

 

[kirkbauguess]

Are you printing on both sides? I have noticed that if I print with gloss side down, I get head strikes. You should use matte banner for 2-sided banners. Also turn all heat off, the heat makes it stick.

 

[Rooster]

What solved it for me was to just turn the platen heater off. I leave the pre and post heaters where they would be normally.

I haven't had a head strike since. Even with LG banner vinyl which was the most finicky of all the brands I've tried for 13 oz smooth finish banner vinyl.

 

[signcrafters london]

I have a question about head height. I recently installed oversized dampers on my JV3-160sp. Because the new dampers are so much taller than the old ones, my head height lever no longer fits.

Without the lever, I'm guessing I can raise the carriage as high as it will go for the "thick" setting. Is that right? Second question: do I lower the carriage as low as it can go for "thin" mode? Is it possible for the carriage to get too low?

 

[cmyimage]

right keep some slack, especially for the wound print side in banner.

 

[petesign]

Could turning up vacuum settings to high help that problem also? Curious, because I almost always select that option before I go to print banners, just out of habit I suppose.

 

[LoudArt]

Haven't seen this suggestion yet, but what I found helps a lot with cheap banner material is to use (lower) ALL the pinch rollers, not just the ones on the edges. Seems to work a lot better. (I also lower the temperature some) this is on a roland xc540

 

[Fatboy]

Funny enough I use to get head strikes all the time and then I cleaned my encoder strip.Sorted the problem out.Also as mentioned before make sure you unroll big rolls by hand. I even take my cutter blade out to make sure nothing gets hooked.(Just remember to put it back;printed a huge print and cut job and at the end realized I did not put the blade back LOL)

 

[CL Graphics]

what would the encoder strip have to do with head strikes.

 

[Fatboy]

A faulty encoder strip puts unnesesary strain on the printer as it gets confused as to where to print.It is actually quit common. Printer thinks it is a head strike and then the message appears

 

[signswi]

For 13oz we print at 45/45 on our JV3-160SP, though we rarely run matte. 10oz the heat gets dropped to 42/42--these settings sometimes change depending on relative humidity. Often media buckling has to do with the media not being loaded straight, a bigger problem with large width media as your situation. We run head height on "thick" (actually run on thick for about everything and calibrate for it).

Make sure your media is on the core straight so it feeds true, often media will get offset from true due to handling the roll (the edges of the media should be "flat", not slanted...think of a book). I prefer the media to be taut, not slack, but slack is an easy fix on short runs--on long you have no choice but to make sure everything is square and taut. Also make sure you're taping it to the takeup carefully, don't rush it or it could end up pulling off square.