Need Help Help! Are these air bubbles or something else??

[Your Plate Frames]

Hi everyone,
We run a small business selling number plate covers and surrounds but we don't physically make them ourselves. One of our manufacturers makes a portion of the covers and they use a Canon Oce Arizona 2280XT to print our black borders. They were fantastic when we first started with them but about 12 months ago we started having issues (small dots/holes) with the printing job they were doing. We had a meeting with them (they are really lovely people) and they said they hadn't changed anything and couldn't think of what it might be so they tried a different primer which seemed to improve it somewhat but the last batch we had were awful. I've contacted them again but they have no idea what's going on. Besides this issue they have been amazing to work with and we would like to continue our professional relationship with them, so I thought if I could get some advice elsewhere I might be able to let them know so they can look into it further.

Can anyone tell by looking at the following photos what theses holes/dots actually are and what's causing them? I'm pretty sure they are air bubbles and not from a primer issue. I'm sure their process of manufacturing them is they print all the borders first on a clear sheet of acrylic and then cut them out after that. My first thought was they were printing after cutting and the dots were being caused by the dust after cutting them but then we found out they did it the other way around.

If anyone has any advice we would be so grateful so we can get to the bottom of this problem asap as its costing us a lot of money in unusable products and now no stock online.

Thanks

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

Looks like the material is dirty/dusty before they print them, I use to get those marks when screen printing onto plastics, can also be from static

 

[somcalmetim]

Hard to see, are those unprinted sections of vinyl or is there holes in the clear vinyl there? Some look like holes and some look like laminated dust bubbles...is there a tiny grain of sand/detritus in the center of them?
If they are unprinted section of vinyl (possibly darker/thicker ring of ink around spots where it has receded from problem area) it looks like dusty/contaminated material...did they start doing any woodworking in the building lately? the static of printing rolls can suck in dust from neighboring rooms...had to block off a doorway here...
If those are holes in the clear vinyl it looks like they got a new guy on the laminator who got all sorts of dust and dirt under the vinyl when mounting them on the acrylic so they tried to cut the dust bubbles off flush...

 

[Rohit Prasad]

It’s just dirt or small pieces of acrylic left over after they are routed.
They need to blown off or brushed before they go in the printer.

 

[Your Plate Frames]

Hard to see, are those unprinted sections of vinyl or is there holes in the clear vinyl there? Some look like holes and some look like laminated dust bubbles...is there a tiny grain of sand/detritus in the center of them?
If they are unprinted section of vinyl (possibly darker/thicker ring of ink around spots where it has receded from problem area) it looks like dusty/contaminated material...did they start doing any woodworking in the building lately? the static of printing rolls can suck in dust from neighboring rooms...had to block off a doorway here...
If those are holes in the clear vinyl it looks like they got a new guy on the laminator who got all sorts of dust and dirt under the vinyl when mounting them on the acrylic so they tried to cut the dust bubbles off flush...

No Its just where the ink has lifted or hasnt stuck properly. No holes in the clear acrylic. And no bits of sand or debris under the ink. Its very weird. Thanks for your advice though

 

[Your Plate Frames]

It’s just dirt or small pieces of acrylic left over after they are routed.
They need to blown off or brushed before they go in the printer.

Youd think so but there's no bits of acrylic underneath when the ink comes off and they swear that they print first and then cut so it shouldn't affect it as the ink is UV cured.

 

[Gino]

Ask them to flood a few pieces here & there. Looks like some sorta contamination.

 

[Your Plate Frames]

Ask them to flood a few pieces here & there. Looks like some sorta contamination.

Hi Gino, what do you mean by flood?

 

[Gino]

Whether these are being flatbed printed or screen printed, put ink on the entire surface at the same consistency. See if there are bubbles, fisheye or any other blemishes elsewhere. If there is, most likely you have substrate contamination. If it's in the ink, it would appear on other substrates.

 

[JBurton]

Perhaps a change in supplier of the acrylic, or further up the chain, a change in the acrylic manufacturing process. I'd ask to see their process if you're serious about helping them get the best product for you, they may ask for some sort of NDA.