HELP! Problem printing on magnet material!

[tjybcy]

Hello,
We have a new ValueJet printer & tried printing on regular 30 mil Magnetic
material based on the suggestion of a sign supply company who said we
could successfully do this with the Mutoh.

However, the heads of the printer actually moved the magnet material
during printing, so we stopped the machine immediately. Since that time,
there are horizontal lines in the black & cyan only, but not yellow &
magenta. We have completed several cleaning cycles, but this has not
helped. Did we damage something?? Has anyone successfully printed directly on magnetic material on a ValueJet or on any other digital printer?
Thanks for any help.

 

[iSign]

that sucks!

I would never print on magnetic...
"a sign supplycompany"? ...like the one who sold you the printer? I hope?

...as I said, I would never do it, but people do. It can be done, but it can damage something more easily then just about anything else you would ever put in there.

I don't know your machine well enough to get specific, but my machine has a thick & thin setting... of course you would want to be on thick... but could the mag material have humped up somehow? If the heads cleared the mag at the start... but later hit, or scraped the media... I would guess it lifted up.

By the way, 4 different posts in 5 minutes will just confuse things... I'm not if you thought your posting wasn't working... anyway, I wish you luck!

By the way, do you print what my printer calls a "test draw" with a bunch of little lines that should form neat rows of cells when all is good... but broken erratic lines when there's trouble? When are you seeing the "lines" in any printing you do?

 

[mark in tx]

Get on the phone with the person who told you you could print on Magnetic, and let them know what happened, then talk to that persons boss about what happened. You might be able to get them to take responsibility for any repairs. Maybe.

It is quite possible the print head was damaged, and print heads are not cheap.

 

[Jackpine]

Hello,
We have a new ValueJet printer & tried printing on regular 30 mil Magnetic
material based on the suggestion of a sign supply company who said we
could successfully do this with the Mutoh.

However, the heads of the printer actually moved the magnet material
during printing, so we stopped the machine immediately. Since that time,
there are horizontal lines in the black & cyan only, but not yellow &
magenta. We have completed several cleaning cycles, but this has not
helped. Did we damage something?? Has anyone successfully printed directly on magnetic material on a ValueJet or on any other digital printer?
Thanks for any help.

As iSign said " I would NEVER print on magnet material". Do a nozzle check or make a file with solid blocks of CMYK and print a test. It sounds like you had head strikes. Contact the sign supply company....from your profile it sounds like Sign Warehouse. There are head height settings, but I would print on vinyl and laminate it on the magnet. Good luck.

 

[Bradster941]

FYI, when making magnets, most people suggest to print to vinyl, then apply to the magnets for just this reason.

 

[Replicator]

tjybcy - If the printer is anything like my Roland then you should be able to raise the heads

by just moving a lever on the side of the print head unit !

 

[threeputt]

Sorry for your misfortune. My machine allows for a height adjustment, but we don't use it, even though the tech says you can print magnetic material. It's just too risky. Heads are $850 bucks each for my machine.

Perform some tests to see if they're is any damage. Certainly contact your supplier of the machine and ask for advice. After this simply print vinyl and apply to magnetic stock after cold lamming.

Good luck, hope nothing's wrong and you were lucky.

 

[high impact]

I also would never print on magnetic material. I cut magnetic a couple of times on my old plotter but don't recommend that either.

Was the heater on and casued the magnetic mat to "swell" and lift into the printhead? I had this the other day printing on mylar...it didn't strike the head but lifted enough to mess up the print.

 

[DPD]

My mutoh has functions that I can use to test if the heads are damaged. Hopefully, yours are not. Check your catalog for a test called a "nozzle check".

 

[thewood]

I concur with those who will not print on magnetic material--not only for the risk of head damage, but also potential feed motor damage. It's so easy to print to vinyl and mount to magnetic. Also, if you damage a print, then you are wasting vinyl only--not costly magnetic. Do a test print, and let us know the outcome.

 

[tjybcy]

Update!

Well, I really do appreciate all the advice & responses! It still doesn't look good. I spoke with Mutoh today & they said to never try to print on magnetic material with the ValueJet--It's not designed for this purpose. So, hopefully my mistake might keep someone else out there from going through the kind of day I've had today!

I tried a few "home remedies" the Mutoh rep suggested (cleaned the machine with lint free cloths, soaked the pad under the heads with alcohol & ran probably 15 cleaning cycles). The lines that were forming are more faint now, but they're still there in the black & the cyan. Those 2 colors are beside each other & were the first to hit the edge of the mag material. So, I'm suspecting to have to have the heads replaced.....it's just not correcting itself like he'd hoped it might.

Again, you guys are great! Thanks. And of course, any other thoughts or tips to try would be very welcomed!

Teresa
www.avsignshop.com

 

[iSign]

I hope it works out for you.

You might be able to leverage a better repair price from the folks who sold you the printer. Even though it's not their fault (unless it was they who told you to do it) ... you have a long future stretching out before you of buying inks & media.. so if that same supplier is looking to get your business on all that stuff... ask them to take care of these heads for you. It can't hurt to ask & they profit enough on the machine & the ongoing consumables... so have them take pity on you for this mishap & not have to profit so much off you this one time... in exchange for your ongoing loyalty on ink & media purchases.

Thanks for warning everyone... now you could warn us what sign supply place gave you this great advice?

 

[tjybcy]

update

Well, to this sign supply company's credit.....they did tell me that they didn't know about the ValuJet, but that they have lots of Mutoh owners printing directly on magnetic material all the time & that it should work great since this is also a Mutoh product. So, technically, he "covered" himself. I should have double checked my info regarding the VJ specifically since it's such a "new" product. Live & Learn I guess. I will say that it wasn't SignWarehouse, who sold me the printer, but I don't totally blame the guy, so I don't feel right bashing him too badly here.

Anyway, we rushed into it hoping to save a little time (things are so busy around here lately), & usually when you try to save time by "cutting corners", it comes back to bite ya.

Thanks for all your great advice! By the way, I enjoyed your Big Squeegee videos! We love all 3 of ours & use them literally on every single job we have that's over 12-18"!! It's the greatest thing since sliced bread! Saved us a ton to not have to buy an expensive laminator!
Take care,

Teresa

 

[Tx Rumbles]

I did this with the Outdoor 48" from Signwarehouse, they had me run under menu utility/clean/ then select Powerful. It took two times to get my yellow back.

Mark