HP Latex

[10sacer]

I looked on HP's website for my answer and I think its "No", but was wondering from you owners out there if a Latex printer will print and adhere to .020 styrene.

 

[jwright350]

I can tell you that my eco solvent printers will! Do it all the time, with the heaters turned off of course.

 

[10sacer]

Styrene

I have a Mutoh Blizzard running eco-sol inks.
What did you do for a profile?
WHy the need to turn the heaters off?

I only ask because we typically print styrene on our flatbed - but the static has been so much fun lately that the image quality will suck wind right now.

 

[jwright350]

Here is my experience. I've printed .020 for a long time.

It always looked sorta "dull" when I ran it on my Falcon Outdoor Jr. Now that I have the VJ2606 it seems to do much better. I think this is due to the larger print head (which I think the blizzard has) and the revised wave/layering scheme the machine uses to print (which I think the blizzard does not have). On either machine the heat will cause the styrene to buckle and you'll have head strikes. On my 2606 I have 3 heaters and so I do turn the post heater up to 40...but that heater is really far away from the platen so if it buckles I don't really care.

Pretty much any profile that lays down lots of ink works best.. I like to use the one that I have setup for photo paper.

I also run it on my UV flat bed. But I either have to blow a fan to help cool the material or set it to a unidirectional print mode. The nice thing about the ecosolvent ink is that it will air dry...but you gotta have the UV radiation to make the UV ink cure (not the heat).

I also contour cut the .020 on my graphtec vinyl cutter by taking the tables off my color span and using them to make a big table for the vinyl cutter. This sorta makes it like a roll feed flat bed cutter.

 

[10sacer]

Wow... I wouldn't have even thought to try it that way.

Thanks

 

[jwright350]

works like a champ!