Need Help ink not sticking to acrylic?

[stealey]

Hi
i have a mimaki UJF3042 MK2
I'm having issues with the ink coming off when I'm printing onto acrylic blocks and getting orders sent back.
when its first printed it seems pretty solid but im not scratching it enough to try to damage it, lots of the complaints are that the corners chip off. i was using a primer we bought from mimaki but now they are telling us this only works on glass and they don't have a acrylic primer?
anyone use a good primer for acrylics or know where to look for one? any advice would be great. we are using the LH-100 ink set.

 

[Sindex Printing]

What kind of acrylic are you using? Is it cast or extruded?

Here is a couple of great things that helped me with uv printing and laser cutting acrylic.
Hope this helps

https://sdgmag.com/features/uv-cure-printing-plastics

https://www.acmeplastics.com/cast-vs-extruded

 

[stealey]

were using 20mm thick cast acrylic, printing in reverse backed in white ink. they look great but the ink just isn't sticking enough, and were struggling to find a decent primer

 

[Sindex Printing]

Have you tried these couple of companies.
I have had good luck with acrylic so far without a primer. I found a good profile and made some modifications to get it working good.

https://www.apex-jet.com/products/A...inkjet-printers-glass-metal-tile-acrylic.html

https://arrowinks.com/plastiboost-destatic-cleaner-primer/

 

[stealey]

thanks for the help ill give them a try

 

[ChrisN]

I've had good results with Supply55 AP3155 (http://www.supply55.com/adhesion-promoters-s/78.htm). I doubt you'll be able to easily get digital print acrylic at that thickness, so an adhesion promoter is probably your best bet. Also, you might want to look into extruded acrylic. I've had cast acrylic that varied over 1mm in thickness over the length of the piece I was printing on. Not fun when you ruin a (not cheap) pre-cut acrylic piece...

 

[FutureSigns]

Was just going to suggest the supply55 adhesion promoter as well.

 

[bowtievega]

We print quite a bit of ADA signs made from acrylic. Typically we are using non glare acrylic and the DA acrylic specifically for printing is tough to get in non glare so we use the Mimaki primer with pretty good results. We also back paint acrylic and use VPS-1 adhesion promoter from Grip Guard for that process and it works great.

 

[StarSign]

Before we found a supplier for the DA acrylic we would sand with 600 grit to get the ink to stick.