Issue with Roland VP-540 and 3M 180C Controltac

[Bobby H]

Looking for advice from other Roland VersaCamm owners, particularly those who use the new VP-540.

I'm trying to find a solution for getting proper looking prints on 3M 180C Controltac material when printing to it with our new 54" Roland VersaCamm VP-540 printer.

The printer works great on a lots of other materials we've used, but I'm getting banding issues when printing small test images on the Controtac vinyl. I don't think I have the right printing profile loaded in the Roland VersaWorks software (I have the PGCT - Premium Cast Vinyl [ESM] profile selected). There doesn't appear to be any specific material profiles available for high quality repositional vinyls. Is this something I need to download and add to VersaWorks?

I don't think the art file itself is the problem, it's a 4' X 10' Photoshop EPS file at 72ppi native resolution.

One other thing I had to do was turn down the material heating elements. When the Controltac is heated the material pinch rollers leave indentations in the vinyl and then that shows up in the print. Thankfully, it's very easy to cancel and delete a job out of the printer before it has gone very far.

 

[zigns62]

I set mind to PGCT profile and HQ CMYK-v photo wpass and it looks great. My heater settings are 102. Sometime if i have banding I try Med. cleanning. Hope that helps.

 

[woolly]

i havent looked but i would have thought there is a 3m profile.

as far as pinch roller marks.
with vinyl 2 rollers for printing all of them for cutting laminated print.
are you aware that if you put the rollers between the gritted areas they dont come down.


woolly

 

[mediaman]

The Roland ESM-PGCT is repackaged IJ180C - this is stated in Roland's literature - so that profile should work fine. I think 72dpi is too low but that shouldn't effect banding. As Wooley says, only use the outside rollers to print, print at High Quality, and put the print heater at 112°F and 120°F on the dryer. You may want to print with crop marks and cut later with all rollers down. Cut accuracy is much better with all rollers functioning.

 

[Gino]

We have the SP and it has a Roland designated profile for 'Wrap' material. We expanded on this and have made several 'Wraps' profiles for giving speed or quality.

 

[Bobby H]

Sorry for not responding back earlier. I think I have the printing issues pretty much solved.

The biggest culprit causing the issues were two little rubber tabs inside the machine near where the print heads pick up ink. After a couple of weeks worth of pretty serious use, these tabs had started to curl. I think the solvents in the Eco-Sol inks eventually dried out the rubber and caused the tabs to curl. Replacing them improved print quality a great deal. This occurred after going through 1 set of CMYK ink cartridges and getting a little way into the second set. We have been doing a decent amount of printing on white translucent and clear film for back-lighting purposes and that requires double and triple ink passes.

I gave up trying to print on Controltac at high speed. Banding is far less of an issue when running at standard speed and pretty much non-existent when printing at high quality. High speed works pretty well on other materials like banner material.

are you aware that if you put the rollers between the gritted areas they dont come down.

Actually, I get a pinch roller error warning on the status display of the printer if the rollers are placed in the wrong areas.

Pinch roller indentations on Controltac disappear after about 3' of vinyl has been fed out from the roll. I think it's just easier to remove the pinch rollers that are going to roll over printed areas.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this printer. It's easy to use. Routine maintenance (such as cleaning) is pretty simple.

The 54" Seal laminator we bought is a little more challenging. I hate the safety sensors in the thing. If the print you're feeding into it lift up just a tiny bit the switch kicks in and stops your print (leaving a nice mark in an otherwise spotlessly laminated print). I've thought about trying to stick a couple mirrors in front of those sensors to fool the beam. But I think we'll just work on improving our laminating techniques instead.