JV33-Rasterlink File Size vs Print Size issue

[TrustMoore_TN]

I have been noticing recently on our prints that we have been losing anywhere from 1/8" to 1/4" on prints over 96" through the printer (feed direction). The scan direction size has been off by 1/16th to 1/8" at most . It hasn't been a huge problem till now since alot of our prints are created with a 1" bleed and I can usually compensate for it because of the bleed. Today I printed some PosPro 200 film and laminated it for some pop-up panels for a portable display. I setup the file in Rasterlink and let the RIP handle the tiling. Now that they are all trimmed, my width is (scan direction) is short by 1/16" and my height (feed direction) is short by 3/8" and none of the panels match up side to side. All of them are different heights, with the worst being 3/8" short. The only tiling I have in the file is vertical tiles setup at 22", 26.5",26.5", 26.5", 26.5", 22". Overall height in the rip of each panel is 86.625". Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas of what could be happening?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Solventinkjet]

The printer spec is +/-0.3% of the total length of the print for accuracy of length and +/-0.1% for repeatably. That is before expansion or contraction due to ink coverage, environment, laminating etc. So before you even lay ink down your expected accuracy and repeatably for a 96" print is between 95.616" and 96.384". Most of the time it's closer than that but that is the range that is considered within spec. Add the fact that some of your panels will have more ink coverage than others and therefore more contraction of the vinyl. Also running it through a laminator and other factors will change the size.

Your best bet is to use the overlap feature in the tiling mode to make all of the panels bigger so that they overlap and you can cut them down to whatever size you need without sacrificing the alignment of the panels.

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

The printer spec is +/-0.3% of the total length of the print for accuracy of length and +/-0.1% for repeatably. That is before expansion or contraction due to ink coverage, environment, laminating etc. So before you even lay ink down your expected accuracy and repeatably for a 96" print is between 95.616" and 96.384". Most of the time it's closer than that but that is the range that is considered within spec. Add the fact that some of your panels will have more ink coverage than others and therefore more contraction of the vinyl. Also running it through a laminator and other factors will change the size.

Your best bet is to use the overlap feature in the tiling mode to make all of the panels bigger so that they overlap and you can cut them down to whatever size you need without sacrificing the alignment of the panels.

Thanks for your response. I agree that ink coverage and contraction can certainly be factors when printing on vinyl, but since I'm printing on 10 mil Polyester film, I would have thought that the shrinkage would be minimized. And since I didn't have this issue 2 months ago when I printed panels using the same setup-substrate-laminate, it makes me wonder if there is some calibration issue with the printer. Also to clarify, the prints don't line up side to side at the panel lines. They will match at the bottom or top but they get completely out of alignment as they go along the length of the panel.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Are you having any banding problems? You could try to run the print feed calibration to make the print length more accurate. If you are getting banding, that could be the issue. Also, the older the pinch rollers are, the harder it is for the printer to stay accurate. Do you know how old the pinch rollers are?

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

Are you having any banding problems? You could try to run the print feed calibration to make the print length more accurate. If you are getting banding, that could be the issue. Also, the older the pinch rollers are, the harder it is for the printer to stay accurate. Do you know how old the pinch rollers are?

I'm not getting any banding issues at all. Running the media comp anytime I put a new material on and the print itself looks great. As far as the pinch rollers, I honestly don't know how old they are. I've been here for a year and I think the machine is at least 5+ years old. I'll have to find out if they've been replaced. I decided to tile the prints individually in Illustrator and print 2 of them that lay side by side and see if I get the same result.

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

I'm not getting any banding issues at all. Running the media comp anytime I put a new material on and the print itself looks great. As far as the pinch rollers, I honestly don't know how old they are. I've been here for a year and I think the machine is at least 5+ years old. I'll have to find out if they've been replaced. I decided to tile the prints individually in Illustrator and print 2 of them that lay side by side and see if I get the same result.

Same result as before - I didn't laminate the 2 panels so that I could save the cost of the polycarb lam. Not sure what the issue could be now...