Keeping those fingerprints off vinyl media?

[Gino]

I can understand not having short runs, but not everyone is putting in 150' ft and using the whole roll in one shot. Most of our runs are from 6' or 8' up to 40' or 50'. So, if a shop has a buncha those 6' runs, and as some here think to run off 15", that could add up to about 31' of just throwing it away. We're only talking about off the front end of a roll, not even the sides are included in that. Not everyone has the luxury of waiting and ganging 4 or 5 jobs up at once, either. Not with this covid19 stuff around. Backlogs aren't as deep for most people, so this stuff gets run quickly.

 

[Boudica]

I'm having to change out media all the time. With 3 roll-to-roll printers, I try to keep certain media in certain printers, but it doesn't always work out as I would like, depending on my production schedule.

...I do like the notion of not even asking about laminate though. I ask far too much. I could nest more projects together if I kept my mouth shut. lol.

 

[ewded]

Well we don't do banners, too cheap, not worth the hassle, window perf is rare so I print only on white vinyl.

 

[Baz]

I grab the rolls from the ends. Lift up and carry the roll on one arm while holding one end with my other hand.
Never have problems except for mid summer. I get hot and leave a sweat mark on the roll from my arm.

Always wipe the first couple of feet with a static cloth before printing as well.

 

[GAC05]

Well we don't do banners, too cheap, not worth the hassle, window perf is rare so I print only on white vinyl.

If you are only doing 54" vinyl maybe you just need to work on your grip strength a little to handle the rolls from the ends.
This worked for me:

 

[DeadDoc]

I leave a roll of vinyl matte on a rod at all times, obviously I need to reinstall when shot and most other rolls I try and grab by the core only or lift over the shoulder an grab by the core. I am used to hauling two sacks of grain (25Kg ea.) from my previous job. We have 2 latex machines but one is indefinitely down so I just stole the media rod from that one for all other rolls. With the vinyl/anything with a backer, I have to extended it out into the heater at bare minimum to stop it from lifting off the backer and causing scratches and or jams so I am not that concerned IF I touch the media as most of that gets pushed out anyways, plus the dust is annoying. There have been days that we blow though 150ft of vinyl but that is only about once or so a quarter. I also do try and leave a plastic wrap loosely over e rolls to help with dust and random people touching.

We have about 15-20 stocks for latex printing. When dealing with canvas, I always wear gloves as we do stretching with archival grade canvas.

Apparently, I am the only one to ever really be concerned by this at this company though.