Need Help Magnetic material heat settings for Roland SP

[Astra Print Joel]

Hi, I’m currently running magnetic material in Roland SP 540 with limited success. Pre heater off, post heater on with max vacuum. My material is getting some wave to it. I don’t know what heat settings would work better.
New life 20 mil material, 24.5 inch wide, using 3 rollers on it and pre feeding and heavy coverage of pre stage metal with card stock.
Thoughts?

 

[Jester]

I assume that by "heavy coverage of pre stage metal with card stock" you are trying to cover the platen before the rollers to minimize the magnetic grip? That sounds like a good idea, but I assume the waves/ripples/buckling you are seeing are after the pinch rollers?

You might try turning down the vacuum. Because it is magnetic, the material already wants to stick quite strongly to the platen. Running a lot of vacuum and then trying to push the material across the platen just might be what is causing the material to buckle.

On our VG2, generic 30 mil magnetic vehicle material prints fine with the default vinyl settings including heat and vacuum. Of course, it is more rigid than the 20 mil refrigerator magnet so should "push" better without buckling. I don't have experience running 20mil magnetic (refrigerator magnets).

 

[Matt Gatenby]

I also have a Roland SP540V and have had some varied success with running both thickness magnetic material through. I mentioned varied as I had no troubles with the material 'sticking' to the pre-stage metal (stainless steel) or the platten (aluminum) from the tests I had completed, however, I did have issues with getting enough cutting blade pressure (max for SP540 is 300g) to cut all the way through the material even with a 30 degree blade and slowing everything to it's lowest settings. Also worth mentioning that I had used the default heat and print settings which seemed to work fine.

 

[Signed Out]

Do yourself a favor and print to vinyl and apply that to the magnet. Not worth the hassle and added wear to your machine trying to print on magnet. Yes it can be done, but just isn't worth it.

 

[Matt Gatenby]

Do yourself a favor and print to vinyl and apply that to the magnet. Not worth the hassle and added wear to your machine trying to print on magnet. Yes it can be done, but just isn't worth it.

I couldn't agree with you more! Any suggestions re. die-cutting the magnetic material? Should I be looking at a dedicated machine for this particular operation?

 

[Jester]

I agree that it seems very hard on the machine.

A 60 degree blade works to cut the magnet. What does not work is to print with marks, remove, and then cut on a normal vinyl plotter (to take the load off the expensive printer/cutter). Although I can get enough pressure and the cutting works, the material slips during the quick movements when reading the crop marks, and the subsequent plotting is out of alignment in the feed direction. Tried putting it back in the original machine and had the same problem with slipping while reading the cut marks. So print and cut is the only usable workflow for me.

I've only done a few pieces for our own use and don't plan on doing any volume.

 

[Signed Out]

We just don't do contour cut magnets anymore. Only squares and rectangles and round the corners with a corner rounder. We used to cut them on a stand alone cutter, you don't have to cut them all the way through. Just score them and they pop out pretty easily. But your best bet if you have a bunch to contour cut, break the job down into smaller chunks, like 4' max. Magnets suck anyways so we usually steer customers another direction. But if they have to have mags, they are square or rectangles.

 

[Astra Print Joel]

So I got it nailed down, going well. I don’t cut on the machine, I hand cut after then round the corners. Vehicle mags. Yes, 20 mil with “high energy” stick. They seem to work well. Selling an 16x24 for $25 and have done a few rolls already. Very happy.

 

[Strider]

We are starting down this path. Customer request. We have found the 20mil works best. Very important to make sure someone is at the machine running short amounts at a time and we have added a piece of card board that sits over the roll between the material and the excess we bagged off the roll. The material wants to cling to the roll and putting stress on the machine. Now the material flows smooth with no tension other than the weight of the material. We are only printing small magnets for Tap handles. 2" X 4" I am always looking for more tips and signs101 community is a great resource. Thank you to everyone here.