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Nasty smell from printer

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
I don't know if it's the vinyl or the printer...this is happening with 3M vinyl (IJ35c and 180C) on our HP 560. When I walk in the print room it smells like warm dog sh&t on a hot day. It's really kinda nauseating. We've noticed you can still smell it a little after the prints are on the table and we are peeling or weeding the vinyl. Has 3M changed the composition of their vinyls? Used to like the smell of that vinyl, was kinda sweet smelling. Now....not so much.
 

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
I don't know if it's the vinyl or the printer...this is happening with 3M vinyl (IJ35c and 180C) on our HP 560. When I walk in the print room it smells like warm dog sh&t on a hot day. It's really kinda nauseating. We've noticed you can still smell it a little after the prints are on the table and we are peeling or weeding the vinyl. Has 3M changed the composition of their vinyls? Used to like the smell of that vinyl, was kinda sweet smelling. Now....not so much.

Can you smell it while printing? Is your condensate unit working properly?

Try printing 65,000 sqft in a 150sqft printer room... your nose just dies like ours has.
 

Johnny Best

Active Member
They just came out with the new fragrance.
fragrance.jpg
 

GaSouthpaw

Profane and profane accessories.
Maybe something got spilled on your heaters? Just tossing it out there because we use DigiDri heaters for post-drying prints on our Seikos, and the heaters themselves will give off a smell when they cook off any dust that's on them. Might be worth checking your heaters to find out.
As far as I can tell, the smell of 180 at least hasn't changed.
Then again, my allergies keep me clogged up all the time so between them and the smell of five printers running maybe I just don't notice it.
 

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
Can you smell it while printing? Is your condensate unit working properly?

Try printing 65,000 sqft in a 150sqft printer room... your nose just dies like ours has.

Yes that is when we smell it, while printing. Our printer room is about 10 x 16...has two printers in it. Open the door and it hits you.
I'm starting to think it's something to do with that condensation remover....might be a mildew smell. Something is up.
Edit: again, we can smell it on the vinyl after it's printed. Mostly the IJ35c....so I think it really is the vinyl.
 

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
Yes that is when we smell it, while printing. Our printer room is about 10 x 16...has two printers in it. Open the door and it hits you.
I'm starting to think it's something to do with that condensation remover....might be a mildew smell. Something is up.
Edit: again, we can smell it on the vinyl after it's printed. Mostly the IJ35c....so I think it really is the vinyl.

So on our 570 that we have ran just under 80,000sqft through I noticed the condenser has a filter... maybe that has build up and its not fully extracting. its probably a vinyl smell but the machine should remove most of the smell with this new system and the door closed.
 

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
Try reducing your heat maybe? Had the same issue and knocking the heat down to 215 helped.
Nah...I've reduced the heat settings already to deal with other print issues, i.e. material warping/material jams.
 
Iam currently having a similar problem while printing on 35c smells like marijuana lol not kidding!!! Customers ask about it all the time


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Behrmon

Pr. Bear-Mon
Iam currently having a similar problem while printing on 35c smells like marijuana lol not kidding!!! Customers ask about it all the time


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Been noticing this for a while now with most paper back 3M lams, smells more like weed than weed smells like weed o_O, maybe they are splitting the cost of container ships?

As to the OP, we are noticing much less of the overwhelming shtank that was taking over the shop from our 570 when using IJ35/IJ40 SV480.
 

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
NOW I am noticing the same sh!t smell on our Oracal 210 matte laminate....??? How is it 2 different brands, as well as 2 different types of material, have the same nasty smell? No way they are made in the same factory....perhaps they share the same 3rd party adhesive? It is making us all nauseous....guess I will be switching laminate brands now too.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Maybe a dog or something is hiding in your closet and sh!tting all over your media while you're home in bed sleeping. People used to play tricks on others by placing dead fish under the rear seat of a car or on the manifold of an engine block, but this would be taking it to new heights. I'm gonna go with you have a funny person working for you without a sense of smell.
 

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
Maybe a dog or something is hiding in your closet and sh!tting all over your media while you're home in bed sleeping. People used to play tricks on others by placing dead fish under the rear seat of a car or on the manifold of an engine block, but this would be taking it to new heights. I'm gonna go with you have a funny person working for you without a sense of smell.
Nah I wish that's what it was. This is the second out of the box roll of 210M that we have noticed this with. And it's heightened by the heat from laminating with it.
 

chester215

Just call me Chester.
Had the same problem with Oracal PVC material in our latex printer.
Some rolls smelled awful, others did not.
 

DJr

New Member
Are u sure a rodent hasn't died in between a wall or false ceiling somewhere? That happened at our shop and it took some time to figure out. I doubt it's materials as you wouldn't have it on two different brands. Good luck!


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eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
Are u sure a rodent hasn't died in between a wall or false ceiling somewhere? That happened at our shop and it took some time to figure out. I doubt it's materials as you wouldn't have it on two different brands. Good luck!


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Nope. It is clearly the roll of material. Stopped using IJ35c because it had that smell....then it creeped up in this laminate. Only 2 things out of MANY rolls of different media and laminate that we use. It is bizarre.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Well, here is a picture of Larry and our shop dog from some years ago, when we got our first solvent printer
printer masks.jpg
. You're probably gonna hafta resort to this or hire aliens who don't breath our air.
 
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