Not sure what to try next...........................................

[Gino]

Two samples below are printed on oracal 3850 translucent stock and printed on 3 pass with a roland 540 cmyk. The one picture is the camera about 6" away and the other is about a foot away. LEDs are inside the 20" x 30" box.

Not shown is the first panel we printed at 2 pass and it had a slight bit of these dots down the very middle of the panel. Thought it was contaminated. Last print with that roll was about 3 or 4 weeks ago and everything was 100%. These don't show up until ya turn the lights on. These dots were completely on the entire surface. You cannot feel them....... anyway I can't feel them. Both times the vinyl was wiped down with alcohol before printing.

I don't think I can die-cut black, because the registered Rs aren't even 1/8" tall.

Any ideas ?? Gino

 

[GAC05]

Do you have any clear you have reliably printed on before for an overlay? I've had to do that with some translucent that just would not print solid and clean.

 

[Gino]

Do you mean as in making a second layer and doubling them up ?? That might be a little tough to do.

 

[GAC05]

Do you mean as in making a second layer and doubling them up ?? That might be a little tough to do.

Print the color on the clear and overlay it on the unprinted translucent

 

[weyandsign]

Why did you wipe it with alcohol? I think you got something in the air or something on the vinyl.

 

[Joe House]

What profile are you using? Did you try a higher pass count print mode?

 

[Gino]

That's why I wiped it. I'm on the 4th print. I'm using cal translucent 720 x 1440 2 and 3 pass. This little 20" x 30" piece takes like 45 minutes.

Now, here's a picture a bit further out. You can't feel a thing before or after printing. I'm almost 100" into the roll now, so it's literally been untouched by any hands that I know of.

 

[petepaz]

by pass do you mean return to origin and reprint or are you doing an over print?
i have seen this with the white ink when i would do multiple pass and the previous pass was not dry yet

maybe it's just too much ink and that's the effect?

why aren't you direct printing to the panels with your UV printer?

 

[Johnny Best]

Sub it out to Signs365, or your favorite vendors.

 

[weyandsign]

For a lit sign 12pass with 1 overprint, or just cut it out of black vinyl and print a small R symbol separately if that's the only thing holding it up.

 

[JBurton]

Do you mean as in making a second layer and doubling them up ?? That might be a little tough to do.

What happens on one or two pass? You sure you aren't dumping too much ink?
As far as laying two pieces of clear, it's usually pretty easy, but you need to do both in the same fashion, so if you're laminating, laminate both, even better if you can run them side by side. Here I have two prints aligned, stupid small copy at this scale, lining it up is easier than you'd think. The size of the cabinet is 12" square for reference. If I zoom on this image, I can see misalignment, irl it looks fine.

For plotting, I'd just let it plot the circle out, then do a mess of R's on a piece by themselves and see which one you can weed perfect and pop it in.


Frankly, are you sure this isn't in the print? It looks kinda plainly distressed. Like it's going real fast! Vrrroom! Just make sure when you tell your customer, you have your favorite cohort behind you making the vroom sound, even better if he throws a turbo whistle in there too.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Looks like too much ink on a non receptive surface to me. How the heck do you get decent 2 pass prints on that Roland? I had to run 6-8 minimum.

 

[truckgraphics]

Looks like it's in the print to me too. Looks fine, but then if it's supposed to be jet black, it doesn't. I'd find out.

 

[jcskikus]

I've had this happen years ago, printing on Avery clear with an Epson S80600. I was printing large pieces in reverse, laminated on white, and used for the Harmon Kardon storefront on 51st & Madison Ave in NYC, paneled for multiple 10'H x 18'W window. After printing the first 10 feet with a 12 pass, the ink would start looking like it had been rained on with alcohol droplets. I laminated 20 feet before noticing the problem. I tried a second roll and the same thing occurred. Next, drove to the warehouse, bought another roll of the material, and again the same thing. The material was close to a year old in the warehouse and I wondered if that was the case. I would up printing first surface on white window cling in large panels, hand-cutting it and completing the installation from Hell overnight in the city.

I never had luck with anything over 2 pass as the ink was just too heavy on the SP540v. Check the material first for age, I'd probably try a different roll before looking into the printer itself.

 

[Gino]

by pass do you mean return to origin and reprint or are you doing an over print?
i have seen this with the white ink when i would do multiple pass and the previous pass was not dry yet

maybe it's just too much ink and that's the effect?

why aren't you direct printing to the panels with your UV printer?

I can print 1 pass, 2 pass or 3 pass, which if I remember correctly means it just puts more ink down all at the same time. It does not return to origin and start over. Not using the flatbed, because its a little too fine a detail for this job. I have a tech coming in next month to go over it. It works fine for 99% of the signs, but this is gonna be viewed from 2 ft away. Someone's bound to bitch.

Before I went home last night, I tried 1 pass and it printed flawlessly, just not black enough. I'm trying it on a 3 pass before I change out rolls.

 

[petepaz]

I can print 1 pass, 2 pass or 3 pass, which if I remember correctly means it just puts more ink down all at the same time. It does not return to origin and start over. Not using the flatbed, because its a little too fine a detail for this job. I have a tech coming in next month to go over it. It works fine for 99% of the signs, but this is gonna be viewed from 2 ft away. Someone's bound to bitch.

Before I went home last night, I tried 1 pass and it printed flawlessly, just not black enough. I'm trying it on a 3 pass before I change out rolls.

unfortunately these crazy unexplained things happen but it sounds like it's a drying or curing issue with the ink (or the amount of ink). maybe try doing 1 pass, return to origin, let it dry a little longer then print again with 1 pass. see if that helps/works. hope you get it worked out

 

[ChaseO]

When I have similar issues, its either not enough heat or old vinyl. I got a roll from one of my suppliers that ended up being 5 years old. Sometimes rolls get pushed to the back. I use a ton of oracal, but I have pretty much stopped using 3850.

 

[KMC]

Hey Gino
is your black just 100% K or 100% CMYK?
does it do the same to other colours?
is the adhesive consistent on the back? (we had a roll with blotchy adhesive a few years back and caused some transparency issues)

 

[Gino]

I just started a new roll, I got in about 2 months. As for other colors, I've never noticed this before at all.... and I've used solid colors in many of the translucent prints.

The problem with having the head go back to the original point is, none of my high end translucent profiles allow me to do that. However, I found a lower end translucent that will let me go back. Tht will be my next test. After that, I'll try to cut it outta black cast..... just those little R's will be tough.

 

[Gino]

Yowsa........ I got about a third of the way with the print on my new roll, using a lower grade profile with one pass and got a head strike about 1/3 of the way in. Stupid me was looking at it, thinking it was looking good and when the head passed over where I was, I musta had the vinyl lifted too high and it disconnected. Got it all running again and cut it off, took it out to the light box and it looks absolutely marvelous with just one pass on a lesser grade profile. I started it over and hopefully I'll know in about 45 minutes.

Could it really be ?? Higher profiles don't print as well ?? Like I said, I've used them before and never noticed problems. Was using that old roll for things as of just a few weeks ago.