Oce 350 UV and Vacuum hold down

[Wowee18]

Just wondering if anyone out there has any ideas for improved part hold down on their flatbed printer. We run into the occasional printhead "rub" and get ruined parts.We tend to run a lot of different parts on the bed per run, sometimes 3-5 bigger parts, sometimes hundreds of smaller parts. We've used strips of 2-sided tape run across paper which seems to be the best but is time consuming. We run parts on paper with holes punched through beneath the parts, but this is time consuming. Has anyone used vinyl or even a high tac application tape (adhesive side up) to stick parts down?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Mark
GR, MI

 

[tgrinds]

Make sure that you are measuring the highest part that is on the bed otherwise the head will obviously crash into it. Oce applies an extra 1.2mm gap that is a default setting on the cpu. Make sure that doesn't change.

I'm not sure what type of media you are printing on, but blue painters tape works great for keeping the media sucked down as is probably the most commonly used. For a test, use media and tape to block all the vacuum holes to cause the most suction possible. If the vacuum gauge is less than 20mg then replacing the black tape on the back of the bed will help.

Good luck!

 

[Wowee18]

Thanks for the reply. We actually run the heads a bit higher than the default (1.5) and the print quality has remained high. I don't think there have been any head crashes, usually parts expand due to the lamp heat and they bow in the centers and the heads will "rub" across. Obviously the parts are ruined but the printheads are well protected.

Lately we've run parts on 24" application tape (adhesive side up) with a few holes punched in with great success. The vacuum table holes are easy to see through the tape so that part is quick now.

 

[Aklaim]

Watch your lamp settings. I know for fact when I print on Polystyrene, my Oce cannot have the lamps set higher than 4. Sometimes, depending on what I am printing I will set the lamps to 3 and and do 2 passes to insure a good quality cure. Also, if you are printing some thing small, take scrap pieces of the material you are printing on and cover as much as the table as you can. The more you have on the table, the more the vacuum will pull on your media as paper isn't enough sometimes.

 

[digitalwoodshop]

There is a product called the FAT MAT and is used by the Rotary Engraver Guys. Sticky and cleans up with soap and water, use over and over...

Worth a look.

AL