Photopolymer Film Printers

[DarkerKat]

I know there aren't a lot of photopolymer producers on this site but still figured this was worth sharing.

So our company originally got into photopolymer sign making via Jet USA (a company that I don't believe exists anymore) at that time we were told that films for developing photopolymer had to be printed on a specific printer, with specific UV-blocking ink.
We have worked under that belief for over a decade. It is our only single-use printer and it has always kind of been a pain to work with. Well yesterday it broke down, eventually figured out that it was a printhead that had gone bad. But you can't just buy new printheads for this thing, they don't build them anymore and for the cost of a printhead you are essentially buying a new machine. Ok-fine, we go to buy a new machine but want to make sure that the very expensive uv-blocking ink will work with the new one. Our rep (at nova polymer) has no idea what we are talking about, they've never used UV-blocking ink, they just print their films on a regular printer with regular black ink. We run some tests in house using our other inkjet printers and sure enough, they develop fine, maybe a little better since the print quality is higher. For context the UV-blocking ink is 2-3x more expensive than regular ink.
Mostly I just needed to shout into the void about this because oh my god the amount of time and money wasted on keeping that old printer alive and functional... and if somehow I can help enlighten another company in the process, cool.

TLDR: Apparently UV-blocking ink is not needed for photopolymer films, was news to me.

 

[JBurton]

What flavor of printer is your regular printer? Just curious, solvent vs latex vs uv.
Man, we almost got into photopolymer, especially after loosing several bids that required 'one piece construction'. After enough projects came through to start getting serious about considering a concept of a theory to purchase a system, that requirement seemed to evaporate. I'm thinking someone with more money showed up to an architect convention and convinced them that printing the raised copy and braille was better, so they took it out of the ADA sign boiler plate that they all share.

 

[balstestrat]

If this is what I think it is one place tested this with latex. They just wanted it to be as black as possible so I think it was done with backlit profile and as far as I know it works fine.

They also had some special printer until this but wanted to get rid of it.

 

[MikePro]

I know there aren't a lot of photopolymer producers on this site but still figured this was worth sharing.

So our company originally got into photopolymer sign making via Jet USA (a company that I don't believe exists anymore) at that time we were told that films for developing photopolymer had to be printed on a specific printer, with specific UV-blocking ink.
We have worked under that belief for over a decade. It is our only single-use printer and it has always kind of been a pain to work with. Well yesterday it broke down, eventually figured out that it was a printhead that had gone bad. But you can't just buy new printheads for this thing, they don't build them anymore and for the cost of a printhead you are essentially buying a new machine. Ok-fine, we go to buy a new machine but want to make sure that the very expensive uv-blocking ink will work with the new one. Our rep (at nova polymer) has no idea what we are talking about, they've never used UV-blocking ink, they just print their films on a regular printer with regular black ink. We run some tests in house using our other inkjet printers and sure enough, they develop fine, maybe a little better since the print quality is higher. For context the UV-blocking ink is 2-3x more expensive than regular ink.
Mostly I just needed to shout into the void about this because oh my god the amount of time and money wasted on keeping that old printer alive and functional... and if somehow I can help enlighten another company in the process, cool.

TLDR: Apparently UV-blocking ink is not needed for photopolymer films, was news to me.

yikes, I don't think I was ever sold on "UV blocking ink"
...must be the new PC way of saying "black" around the old ADA dept.

 

[JBurton]

yikes, I don't think I was ever sold on "UV blocking ink"
...must be the new PC way of saying "black" around the old ADA dept.

ADA joke time?
We did an evacuation plan sign, with a slot for a sheet of paper. Initially it was just raised copy, which is fine, it looks sharp compared to vinyl.
Then they asked for braille. I asked why, they said for compliance.
I said great, but the thing is, if the building is on fire, and the blind guy finds the evacuation plan sign, all he's going to do is read it and sit in despair as to the braille exclusive reader, there is no more text.
ain't nobody got time for your wayward thoughts, put braille on it and send it out.

 

[dreko]

You can use any pigment inkjet ink/film for photopolymer plates. (I'm assuming waterwash out)
I've got a orbital platemaker and Epson inkfilms work fine. Halftone, Stochastic, etc

For that matter, any ink on film will do.. you just need to make the ink output density very high. It's got to block the UV light. If using black ink, make sure to add a good amount of Magenta and Yellow (red)
to help augment the UV blocking

 

[mkoller]

We have the Canon TM-200, suggested by Novapolymer. Works great, haven't had any issues, uses a bit of ink but it prints crisp clean lines with solid black. It's a work horse, printing sheet after sheet, only stopping to clean the print heads every now and then.

 

[Johnny Best]

When Jet photopolymer first came out I would make film positives and expose the film under a single UV light source after that wash under warm water to make ADA signs with braille. The dots were tO sharp and not rounded like compliance wanted it to be.
Are you saying you ran the photopolymer through a printer and then washed It out?

 

[DarkerKat]

What flavor of printer is your regular printer? Just curious, solvent vs latex vs uv.

Canon IPF 9400, we have two in house for running regular color prints and it seems to work fine for the films. We're going to test with our latex and UV printers too to try and see if there is any difference.

 

[DarkerKat]

When Jet photopolymer first came out I would make film positives and expose the film under a single UV light source after that wash under warm water to make ADA signs with braille. The dots were tO sharp and not rounded like compliance wanted it to be.
Are you saying you ran the photopolymer through a printer and then washed It out?

Not printing on the photopolymer sheets, this was just talking about printing on the negative films.
And yeah, the braille is still sharp, the "recommendation" from the manufactures is just to paint it over and over to "round the edges". We've never been flagged for it, but in more strict areas I can imagine that would be an issue.

 

[DarkerKat]

ADA joke time?
We did an evacuation plan sign, with a slot for a sheet of paper. Initially it was just raised copy, which is fine, it looks sharp compared to vinyl.
Then they asked for braille. I asked why, they said for compliance.
I said great, but the thing is, if the building is on fire, and the blind guy finds the evacuation plan sign, all he's going to do is read it and sit in despair as to the braille exclusive reader, there is no more text.
ain't nobody got time for your wayward thoughts, put braille on it and send it out.

I've had to patiently explain this to clients SO MANY TIMES.
We had a very large property management/development company decide they wanted to design everything "in house" with their brand-new graphics team. They have sent us Pool Rules signs with braille on 3 sperate properties now. I don't mean the whole sign is in braille, I mean the words "pool rules" are in braille and nothing else.

 

[JBurton]