Print & cut on mettalic?

[ironchef]

Good evening folks, i printed and laminated on metallic, which looks awesome btw, but my mimaki wont pick up the registrarion marks

 

[SightLine]

Summa, Mimaki, Graphtec, etc will all have a hard time reading marks on certain materials. We print on metallic a LOT. Summa marks are different (little solid squares). We can usually hit them with a black paint pen first. We also have a sensitivity setting we adjust on the Summa which helps. There are a few options though but you need to make the marks contrast better against the reflective background.

 

[Bill Modzel]

I just ran a pair of Jayco logos on silver metallic and the first one cut fine, the Graphtec picked up the registration marks without a hitch but the second one it missed a couple. A small piece of scotch magic tape on each one instantly fixed the issue.
The funny thing is, I cut a bunch of reflective and have never had a problem but the silver Calon II confused it.

 

[SightLine]

Same for us.... reflective detects fine for us but metallic often has a hard time detecting the marks. Might have to try the scotch tape trick next time. Regular metallic seems to do pretty well for us, the one that gives us the most trouble with reading marks is Avery Ultra metallic (very very glittery stuff but can make for some very cool decals when printed).

 

[bob]

I print and cut metallic all the time and I gave up on the auto registration marks a long time ago. Even with all of the various tricks, it was a crap shoot when it came to reading them. I'm using Flexi and cutting with a Graphtec FC-7000. When dealing with metallic media I always specify using four-point manual marks and use the plotter's build in light pointer to manually locate all four marks. It takes a bit more time than using automatic mark sensing and, if you're not careful, it won't be as accurate but it works each time, ever time.

Realizing that the cutting accuracy is dependent upon my less than ideal eyesight, I always try to design the jobs such that a little bit of cutting inaccuracy won't hurt anything. Like not cutting to the edge of narrow outlines. I figure that I can get the registration within 1/64" and I don't want any error worse than 1 part in 10 so I avoid having outlines and/or objects less than .16", or so, that are on the cut path.

I'm fascinated by the effects possible printing on metallic silver. !'ve been printing a lightly variegated gold pattern with a bump map that from a few feet away cannot be distinguished from real gold leaf.

As for media I've gravitated to 3M 180C Light Silver and Avery Ultra Metallic. I've tried other silver metallic media but these seem to be the lightest. Knowing just how to adjust your colors to compensate for the white point [or lack thereof] of the silver media is key to using these vinyls.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I can print/cut on metallic with my HP L260 and Summa S140T without any issue. Recently just tried with some Avery Supreme Wrap film and that worked great too.