Printing and cutting colored vinyl

[JgS]

I am trying to print and cut on orange vinyl. My HP Latex printed does a great job of printing on the vinyl but my HP cutter cannot find the digitized marks. (I suspected it wouldn't) Any clue if it is possible to trick the cutter into finding the marks?

 

[bannertime]

If you're not doing a lot of them, we've put down white vinyl around the marks.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Does the cutter have a sensor sensitivity adjustment? A lot of the time you just need to up the sensitivity when printing on non-white substrates.

 

[OADesign]

In addition to what other have suggested...

This may sound silly but I believe our cutter's "eyes" work by "seeing" contrast. In an effort to save the parts you've already printed, consider taking a flash light or even your cell phone, and shine light on the dot while the sensor is searching. Not a permanent solution. But again, might save the parts you've already run.

 

[unclebun]

Put application tape over the marks and redraw them on the tape with ruler and fine point Sharpie. Just make sure your application tape is firmly stuck down on all edges or the reader can peel it up.

 

[bannertime]

In addition to what other have suggested...

This may sound silly but I believe our cutter's "eyes" work by "seeing" contrast. In an effort to save the parts you've already printed, consider taking a flash light or even your cell phone, and shine light on the dot while the sensor is searching. Not a permanent solution. But again, might save the parts you've already run.

This is actually helpful as well. We noticed an issue during a certain time of day when the sunlight would hit the material just right on the marks that it wouldn't scan. So you're not far off from a fast fix for some problems.

 

[ewded]

Why would you print on orange vinyl? If you do the math white vinyl+ink is cheaper than colored vinyl. In addition printing on vinyl that was meat to be cut only always has the risk of contaminated areas (fingerprint/handprints of workers etc.)

 

[Solventinkjet]

Why would you print on orange vinyl? If you do the math white vinyl+ink is cheaper than colored vinyl. In addition printing on vinyl that was meat to be cut only always has the risk of contaminated areas (fingerprint/handprints of workers etc.)

Sometimes you need a color that you can't print. I had to print some warning labels that had to be neon orange. Since you can't print that color, I just printed on neon orange vinyl.

 

[ewded]

Sometimes you need a color that you can't print. I had to print some warning labels that had to be neon orange. Since you can't print that color, I just printed on neon orange vinyl.

Ok, that makes sense.

 

[JgS]

Ok, still no luck with this. I have been through the setting and can't find a way to set custom parameters on the optics. (auto media setup isn't working) It's a large run but I'm willing to set the alignment manually but can't figure that out either. Any advice?

 

[Joe House]

what cutter are you using?

 

[JgS]

64" HP

 

[signmania]

Why would you print on orange vinyl? If you do the math white vinyl+ink is cheaper than colored vinyl. In addition printing on vinyl that was meat to be cut only always has the risk of contaminated areas (fingerprint/handprints of workers etc.)

I've actually printed black on cast yellow, orange and some blues because my client wanted a long outdoor life. At 4-5 years in the sun no ink looks that bright, but the colored vinyl still pops and the black looks pretty good.

 

[ikarasu]

Put some masking tape over it.. use a ruler and draw the lines. It's the best and fastest way, I do it all the time with reflective and get perfect cuts/reads. I wouldn't mess with settings on the cutter unless you know what you're doing, or are willing to read a lot...you may mess up the settings for other vinyls.

 

[spooledUP7]

Put some masking tape over it.. use a ruler and draw the lines. It's the best and fastest way, I do it all the time with reflective and get perfect cuts/reads. I wouldn't mess with settings on the cutter unless you know what you're doing, or are willing to read a lot...you may mess up the settings for other vinyls.

I up vote this solution.

 

[Phil Swanson]

I am trying to print and cut on orange vinyl. My HP Latex printed does a great job of printing on the vinyl but my HP cutter cannot find the digitized marks. (I suspected it wouldn't) Any clue if it is possible to trick the cutter into finding the marks?

How about doing a small generic print with crop marks. Cut the crop mark out and place them on the orange.

 

[bob]

Use 4 point manual bomb sight marks and register each corner manually. Beats the hell out of trying to accurately overlay the original printed automatic marks with vinyl, masking tape, sheetrock, or whatever.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

Why would you print on orange vinyl? If you do the math white vinyl+ink is cheaper than colored vinyl. In addition printing on vinyl that was meat to be cut only always has the risk of contaminated areas (fingerprint/handprints of workers etc.)

We print on 3M 1080 metallics pretty regularly. I don't think it's an unusual practice at all to print on colored vinyl.

 

[Jackpine]

What unclebun said.
It works. I do the same.