Need Help Printing on glossy polyester 0.075mm thick

[Kris LNP]

Hey guys,

I'm looking for some advice I'm having terrible trouble printing on a very thin glossy polyester 0.003 inches thick (Autostat CT3) I have a Fuji Acuity II 1600 UV Hybrid.

There's a huge amount of static which along with the general thinness I'm assuming is causing the material to bunch/curl up and therefore causing headstrikes.
If anyone's got any advice ild very much appreciate it, driving me crazy, and the job was due yesterday.

 

[AGCharlotte]

Is this being done roll to roll or flatbed?

 

[Kris LNP]

Hi Charlotte,
Its on a roll, although iv tried doing it in sheet format with tissue paper underneith, its a bit better but I rarely get enough printed before it starts to go badly. I'm not helped by the fact the Fuji has a finger guard that only allows you about a 3 mm gap for the material to feed through.
I also tried getting my tables out and taping it down in sheet format as well. didn't get any crashes but print quality was rubbish. Sadly this job is too big to fit on my flat bed Roland.

 

[unclebun]

I don't have that model of printer, but given our experience with running stiff/thick materials through our cutter, you might try rigging up a flat output surface so that the print feeds out either level or slightly uphill.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

What's your vacuum at? Do you have the pinch roller tension on high or low?

 

[Kris LNP]

Thanks Unclebun Ill give that a go, it does cling to the front of the machine as it comes through, slightly uphill I recon could be a good shout.

ProColor I was unsure on vacuum so Iv tried it on off,low medium and high. I assumed off would be the best but please correct me if my logic's dicey. hmm I'm not sure about pinch roller tension. is that the same as feed compensation? In which case I'm on high.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I alway run my on standard vacuum. You might want to try a lower vacuum. For the tension, there is a lever on the backside of the printer that goes up and down. For roll, I have it down (more tension), and for rigid I have it up (less tension). You will definitely want it up for coro, cardboard etc. Or you will have pinch roller marks on your media.

I printed some stretchy fabric on mine once using the following:
applied a 2 sided adhesive to a piece of like 1mm styrene, then applied the material to that board and ran it through as rigid. Worked good!

Also, for setting head height, I have found that setting it in the menu setup area doesn't mess with the print quality. Instead of just using the buttons on the front panel. I have ran with a head height at 2.8 without much quality issues.

 

[Kris LNP]

I'm with you now yes iv been running it at high tension in that case, Its always been a horrible material to print on. Iv tried taping it down to some Foamex and running it through as rigid,but I guess I could laminate it and get it proper flat. I will try this. Good to know about the head height iv never gone below 2mm before. Thanks for your help ill let you know how I get on.

 

[Kris LNP]

Running it through as rigid stuck down to a piece of Foamex seems to work not great quality, I did check the material datasheet and apparently its not suitable for UV inks,
Whats really agitating me is we could just just screen print it.
Currently experimenting on putting it through the SP300V don't seem to have the static problems feeds through well but cant seem to find a suitable profile just yet so the ink starts to run enough to be noticeable around some of the larger text. Its so close though!

 

[Pitzu]

You might have to turn up the heaters a little, to cure the ink faster. Also, you can try to print uni-directional and lower the speed, so the ink has the time to dry and not spread.
Mutoh has a double strike option, where you can insert a delay value between passes. That could also help, if you have this option in SP300V. Usually, this option is used for printing backlit film.

 

[Kris LNP]

Cool thanks Pitzu,
I don't really know a lot about profiles but Iv just created/modified one anyway wacked the heat right up (for Print and Drying) slowed the head speed down and put the ink percentage down to 100.
ill see what happens.