Printing on Magnetic Roll stock?

[Joop]

Hey all,
Well the jobs are starting to roll in and I already have a guy that only wants a pair of magnets so he can take them off whenever. His logo is simple enough I could do it with vinyl but there are about 5 colors... not to mention I want to use my new money maker!
It's a Valuejet 1604.... so can I put magnetics through this machine? Does it have to be a certain thickness? The last thing I want to do is ruin the head... but I've only printed on vinyl so far. Also, I assume everything the media runs over on the Mutoh is aluminum... otherwise the magnet wouldn't go anywhere!

Thanks for any input.

Joop

 

[Graphics2u]

Never tried it. Been too scared of head strikes. Just print it on vinyl and apply to the magnet.

 

[Sign-Man Signs]

Why no just print and trim? Apply directly to magnetic.

 

[Joop]

Well I thought it may be possible to just get rid of the extra step. A guy I know that owns a Roland said he does it... but I don't want to be a Guinea pig either... but if anyone does want to... haha

 

[jlarkin1982]

turn off printer and raise the head then manually pass the head over to see if it hits

 

[Mike Paul]

Print on vinyl and apply it to the mag.

 

[D&Tgraphics]

They say you can print directly to the mag but I never do. I print on vinyl, lam it and then mount to the magnet. It just looks sooo much better. The direct to magnet prints never look as good.

 

[TheSnowman]

I haven't been brave enough either. I can tell you if you get ya a big squeegee though, you can sure knock out the prints really quick layin' em' down.

 

[jiarby]

print on 3651, laminate, mount, and then trim. turns out awesome.

 

[Joop]

I guess if I were doing a large number of them it would benefit, but for now I guess I will go with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" slogan. Thanks for the input...

 

[gtjet]

We have did but you have to have some extra at the beginning and end and we only ran about 24" x 24 through when we did it. Magnetic material is heavy and we were afraid of what it would do to the motor if we would have tried pulling it from the roll.
It works well but really with a big squeegee it is just about as fast to just print it and apply it and that is what we do now. Good luck.

 

[Arstron]

I am not sure about the 1604, but on the 1204 there is to much metal that the magnet has to move across which is to much for the rollers to pull.

 

[SE SignSupply]

1204 and the 1304 will NOT print magnetic.

The 1604/1614 on the other hand will with some minor work. If you use a magnetic designed for digital printing it should come with a carrier/spacer between the wraps of magnetic. This is designed to keep the mag clean and keep it from sticking to the printer as it passes through. We found it made the mag too thick and got head strikes.

We found a better solution was take a piece of .040 aluminium and bend it to wrap around the media feed platen in the back of the machine (right over the pre-heater area). This allows the mag to pass over the area without sticking. The carrier drops out of the roll just before it goes into the machine.

Works great for large runs, you can even use the takeup for longer lengths!

Ryan

 

[Neon RTG]

Magnetic printing is so much easier on the EDGE. Good Luck with you Mags.

 

[The Big Squeegee]

There is a special magnet material for printers. For the most part, the vinyl on magnetic vinyl is not a very good quality for printing. The heaters can't heat the magnet evenly enough do a decent job either. The magnet material also warps when heated so it is hard to avoid head strikes.