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Question Printing on non digital material

kbrys

New Member
We have a new Mimaki UCJV300-160 and I was wondering if anyone has tried printing on standard cut vinyl material like Oracal 651 series vinyl? The shop I am at now only does digital vinyl so I have no cut vinyl here to even test on.

Thank you,
Kerry
 

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Absolutely. We have a demo unit and we have been printing on everything from Canvas, cut vinyl, and even polyester chrome material.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
As far as being able to do it, I don't see why not. Now, is it a good thing to do or not..... that's a different story, or so I was told, many years ago.

While thermal machines might work, solvent, light solvent and latex machines work by heating up the vinyl, thus opening the minute pores to envelope the ink and then post heated to close the pores up again. I was told digital vinyl was designed to do this, while cast and calendared vinyls are not, so the inks will basically just lay on the vinyl, rather than biting down in to the vinyl.

The cost difference in minimal if you wanna sleep at night. Kinda be like going to a football game and the players wore soccer equipment instead of football gear. Ya can, but why ??
 
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d fleming

Premium Subscriber
I have done it in a pinch in the past. Oracal 651 for yard signs. Worked ok but not standard fare.
 

gabagoo

New Member
I have printed on 2ml and 3ml vinyl on my solvent and never any problems. I might say that the backing paper is thinner and you may get the odd head strike unless you latch them up. I have a fleet of taxis I do, and they have a yellow and black checker board stripe along the sides. I tried printing on wrap material but just could not get the yellow to be as brilliant as a primrose vinyl so I print on 3m 220 primrose and have done well over 100 vehicles with never any problems.. I also have printed on 3m 220 silver as I can't replicate that look. The only issue with that, is that the printer can't detect the material as it matches the platen of the printer, so I cut 1/4" white strips and place them on the ends so the head thinks it sees white to determine that there is material to print on.
 
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