Printing two-sided Banner

[David Snider]

Any suggestions on how you all go about doing this? I am currently able to do it but it is more of just something I came up with and not anything that is set up with the machine or my Onyx RIP.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

there's no real way to do it on the machine or through your RIP per se. Just put a mark on the outfeed platen about 6-8" down from the origin point, feed your material exactly to that, start printing. When the print is done, feed well past that mark, cut off, take it to the table and measure the exact distance from the leading edge to where the print actually started and cut exactly that amount off at the tailing end. Reverse roll the material onto a core, feed into the printer blank side up, and feed to exactly the mark as you originally did. When you reload the media make sure you've got everything oriented properly. Start printing and your prints should be less than 1/16" off from one side to the other if you did things correctly. If your banner is a horizontal one, this works file, if the banner is vertical before you reprint the second side you'll have to rotate the image 180 degrees so it prints upside down on the backside. Fairly simple though. We've got a piece of tape on our platen that is exactly 8" from the print start point, so we just attach the material to the takeup reel, reverse roll it as it comes off the printer, unroll a foot or so, measure and cut to leave an 8" "feeder" on the end, and feed that side in to the tape mark. Never a problem.

 

[peavey123]

The way I have been doing double-sided banners lately is just printing them normally but making sure that i leave 3 or 4 inches on the front and back. Depending on the size I may print 2 up. Then take them off the machine let them sit for a few hours place back in the machine this time flipped to the other side. Now i just poke tiny holes where the corners of the print are and make marks. Now just line that up on your machine and it should print dead straight. (now I have a roland vp 540. The printing starts at the tip of the knife so I just align that over the holes) I used to do it the same way as above. I find this way more accurate and faster to set up once you get in a groove. I hope this made sense?...good luck!

 

[ChiknNutz]

Yes, exactly.

The way I have been doing double-sided banners lately is just printing them normally but making sure that i leave 3 or 4 inches on the front and back. Depending on the size I may print 2 up. Then take them off the machine let them sit for a few hours place back in the machine this time flipped to the other side. Now i just poke tiny holes where the corners of the print are and make marks. Now just line that up on your machine and it should print dead straight. (now I have a roland vp 540. The printing starts at the tip of the knife so I just align that over the holes) I used to do it the same way as above. I find this way more accurate and faster to set up once you get in a groove. I hope this made sense?...good luck!

 

[zgraphics]

i learned something today... thanks I haven't had on yet but now i know...

 

[David Snider]

Seems like we all have come to similar conclusions on how to print two-sided banners.

On my Mimaki printers I mark the front side with an edge on the printer and send out the banner for print after letting it dry I turn it over and line up my marks to the same edge and send it out again. I usually set up the job with a bleed and place crop/cut marks on one side only and cut to those.

Thanks to everyone for your input.