Question Problem with Orajet 3951RA

I ordered a 54" roll of 3951RA a couple weeks ago. I printed off a 4 x 8 print and noticed the edges were really wavy. The material was basically warped down both edges. I then tried to laminate it a few days later (today) and the material just bunched up under the 290 laminate. So I printed another one, lowering my heat settings and reducing it from 12 passes to 8 passes and I got the same result plus head strikes along the edge of the media. I've never had an issue printing in this media before with my normal heat settings, etc. but it never hurts to give it a second go. So after ruling out human error, I rolled eight feet of the unprinted media out onto the RollsRoller table and low and behold, the media is warped before it is even printed.

Has anyone else had a problem with a recent roll of 3951RA? I don't remember if it's the ProSlide or regular RA of the top of my head but I'll look tomorrow (at home now). I called the vendor and my Orafol rep this afternoon but haven't heard back from either of them yet.

 

Humidity has never been a problem before. We've only had this roll here a couple weeks and I keep rolls standing on a plastic endcap and covered with the plastic bag they are shipped with. All of our other rolls of Orafol media that are much older are just fine as are our cut vinyl rolls. I don't know why this one roll would be any different than the hundreds of rolls that have come through our shop in the past. There's been a ton of rain lately so maybe something happened in the warehouse or in transit that could have caused it but I doubt the problem is at our facility.

 

Just heard back from our Orafol rep this morning. Great people. It sounds like they're going to work with me on a solution that will hopefully involve replacing the material.

 

Well, shame on me for jumping to conclusions. As it turns out, after discussing the effects of humidity and how it effects print media with an Orafol rep, the problem wasn't the media but rather must have been the recent spike in humidity. Having had our own printer for at least three years now, I'd never witnessed the media warping so badly but lo and behold, prints that came off the printer warped a few days ago now lay flat as a pancake. Doh!

 

My experience has been exactly the opposite, at least with regards to 3M. We really don't use Avery unless we have to match existing vinyl.