Reflective Vinyl Tunneling off the backing paper in printer

[dale911]

I have a HP L25500 printer. I am trying to run 3m 5271 through it. It is an engineer grade reflective material. The client has to have this material because it can be adhered at -40' on their electrical equipment in Colorado during the winter. This product is part of the traffic safety division of 3m.

I received a 24" sample of the material a couple weeks ago and ran it with no problem. The client gave the green light on the order so I purchased half of the material I need for the project. This stuff is $1440 a roll for 48"x150'. I received it today and it appears that UPS didn't take very good care of it. One of the boxes had tape on one end. I opened the box and saw that the roll took a hit and the material is cracked about a half inch in through several layers. I cut off some material and then attempted to load it into the printer. As it is cycling through, I am getting tunnels between the material and the backing paper. This didn't happen with the sample roll. I don't know if they ran a bad batch or it's because this material is so stiff or what, but I gotta figure this out asap. Thanks for any help you guys can provide.

BTW, I know this material is not listed as a printable material. It's listed as having the option to screen print. That's why I tested it and it worked just fine to be printed on with the latex. I'm going to contact 3m on Monday but I'm hoping someone may have seen this problem with another material and have an idea/solution.

 

[AF]

The tunneling could be caused by moisture having been absorbed by the backing paper. When the latex printer heats up the media, the paper dries out and shrinks causing the tunneling.

 

[dale911]

The tunneling could be caused by moisture having been absorbed by the backing paper. When the latex printer heats up the media, the paper dries out and shrinks causing the tunneling.

I haven't even heated it. I turned on the printer and was just trying to load substrate with the machine cold. I haven't tried it yet but I will bet that it happens if I roll some out flat. The box shows a manufacture date of 11/25/14 so I know it's fresh also. 3m said they manufacture this material on demand so it never sits.

 

[player]

I haven't even heated it. I turned on the printer and was just trying to load substrate with the machine cold. I haven't tried it yet but I will bet that it happens if I roll some out flat. The box shows a manufacture date of 11/25/14 so I know it's fresh also. 3m said they manufacture this material on demand so it never sits.

I would get another roll from 3m and send that one back.

That tunneling is great for causing head strikes...

 

[Jester1167]

I bet the media is cold (sitting on the UPS truck). Take the roll out of the box and let the vinyl warm up overnight. It shrinks and gets stiff when it is cold and the liner doesn't.

Tunneling usually happens post production when you unroll the finished graphics for install.

 

[SightLine]

Letting it acclimate for a good 24 hours might help but my bet is all the rain we had over the past couple of weeks caused very high humidity in a lot of environments like warehouses, UPS trucks, etc.... on top of poor packing and handling has allowed the liner to get far too much moisture in it and it might not be reasonably able to be fixed....

 

[GB2]

Tunneling of reflective material of that type is typical and happens often when the material has to go through tight radius turns, which is probably why it's not rated for latex printing. I'm not optimistic that you will have success with that material in the L25500. Perhaps if you could try feeding some from off the roll, letting it hang loosely in front of the roll holder, it might help to reduce the stress of the first turn as it comes off the roll and feeds up into the printer.

 

[dale911]

I was dumbfounded when this happened because the sample had run perfectly. Now that this has had a day and half to sit in the shop at 70', it's working just fine. I had no idea the core would hold the cold for so long. I reloaded a roll and printed about 6 feet off of it flawlessly. The only thing that changed since I had it was the temperature. Looks like this job is going to go alright as long as the lamination process works out. I have over 600 feet to go on this project. Thanks for the responses.

 

[Suz]

Dale,

Glad you wee able to get it to work. That stuff is not cheap, is it? I too would have been concerned about a potential head strike. Glad you posted your results. I have the same printer and have tested a small piece of that material as well, successfully. I was thinking of getting a roll of it when a Customer asks me for it, so just preparation work here. Glad you posted your results. Very helpful. Now sending positive thoughts your way that you'll have success with the 600 feet left to print.

I was dumbfounded when this happened because the sample had run perfectly. Now that this has had a day and half to sit in the shop at 70', it's working just fine. I had no idea the core would hold the cold for so long. I reloaded a roll and printed about 6 feet off of it flawlessly. The only thing that changed since I had it was the temperature. Looks like this job is going to go alright as long as the lamination process works out. I have over 600 feet to go on this project. Thanks for the responses.

 

[Gino]

I like happy endings............