Need Help Roland VS-640i on EG Reflective

[trafcondude]

Morning Signs 101 Buds,

I used to relatively have no issues with digitally printing printing on MacTac White engineer grade reflective sheeting with our old Roland SC-540. We purchased a Roland VS-640i and am having no luck printing on the same sheeting. The material acts like it's not semi-solvent ink receptive. (These are the same Eco-Sol Max2 inks that I used before.) Iv'e tried the 'RRV2-Premium Reflective Vinyl (ESM) profile, downloaded MacTac's profile, turning the heat up, slowing the print speed down, using 'uni-direction' and no noticeable quality improvement.

Help! I'm sure i'm missing a number of things. But not sure what direction to fix this issue.

Suggestions please!


Thanks,
Matt Mundorf
Trafcon Inc.

 

[DoubleDiamond]

We had similar issues, but the difference was we went from a 10yrd roll to a 50yrd roll. Our supplier was off by one digit and it was not printable. To make it work before we found this out we laminated the reflective with cast, then printed, then laminated again. This only had fair results, not great. It is worth it to verify the material is the exact same. Hope this helps.

 

[metrographics]

Even though your using the same profile you have a different printer so it might not work the same. I have had this problem with a lot of clear materials on my two machines. My best advice would be to try a few different generic profiles that come with Versaworks. I've gotten profiles from the OraCal website for specific materials that didn't seam to work properly. It takes time to get right... but once you do you will always know what profile to use for that specific vinyl for awesome results. I have a VS-540i and a VP-540. I don't use the same profiles on both machines even when using the same vinyl. Each machine might require a different one.

It sounds like the profile your trying to use is laying to much ink down. I've never tried making my own profiles before but some people do. Usually I can find one that works already.
Good luck!

-MetroGraphics

 

[ikarasu]

Morning Signs 101 Buds,

I used to relatively have no issues with digitally printing printing on MacTac White engineer grade reflective sheeting with our old Roland SC-540. We purchased a Roland VS-640i and am having no luck printing on the same sheeting. The material acts like it's not semi-solvent ink receptive. (These are the same Eco-Sol Max2 inks that I used before.) Iv'e tried the 'RRV2-Premium Reflective Vinyl (ESM) profile, downloaded MacTac's profile, turning the heat up, slowing the print speed down, using 'uni-direction' and no noticeable quality improvement.

Help! I'm sure i'm missing a number of things. But not sure what direction to fix this issue.

Suggestions please!


Thanks,
Matt Mundorf
Trafcon Inc.

Got any pictures? I had the same issue with 3M EG. Of course it's not meant to be printed on... it looked really bad / lots of artifacts. I turned the ink limits down quite a bit, and it printed on it perfectly. Do you know how to create your own profiles / set ink limits? Thatd be a way to start. I fiddled with it for a whole day before I got it to print ok (Never touched a profile before, so it was learning from start to beginning).

 

[TXFB.INS]

we found that the start of the rolls, especially on the reflective materials, is very suspect to contamination and requires to be spooled off prior to printing.

 

[Roland Product Support]

Morning Signs 101 Buds,

I used to relatively have no issues with digitally printing printing on MacTac White engineer grade reflective sheeting with our old Roland SC-540. We purchased a Roland VS-640i and am having no luck printing on the same sheeting. The material acts like it's not semi-solvent ink receptive. (These are the same Eco-Sol Max2 inks that I used before.) Iv'e tried the 'RRV2-Premium Reflective Vinyl (ESM) profile, downloaded MacTac's profile, turning the heat up, slowing the print speed down, using 'uni-direction' and no noticeable quality improvement.

Help! I'm sure i'm missing a number of things. But not sure what direction to fix this issue.

Suggestions please!


Thanks,
Matt Mundorf
Trafcon Inc.

Hello Trafcondude,

Metrographics, ikarasu and TXFB.INS all have wonderful and accurate suggestions. The issue could be caused by a variety of factors and it's up to you to run test and adjustments to narrow down the issue.

The material maker, in this case MacTac, would be 100% responsible to testing, evaluating and validating that the material truly works well with the VS-640i. Roland can only support the reliability and quality of Roland material. The same is expected for 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party makers, like 3M, Arlon, Oracal, Avery, etc. It's recommended to contact MacTac and it's possible there's an updated profile for your specific printer and ink configuration.

Finally, if you feel that the printer hardware is having problems, it's strongly recommended that you contact your authorized Roland dealer to have the printer inspected.

We hope this info helps in some way.

Take care,
Roland Tech Support
rn