smeared looking print on reflective

[skasigns]

The last couple of times we've tried to print on 5600 white reflective, the print looks "smeared". We have a mimaki jv3. Any suggestions/ideas? Thanks in advance

 

[eahicks]

Don't think 5600 is intended for print. You can do it...but probably with results like this.

EDIT: my bad...it is listed as a printable in the Fellers catalog...but that being said, I've not tried to print on it. I've used Nikkalite and now I have this new stuff called Night Bright that works well. Nice solid colors.

 

[Gino]

We print on a lotta 5600, but with much better results.

Are you using the same profiles you were using when it did print satisfactory ?? That looks like bad banding which can happen from various causes, the first one being printed too quickly, instead of on a high end profile specifically for reflective.

 

[TXFB.INS]

looks like the printer is the cause, that is some serious banding on the black/brown color.

we also print on reflective and you have to increase the amount of ink being laid down.

 

[reQ]

Printing 5400/5600 all the time here. No problems. using orafol ICC profile.

 

[ams]

The 5600 is not a printable vinyl. It doesn't mean you can't print it, but it's not going to last as intended.

 

[Gino]

The 5600 is not a printable vinyl. It doesn't mean you can't print it, but it's not going to last as intended.

Maybe for you, but we get as much as 5 or 6 years out of it when laminated and at least 3 years or more without lamination. We use quite a bit for police cruisers all over the county.

 

[Mike Paul]

Yes, 5600 is a printable vinyl along with 5650ra.
Banding is the problem not the vinyl.

 

[reQ]

The 5600 is not a printable vinyl. It doesn't mean you can't print it, but it's not going to last as intended.

You are completely wrong on this one. Check the spec sheet. 5600 is specifically amazing for vehicle wraps / emergency vehicle marking etc. Using 5600/5650 for Police & Fire department vehicles for almost 4 years now with amazing results.

 

[MikePro]

its not the printer, its your grubby hands leaving oils on the vinyl that won't properly accept the ink being laid-down.
i printed on 5600 for years with my mimaki JV3 and thousands of parking signs, as well as my service trucks, still have beautiful printed reflective graphics on them to this day.

if you're trying to print on materials that may be contaminated, wipe it down with a lint-free cloth & isopropyl alcohol prior to printing. if you're buying reflective vinyl by the yard, and not full-rolls, then assume that it has been handled/contaminated.

edited: your banding IS, however, a printer issue. can't say exactly what, but by the variance in colors I'd say you have printhead/ink flow as well as alignment issues, and I'd bet you don't have ink limits setup properly for a reflective material profile.

 

[AKwrapguy]

This looks like a profile issue. The banding looks like it's only in the brownish color. From what I remember on my JV3, try doing a really good head cleaning. What rip software are you using? Have you tried switching media types in your profile? If you are able to can you download a specific profile for that media?

 

[printhog]

Unless your trying for brown.. If you're going for black use a wet black not less than 40% each of CMY and 100% of K. The banding could be a roll specific thing. Media Advance may be slightly off. The thickness of reflective is 8 mil or better. So the advance needs to allow for that.

The problem is not media but proper machine setup. I see both simple banding and color shifts likely from ink starvation or issues from bi directionality.

Print a wetter black and it'll overcome it for the short term.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

[skasigns]

We haven't changed any profiles. Thank you!

 

[skasigns]

We're trying for brown. I've never had to change the media advance. Is that in the user manual? Thank you!

 

[printhog]

We're trying for brown. I've never had to change the media advance. Is that in the user manual? Thank you!

media advance/paper advance/etc should be in the manual and should be under your media settings in your rip.. rip settings will override any printer setting.

Advance depends on the machine you're using. In most rips theres an advancement or feed setting that fine tunes the steps forward to accommodate the offset of the material thickness, With most machines paper advancement is usually read from an encoder on the media feed roller assembly. the difference between surface height of 2mil vinyl and 12mil reflective is substantial and at printing dimensions it will make banding. So the manufacturers accomodate this with a mathematical offset of the printing advance. (exclusion being - on HP's they use a patented dual camera optical tracking system that reads microscopic changes in the paper surface and adjusts on the fly, so theres no advance setting to those).

Some colors will show more banding than others on reflective .. these are both rip and machine dependent..

Browns are VERY VERY susceptible to metamarism on reflective - color check your prints in the lighting they'll be viewed under and as reflected (nighttime) lighting. There cvan be big differences.

In some cases we use uni directional printing to avoid metamarism and banding from color order (we print sets of color charts on reflective and select the best match and best print quality based on what we see by eye as a work around.) But i dont see that in your photo, just media advance issues.

 

[skasigns]

Thank for all your information. I appreciate it. We're a VERY small company that works out of our garage. We didn't get even a day's worth of training when we bought our machine several years ago. Everything we know, we've learned on our own through our manual, google or signs101. We appreciate any advice we get. Thanks again.
Kim

 

[oksigns]

So is this a regular print job for you? Because this looks like a profile issue. The ink limits are showing here for sure.

 

[skasigns]

So is this a regular print job for you? Because this looks like a profile issue. The ink limits are showing here for sure.

No, this isn't a regular print job for us. We're only having the issue on the reflective. We've recently replaced all 4 heads and the capping station. It seems to have started after that. Thanks again for all the input. We're still working through all the suggestions and figuring out how to do all the things you all have told us to try. Like I said, we're a very small company. We appreciate all the help.
Kim

 

[skasigns]

its not the printer, its your grubby hands leaving oils on the vinyl that won't properly accept the ink being laid-down.
i printed on 5600 for years with my mimaki JV3 and thousands of parking signs, as well as my service trucks, still have beautiful printed reflective graphics on them to this day.

if you're trying to print on materials that may be contaminated, wipe it down with a lint-free cloth & isopropyl alcohol prior to printing. if you're buying reflective vinyl by the yard, and not full-rolls, then assume that it has been handled/contaminated.

edited: your banding IS, however, a printer issue. can't say exactly what, but by the variance in colors I'd say you have printhead/ink flow as well as alignment issues, and I'd bet you don't have ink limits setup properly for a reflective material profile.

We use gloves and wipe it down with alcohol.

 

[Gino]

Alcohol isn't gonna fix the problem you showed in your OP. That's either some equipment malfunction or a totally wrong profile. Quite honestly, it just looks like you're printing too fast and on the wrong profile.