static cling and white like oil & vinegar

[gabagoo]

I have the same problem every time I run white on static cling and it does not matter if it's Gerber or Duracoat. The first letter of every run has wrinkles of dropouts running through them making then entire decal useless. It seems to me that the material seems to have problems sitting down properly after each decal is finished. By that I mean the heads rise the material moves forward and when the heads go back down, for some reason there is a continuous wrinkle in the foil that will not flatten out until it prints 2 or 3 inches in. I had the same issue last year with this exact job. I have the heat settings to light but maybe I need to go even lighter. Not even sure if that will fix it. Anyone else experience this and if so how did they manage to correct it?

 

[Fred Weiss]

There is a major difference between the Gerber static cling and the Avery static cling. We had similar problems with the Gerber and the best solution we found was to put transfer paper on the plastic wipers on both sides of the platen. This prevents the cling from grabbing and vibrating as it moves on the x-axis.

The Avery static cling, OTOH, does not have this problem and is currently the only Avery product that we stock. We run either Duracoat or Gerber white foil with the same results.

 

[gabagoo]

Thanks Fred,

I am using Flexcon Static cling and have for years, this problem seems to only happen with white for whatever reason. I took your advice and put the premask on the plastic squeegees and it worked on the first 3 then the 4th it had a slight wrinkly dropout, again only on the first 8" letter then it went away again. I now am at number 6 and it going OK. I can't imagine how you figured that out. Truly a genius!!!!!

 

[Fred Weiss]

I think white must have a lot more pigment than most other foils is probably why it runs differently.

As far a figuring it out, I could pretty much tell from the sound of it and I verified it by simply slewing the film through the Edge. Transfer tape was handy to test the fix and, luckily, it did the job.