Summa DC5 Basic Setup Questions

[pentester101]

Hello everyone,

I have a Summa DC5 printer/cutter which I do not seem to be able to get dialed in correctly. Unfortunately, it seems there is not much documentation about this particular machine available. My current setup is as follows: CorelDRAW 2020, FlexiSIGN-PRO & Summa ColorControl.

I have several issues which I will do my best to outline below:

1) Coloring - I have a CMYK image that, when printed, does not retain the proper color shades. For example, the gray shade turns black and the orange shade turns reddish. I have the color profiles from the CD installed on my machine.

2) Print Fill- When printing there are white dots in the image. In flexi I have the dither set to Angled Screen and have changed the shape from double dot, ellipse, diamond, rhomboid and changed the LPI for each of those settings ranging from 35 to 50. I am using the angles from the DC5 manual (C- 108 M- 162 Y- 90 K- 45). I have tried using the Summa ColorControl as well and it seems it is not printing any better.

I have tried and changed so many different things and after two days of trial and error I am reaching out to this community for some help. If anyone has any tips, tricks or suggestions that will point me in the right direction I am all ears. If you need any more information I will do my best to supply it.

Thank you in advanced for your assistance!

 

[FrankW]

You know that the dithering of thermal transfer printers are different to inkjet printers? I do not know exactly what you mean with „white dots in the image“, but prints with 35 to 50 lines per inch will have a very „rough“ dithering, specially when printing CMYK instead of using spot color ribbons to achieve a good grey or orange. You can print with up to 100 or 110 lpi, but this could lead to problems with gradiations.

Another problem with white dots can be if there is dust on the media. In opposite to inkjet printers which are „non-impact“-printers, the printhead of a thermal inkjet printer will press the ribbon directly onto the media, and dust, an uneven surface or other distortions could lead to print quality issues.

The DC5 is a very interesting printer, but for a very special range of applications.

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

I second everything that Frank said and I would also double check that the media you are using is designed for use with a thermal transfer printer like the DC5. A lot of materials have top coatings or surfaces that aren't receptive to the resin used with the thermal ribbons, so you'll want to make sure your media is compatible with your printer. I would also make sure that you are peeling off the optiprint adhesive sheet pretty often, as that is used to pick up debris on the surface of the media that can prevent the resin ink from transferring into the surface. Usually when you see white dots on the prints that indicates that the material surface is dirty, not receptive to thermal resin inks, or you aren't using a high enough heat/pressure combination(this is defined as "density" on your menu). I would also try to use ColorControl instead of Flexi for the RIP whenever possible, as Flexi stopped development on the drivers and color profiling for the DC printers a long time ago. Corel/Illustrator paired up with the Summa Printer Tools and Summa ColorControl are going to be your best bet.

Like Frank mentioned, the DC5 is used for a special range of applications, and usually those are solid/spot color printing on smaller decals. It prints white and metallic colors well also, so if you have these specialty type requests the DC5 would work well for those applications. If you are planning on using this to print larger, CMYK images, I don't think you will be very satisfied with the results of the DC5 for that type of work.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or you want to pick my brain on anything DC5 related and I would be happy to help.

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext. 112
philj@airmark.com

 

[Pavia]

Hi, Phil What media do you recommend for the DC5 ? We have previusly used Substance, but the surface of the vinyl is not smooth anymore and do not print well with thermal printers

 

[netsol]

frank mentions white dots in the print.
it is standard practice to wipe down the first few meet of exposed media with isopropyl (AT LEAST 91%)
and this is important for the condition of your printhead

i have no summa experience, but do have 3 gerber edge's & 20 years of experience repairing and maintaining zebra label printers (same technology in all 3)

to my experience this becomes much more important in winter. we hve hot air heat and dust is lifted and settles constantly

 

[pentester101]

Firstly, thank you all for your replies and suggestions, I really do appreciate the help.

I was able to resolve the coloring issue. I found that Flexi was applying color correction which changed the colors on the print. When I turned that off the colors are much better. Which does not really make sense to me, if the color correction is done using the Summa ICC profile I thought that it would print better colors, but maybe I am misunderstanding how it works.

I would like to be able to use the Summa ColorControl software but I have found that it is a little difficult to understand. There is not much documentation in the manual about it. If anyone knows of a guide for this software I would be interested in looking at it. I am having trouble figuring out how to print multiple prints in a row and also how to have it cut the print after.

As for the white specs, I have attached an image to show what I am seeing.

I think that Phil is correct in that I am not using the correct media. Right now we have a 3m Scotchcal vinyl (3MIJ35C). After checking the data sheet I do not believe that it is made to be used in a thermal printer. I just checked AirMarks website to purchase some 3M Premium White Vinyl but it looks like they are out of stock of the 54". I think I will go ahead and get the Intermediate White Vinyl and give that a try. My guess is that it will resolve the issues I am seeing.

I have only been using the DC5 on and off for about a year. We use it in house to print and cut product labels. The main reason I went with this particular setup is because we are not printing every day. Sometimes we go weeks without needing to print, and a thermal printer has no issues with that. Additionally, the labels we print are all small, the largest is about 3in x 3in. Not needing to laminate the prints or have an additional machine to cut is also a pro for us.

 

[FrankW]

It is what I suspected: your sample is standard print quality. Can be improved slightly by using higher lpi, but not much. Check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone , this is your "issue".

Inkjets does the same, but with a different method and smaller dots, so you do not perceive it the same way.

DC5 is cool if printing full colors. At the Airmark-Website, you will find a variety of color ribbons including such like "Golden Yellow", "Bright Blue", "Grey", "Mirror silver" and so on. If you can use this ribbons (graphic data needs to be prepared for it), you will have amazing results, printing a full color image with CMYK-Ribbons will lead to results like you have.

I´m very sorry, but It is totally wrong thinking to buy a DC5 to have a "lower maintenance than solvent, but same applications and same quality"-printer. The intersection of the applications is very small. If you do not have enough print jobs to keep a solvent or latex "healthy", better buy the prints from another company.

 

[pentester101]

It is what I suspected: your sample is standard print quality. Can be improved slightly by using higher lpi, but not much. Check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone , this is your "issue".

Inkjets does the same, but with a different method and smaller dots, so you do not perceive it the same way.

DC5 is cool if printing full colors. At the Airmark-Website, you will find a variety of color ribbons including such like "Golden Yellow", "Bright Blue", "Grey", "Mirror silver" and so on. If you can use this ribbons (graphic data needs to be prepared for it), you will have amazing results, printing a full color image with CMYK-Ribbons will lead to results like you have.

I´m very sorry, but It is totally wrong thinking to buy a DC5 to have a "lower maintenance than solvent, but same applications and same quality"-printer. The intersection of the applications is very small. If you do not have enough print jobs to keep a solvent or latex "healthy", better buy the prints from another company.

Thank you Frank,

We have purchased the spot colors we need from Airmark as well as the proper vinyl, I am excited to see the results. Thank you for your help and insight.

 

[FrankW]

You´re welcome. For printing with the spot colors, you need to design with the spot colors too. There are Summa Printer Tools available which will install color palettes into coreldraw and Illustrator. Flexi has a Color Palette for Summa by default (Swatch/Library/Summa).

In addition, there are DuoSpot-Colors which mixes two spot colors for additional full tone colors. There is a sample book available from Summa, comes with the printer when new. In Flexi, in the "Swatch/Table"-Folder, ist a color palette "DC3 DuoSpot.swt" available (depends on the version you use). If you have the related two color ribbons, it will overprint them for the additional colors.