Thermal print fill and stroke issue

[AVRS]

We are having trouble with a color seraration issue in our thermal prints. When the placards are reverse printed on clear Lexedge II using the original Gerber Edge from Omega Composer 4.0.1. The artwork is printed forst, and the white foil is used to flood the background making a tamper proof placardThe artwork was created in Composer and has been checked severeal times for problems. None could be found at all. And the artwork appears perfect on screen. But when printing there are obvious gaps between the stroke and fill. In some artwork the the stroke completely drops out leaving the background white flood visible. Attached are two placards that I scanned with this issue.

Me and my coworker have a combined experience of over 20 years with this type of equipment. Neither of us have ever encountered an issue like this. Does anyone have any suggestions to resolve this issue?

 

[J Hill Designs]

are you using choke/spread?

 

[Browner]

^ They mentioned using strokes.

Make sure your filled shapes are set to overprint.

I've also found that when printing smaller detailed stuff like this onto LexEdge, we get the best results (especially with the flood coat) if all prints have the setting set to DARKER in GSPPlot.

 

[AVRS]

Thank you for all of the suggestions. The trick that did the job was setting the fills and strokes to overprint. I have no idea why we didn't think of it before. Such an obvious answer.

 

[AVRS]

Okay, we've done some additional tests to tighten this up, some good, some not so; but the results overall ARE an improvement from what we were getting befor this posting yesterday.

That said, we've tried various things with the chock/spread, overprint and even reversing order of the print {which in some canses goes against instinct, but....}

Any additional hints/tricks etc?

Also wondering if anyone has tried any prep materials from 3M on theLexEdge prior to running a print?

I doubt it would have any impact but have to at least ask

Thanks again folks.

 

[Bill Modzel]

I print many feet of lexedge. Generally, three colors and a double background overprint of Flood Coat White and than Light Grey for maximum opacity. Most of this is a continuing repeat order but every time a new file comes through from my customer it take's allot of tweaking to get the print as perfect as possible.
I think the main problem with Lexedge is it's "hardness". Vinyl is soft and forgiving. The lexedge surface is so hard that just the deposit of the first color keeps the printhead from making solid contact along the edge of the color and you get voids. Overprints, and heat settings will get you tuned in. If you're dealing with very small lettering or strokes, giving the lettering a quarter point overprint stroke will help also and fattening up a thin normal stroke will help too.

 

[signage]

I print many feet of lexedge. Generally, three colors and a double background overprint of Flood Coat White and than Light Grey for maximum opacity. Most of this is a continuing repeat order but every time a new file comes through from my customer it take's allot of tweaking to get the print as perfect as possible.
I think the main problem with Lexedge is it's "hardness". Vinyl is soft and forgiving. The lexedge surface is so hard that just the deposit of the first color keeps the printhead from making solid contact along the edge of the color and you get voids. Overprints, and heat settings will get you tuned in. If you're dealing with very small lettering or strokes, giving the lettering a quarter point overprint stroke will help also and fattening up a thin normal stroke will help too.

How do you give a quarter point stroke?

 

[Bill Modzel]

Gees, I'm working strictly in Illustrator using MacImprint to drive my Edge. I cannot offer anything concerning Omega. One of the other guys will have to jump in there.