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why god does this buckle constantly?

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SameDay Signs

New Member
so we have an epson s40600 and love it no complaints....alwyas been a workhorse since we got it a little over a year ago but recently our banners buckle in the same spot non stop. I cant print more then 2'-4' without a strike....ive had cheap banner ive bought jet flex and others and same issue...i have turned off the heaters i cleaned pinch rollers and so on....mind you nothing and i mean nothing else buckles ... any help much appreciated as i seriously cannot even print a banner at this point and am completely at a loss for words - is almost always in the same spot as well which makes it more confusing
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SameDay Signs

New Member
The problem is this has never ever been an issue until recently…nothing else buckles either I mean my shop should be same or similar temp and humidity and so on…also willl raising print head effect the print quality? I’m. Not even sure how to raise printhead heigh on the epson either honestly I’ve always been on mimaki
 
Geneva Olson

Geneva Olson

Expert Storyteller
to be honest, my printer (hp) does the same thing in a spot in the middle of window perf. Its usually a certain spot in the print (at the beginning). Is it "curling" in the printer? i've kinda jacked with pulling it in that area when it's printing (magnets weighing it down in that spot) and it seems to work. but I noticed that If I give it a bit of a lead, it will flatten out.
 
Saturn

Saturn

Your Ad Here!
Everyone always talks about less heat for buckling, but I would also try 120°F degrees on the preheat just as a test to rule it out as a solution. It's the only way I can print bidirectional consistently on my regular vinyl. Might not do jack for banner, but always nice to check things off the list when troubleshooting!
 
GAC05

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
Maybe coming in from left field but look at the wear patterns on the 2 rollers that border the strike. They are the only two in the photo that look like that. Maybe swap them to the left end where you are not likely printing as much. Or split them up to each end. Could be the metal rod or holder is tweaked or just the rollers. If it goes away or moves to the new location get some new rollers and or assembly that holds them.
 
J

Joe House

Sign Equipment Technician
Banner will always buckle more easily than a paper/vinyl sandwich. You can tell that by holding to pieces in your hand. There are generally 2 things that will cause the buckling - #1 is heat, i generally tell people to turn it down 5 degrees C and this usually stops it. The second would be the pinch roller system not being balanced. I'm not sure how old this printer is, but could they need replacing?
Finally, with the banner shortages, are you using a different banner material than your used to? Not all 13 oz banners are created equally. I could just be that banner material.
I'm not familiar with Epsons, but I would bet that there is a carriage height adjustment. Check out your user manual, it should tell you. This is exactly why its there. And yes, having the head in the high position can degrade your print quality, but 1, this is a banner. Don't look at it through a loupe, look at it from 10 feet away; and 2, it will look better than the head strikes your getting now.
 
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sonnyphoto

Premium Subscriber
SameDay Signs said:
The problem is this has never ever been an issue until recently…nothing else buckles either I mean my shop should be same or similar temp and humidity and so on…also willl raising print head effect the print quality? I’m. Not even sure how to raise printhead heigh on the epson either honestly I’ve always been on mimaki
Click to expand...
The head height is in the setup on the screen
 
S

SignMeUpGraphics

Super Active Member
Our settings for banner stock are:

Pre-heater 40C / 104F
Platen-heater 40C / 104F
After-heater 55C / 131F

Media type set to "Banner" and Platen-gap is 2.0.

No buckling on our 80600.
 
jfiscus

jfiscus

Rap Master
Head height is in the media profile on the printer. Make a new media type for banner that turns off the first two heaters, post heater is fine. Run it on high head height, 4 pass. Calibrate it for the media and print.

It could be humidity or a lot of other factors but doing the above should solve your problems. Some rolls of banner just buckle worse than others. We had a roll of backlit banner that no matter what we tried it would buckle after like 6 ft. We bought a different roll and had no issues, tossed that roll in the trash.
 
rjssigns

rjssigns

Active Member
I've been getting the same thing on my Mutoh with JetFlex 13oz matte. I feel something has changed with the material. Never any issues until the last two rolls. Take up reel or not it makes it about 10-12 feet than buckles just like the OP. Twice in a row leads me to believe it isn't the printer. Cure so far is to unroll a big loop behind the printer, print, unroll, print... PITA, I'm going to try a different banner material.
 
WYLDGFI

WYLDGFI

Merchant Member
Assuming you already tried turning the platen vacuum up a touch to try to get it down tighter? That in many cases will also cause issues with proper feeding and such....just a thought though.
 
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