Advice for printing 10' doors on a 4'x8' machine?

[DigitalWoodGFX]

Hey guys, I have a project I'm working on printing a mural on a set a large set of folding doors. The total area the doors are covering is about 18' wide by 10' tall. Each individual door is about 23 inches wide. I'm running a CET Color Xpress 500 4'x8' flatbed UV printer and Onyx Production House 10.1. Normally it's simple enough to align my substrate using the registration pins in the table, but I believe the only way I'll be able to print the full height is running the doors through perpendicularly and printing each door in 3 different passes. My question is, can anyone offer any advice for ensuring everything is lined up when we get to assembly? This job has me a bit stressed as there isn't really any margin for error.

 

[fresh]

Does it have to be printed directly on the doors?

 

[DigitalWoodGFX]

Yes fresh, we'll be printing directly on the doors.

 

[DigitalWoodGFX]

I take it you're printing a solid backround on the whole thing?

If there is a break in the design, or if one can be incorporated... then you could print, move, and finish the print.

If not.......I'd sub it to someone with a hybrid or 5' x 10' flatbed.

So the doors themselves are a walnut finish on mdf core. The file we're printing is a mural of palm trees with a transparent background. At the moment, I have the mural laid out at full size in photoshop and I'm taking measurements of the doors and cutting the mural into smaller pieces that will fit the printer. Unfortunately there aren't any natural breaks, and the main concern is having all the tree trunks match up.

 

[Gino]

Can you post a picture of the finished mural ??

 

[DigitalWoodGFX]

This is the mural in question, obviously scaled down drastically.

 

[MDKAOD]

Obviously, direct printing would be the best option when you have it, but in this case, wouldn't it just make sense to print on vinyl and mount it? Why fight with registration when you don't really have to?

 

[DigitalWoodGFX]

You might be able to get away with it after seeing the image. The tree trunks may be forgiving for registration. If you don't want to wreck a bunch of doors, you could mask them off with cheap vinyl or even premask and print some tests until you get the positioning right. I've you've got registration pins they will be your best friend here.

Good luck!

Thanks. The biggest trouble I'm having is that I can't really use the registration pins because the doors extend well past the standard printable area, blocking the pins built into the printer. The pins don't do much other than lift the material a fraction of an inch. I've been using scrap plywood and masking tape to run some tests, and I'm getting pretty close, but I want it perfect, haha.

 

[DigitalWoodGFX]

Obviously, direct printing would be the best option when you have it, but in this case, wouldn't it just make sense to print on vinyl and mount it? Why fight with registration when you don't really have to?

That was my first inclination as well, but this project was signed off on before I joined the company and I didn't have any input. I've been instructed specifically to print direct to substrate. Printing vinyl is my plan b if we can't sort out the alignment issues though.

 

[player]

It might help if you show us the doors as well...

 

[DigitalWoodGFX]

It might help if you show us the doors as well...

More visual aides so you can see what we're after.

 

[MDKAOD]

That was my first inclination as well, but this project was signed off on before I joined the company and I didn't have any input. I've been instructed specifically to print direct to substrate. Printing vinyl is my plan b if we can't sort out the alignment issues though.

Print alignment tick marks on the table and add them to the artwork at 4' increments or whatever. Print the first panel and then shift it to line the tick marks up for your next pass. It will double or triple the number of ripped artwork, but it will work if you HAVE to do it this way.

 

[DigitalWoodGFX]

Appreciate all the input. I've constructed my own shims to line things with the edge of the table (so horizontally aligning the prints) and printed registration marks directly on the table to help align in the vertical direction. Now to get through printing 120 image slices without making a mistake.

 

[Paul R]

sigh

After 21 years of graphic design in the newspaper industry, I answered the cry for help from a friend's widow. Three months later, I am only starting to mount the learning curve. I don't have any advice to offer, naturally, but had to respond since I identify strongly with the phrase you used: no margin for error. I love this work, I really do, but I am getting sick and tired of only getting one chance to get it right. It's pure glory when you pull it off, but that is all personal because there are no thanks involved at any time. EDIT: That's a vinyl job, if you ask me.