Ametuer solvent printing question

[PrintItBig]

Hi,

We've just acquired a Roland printer and are literally printing our first job on it at the moment This is our first solvent or eco solvent printer so it's a bit of a learning curve.

The problem we're having is that when printing solid dark colours at low pre heat / post heat temperatures on a certain type of vinyl we want to use, this creates a slightly mottled orange peal effect. If we bump up the temperatures to the maximum setting (45, 50) this completely disappears. There doesn't appear to be any adverse effects to this other than a very very slight cockeling of the vinyl. This is very slight and can only be seen at certain angles.

My question is, is there any reason not to bump up the temperatures like this? Should we be sticking to lower temps for some reason? Do the higher temps affect the life of the vinyl or anything like that?

Thanks.

 

[player]

Hi,

We've just acquired a Roland printer and are literally printing our first job on it at the moment This is our first solvent or eco solvent printer so it's a bit of a learning curve.

The problem we're having is that when printing solid dark colours at low pre heat / post heat temperatures on a certain type of vinyl we want to use, this creates a slightly mottled orange peal effect. If we bump up the temperatures to the maximum setting (45, 50) this completely disappears. There doesn't appear to be any adverse effects to this other than a very very slight cockeling of the vinyl. This is very slight and can only be seen at certain angles.

My question is, is there any reason not to bump up the temperatures like this? Should we be sticking to lower temps for some reason? Do the higher temps affect the life of the vinyl or anything like that?

Thanks.

The only issue with higher heat is the rippling or tunneling of the vinyl. You have to be careful not to let the head touch the vinyl. There should be a temperature that gives you heat but eliminates or minimizes the wrinkling. You could try 37 / 37; 40 / 40; 40/45....etc. until you find the sweet spot.

 

[PrintItBig]

Thanks for the reply.

OK the rippling / tunnelling at 45/50 isn't enough to interfere with the head and that seems to give us the best print quality.

So that's the only downside with using higher heat... Potential for rippling and then in turn head crashes? No other downside? Doesn't stretch the vinyl or anything like that?

So as a general rule of thumb, is it best to print on as high heat settings as possible while not causing any rippling? Or is it best to keep the heat as low as possible while still curing / drying the ink?

Thanks.

 

[player]

What printer do you have?

What rip are you using?

In Roland VersaWorks rip, under print controls I let VersaWorks control the temperature which is pre-set in the icc profile that is made for that vinyl. They seem to be in the 40/50 range more often than not.

As far as heat damage I don't think the heat hurts, but when the vinyl sits waiting to reach temperature it gets more heat than when the vinyl is moving, (in my opinion) so it might ripple a bit at first but not once it gets moving.

 

[PrintItBig]

We're using Versaworks with an RE640.

There's no profile available for this vinyl (LG) on the RE that we could find so we're using Generic Vinyl 2.

 

[player]

Have you looked in the VW settings under printer control -->heater control and let VW control the heater?

 

[player]

I understand the profile for Orifol 3651 vinyl works nicely as a generic profile on lots of different vinyls.

 

[PrintItBig]

Have you looked in the VW settings under printer control -->heater control and let VW control the heater?

Yes that's where I'm setting the temps by overriding the defaults.

 

[PrintItBig]

I understand the profile for Orifol 3651 vinyl works nicely as a generic profile on lots of different vinyls.

Yeah thanks I tried that one, as well as all the other vinyl profiles that came preloaded. All of them give this slightly mottled effect until the heat is increased. But if you guys recon it's OK to bump up the heat that's what I'll do.

 

[player]

Yeah thanks I tried that one, as well as all the other vinyl profiles that came preloaded. All of them give this slightly mottled effect until the heat is increased. But if you guys recon it's OK to bump up the heat that's what I'll do.

Yes bump it up but watch out for the head smearing ink when it touches the top of the ripples. I am not sure if the ripples show on the prints because the ink is landing at different angles...