Anyone using PR-200 printable primer on acrylic?

[artifacture]

I have a JFX200-2513EX with two white and two clear channels running LUS-150 inks. I'm considering replacing a clear channel with primer and want to know what the potential downsides are. We don't really use clear currently. We print almost exclusively on acrylic, and without primer we see adhesion issues. Hand applying primer to full size sheets is a nightmare to get even application and no streaking. This would allow just putting primer where it needs to be.

So I'm wondering, does this primer work well for acrylic? Are there issues I should be aware of? For instance, I'm told it clogs more often. I just want to make sure I won't regret making the change and that it yields the convenience I'm looking for.

 

[Solventinkjet]

I honestly don't know how well it works on acrylic but from a technical standpoint, it's definitely tougher on the head. It's hard to say exactly how much life it takes off a head but it will fail sooner than it would have with regular ink running through it. So maintenance will be key. Also, if you switch, you need to get a new, special sub tank for the primer that is more resistant to the chemicals in the primer.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Need to do a lot of stuff to swap to primer, and yeah, it is bad about nuking heads. Might want to look into brush-on products or pre-treating acrylic. I tend to get good adhesion on LUS150 + acrylic by only removing the protector right before printing.

 

[artifacture]

Need to do a lot of stuff to swap to primer, and yeah, it is bad about nuking heads. Might want to look into brush-on products or pre-treating acrylic. I tend to get good adhesion on LUS150 + acrylic by only removing the protector right before printing.

Yeah, they gave me a list of parts that would be replaced as part of the swap, though a tech we talked to said since our system is only a year old, we might be able to get away with some of the parts after a proper flush. Damaging the heads is not good to hear though. We are good about cleaning it every day that we print which is most weekdays. I know there used to be a different cleaner recommended, but a tech said that was no longer recommended.

On extruded acrylic, the LUS-150 does reasonably well, but on cast acrylic it's much more common. We laser cut after printing so we apply a liquid masking that dries to a plastic film and remove it after. It's always when peeling that when the failures occur. It's never wholesale failure, it's just random spots but enough to need to reprint. We have the Natron primer because the Mimaki wipe on primer didn't seem to work well for us. The biggest challenge is trying to evenly apply it to a 4x8 foot sheet. Too much and it can leave streaks. We have a window washing extension arm with a pad to put it on and one to wipe the excess, but that gets enough on it that it starts to redeposit.