Is there a way when I run out of material to start where the job left off?

[Signguruniagara]

Hi all,

I’m new to the print industry. I’m running Felix complete on an HP 570 latex. Sometimes I get to the end of my roll and I printed half a sign but then run out of material. Instead of wasting that half printed sign does anyone know how to start printing once I have new material loaded in the machine where it last left off?

 

[balstestrat]

No.

 

[Signguruniagara]

No.

Really? That sucks cause I feel like I’ve wasted so much material not being able to restart where the last print job left off.

 

[Signstein]

There will always be some waste. If you're new to the industry, then you're also new to latex printers - they waste media. Some films need to be pre-tensioned on the takeup roller, some require more ink, some require printing uni-directional which wastes more time, etc. There will always be tradeoffs, and you'll learn to minimize waste. Plus you'll get better about gauging how much is left on a given roll

It's fun when you guess perfectly and you finish up a print with inches left on the roll...

 

[victor bogdanov]

If the design/sign allows paneling you could crop out the section that's already printed and print the rest on a new roll. Then you panel/join the two prints.

You learn with experience if you have enough media for a print before starting the print

 

[Stacey K]

You can always measure how much you have left. If you have just enough left but not enough to go through the system then just tape another partial roll to the end of your roll. I do that when I forgot to order material or I'm slow and have time to screw around.

 

[balstestrat]

Really? That sucks cause I feel like I’ve wasted so much material not being able to restart where the last print job left off.

Make shorter jobs so it's easier to continue.

 

[Gino]

You're just gonna need to learn how to either measure accurately or judge by eyeballing what's left, before starting. The eyeballing comes with practice, while the measuring is still a pain in the neck, if ya ask me.

 

[MikePro]

i mean, technically you can just run a tile of the remaining portion you're trying to finish but it will have a seam in it

 

[Stacey K]

Really? That sucks cause I feel like I’ve wasted so much material not being able to restart where the last print job left off.

I might be missing something here...

How many jobs are you sending at one time? I think most of us only send 4' - 8' sections of jobs at a time. It's also easier to work with smaller sheets that need to be weeded, etc. than 40' long sections.

For example, this job was like 50 or something...I just print 16 at a time because it's a 4' long section. I just print it 3 times instead of sending one huge section because it's sooooo much easier to work with. Also, if you have to laminate things and you screw up, I'd rather screw up 4' than 16'. Obviously, if you're printing 1,000's of the same thing this might not be viable but for most of the stuff a small shop prints, 8' and under sections are pretty common.

 

[Horton Signs]

Takes a bit of getting used to you can also use some maths to work out how much is left on the roll.

Count the number of times it goes around.
Times this by the diameter of the core.
Times this by Pi (3.14) and this will be roughly how much is left.

 

[MikePro]

there are online calculators for this if you need. link here

which is based on the formula: L = (D² - d²) * 0.785 / T where L is the remaining length, D is the outer diameter of the roll, d is the inner diameter of the core of vinyl (or the cardboard core outer diameter), and T is the thickness of the vinyl.

 

[Horton Signs]

there are online calculators for this if you need. link here

which is based on the formula: L = (D² - d²) * 0.785 / T where L is the remaining length, D is the outer diameter of the roll, d is the inner diameter of the core of vinyl (or the cardboard core outer diameter), and T is the thickness of the vinyl.

Wow. Ok. That one is in-depth I've taught most of my team the circumference of a circle, which is crazy as we all said in school when we were young "When will we ever need this?"