I'm looking into the best way to fabricate jigs for our Vutek QS2 Pro. In some of the literature, EFI suggests that jigs be "slightly recessed from the top of the piece...". I would think that the way to do it would be to have the piece (aluminum/plastic picture frame) slightly recessed from the top of the jig, thus avoiding the likelihood of a head strike. If anyone has experience with this I'd appreciate your input.
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Jigs for flatbeds
- Thread starter jbona
- Start date
Gino
Premium Subscriber
EFI and you are both saying the same thing and have it right. Your jig must be ever so slightly lower than your print piece. We have many jigs made for repeat customers. We just did a whole lota cut-out leaves from 3mil PVC and just found two coordinates and made them the flat spot and didn't even use a jig and they came out perfect on both sides. Sometimes good planning goes a long way.
Ok. Thank you. I was thinking that I would recess the product since the media roller encoder is measuring the height of the substrate as it rolls through. If it measures a lower height ( the height of the jig ) and the piece is above it, the risk for head strikes seems higher since the gap between the carriage and the piece (.120) at its highest will be less than that of the carriage and the jig. Also if the piece you are printing on is somewhat fragile, I would suppose the roller coming in direct contact with it, may damage it. Thanks again for responding.
synergy_jim
New Member
we machine a lot of placement jigs out of .040 styrene. Its cheap and thin. It also seems to not want to buckle under the heat of the lamps.
Gino
Premium Subscriber
I'm not sure, what you're saying now ?? You have a hybrid, correct ?? So, the substrate passes through your gantry, right ?? Most flatbeds I know of, have a very small tolerance of the distance from head to surface. Therefore, if your template/jigs are higher, then you have to set the head height to that height which will probably make for blurry prints because of your print being too far away and you get over-spray to a certain extent.
Think of it like this. You're printing a door with recessed panels. While the high spots will look absolutely perfect, the recessed spots will be so blurry, it will look awful, even from a distance. You will have head strikes if you distinguish your head height at the lower level.
I think the misunderstanding here regards the media roller. It falls on the jig before printing, measures the height and offsets the carriage according to your desired setting. So if the jig were a 1/4" thick, then the carriage is off-setting its height from that measurement (say .120" above the .25"). If the piece to be inserted within the jig were higher, the carriage would still be using that 1/4" as a base to off-set from even though the piece itself may be sitting 2-3mm above that. Thus the increased risk for a head strike.
So when creating a jig for a Vutek QS2 Pro, the piece to be printed on in should be as flush as possible with the jig holding it (them). I do appreciate your help. Thank you.
I think the misunderstanding here regards the media roller. It falls on the jig before printing, measures the height and offsets the carriage according to your desired setting. So if the jig were a 1/4" thick, then the carriage is off-setting its height from that measurement (say .120" above the .25"). If the piece to be inserted within the jig were higher, the carriage would still be using that 1/4" as a base to off-set from even though the piece itself may be sitting 2-3mm above that. Thus the increased risk for a head strike.
Calling EFI, I was told that when creating a jig for a Vutek QS2 Pro, the piece to be printed on in should be as flush as possible with the jig holding it (them). I do appreciate your help. Thank you.