Justf got a cjv150-107

[gcmedia]

Hey, What’s up! Little intro; I have been designing for over 10 years and recently decided to get into the production/print side of business. Recently got a Mimaki cjv150-107. Had a few primary questions I’m looking to solve, any help is much appreciated!

- For the time being, I plan to use my garage as the printing area. I notice the garage is normally in the 85-87*f, range, with 55-60-% humidity. That aligns with the max temp for the equipment environment. ( is a dehumidifier enough or should I also get a small portable ac to keep the garage at a cooler temp? ) or is neither needed?

- Does the temperature affect the media/out-gas process? I see in threads the media shouldn't be weeded before outgas? I've been doing print+cut on the last few runs.

- For right now I’ve been using primarily orajet 3641g, but I’m having inconsistent results with the cut process. The first day 2-3 runs went perfect and I feel now like labels don’t want to peel back without pulling paper. (Any recommended pressure settings for this media? And how Long should the media outgas/sit before trying to peel? )

- Any suggestions for label media other than orajet 3641g? I plan on providing standard labels/stickers and also packaging labels.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Jester]

85-87*f, range, with 55-60-% humidity

That sounds hot to me. It will be interesting to see what feedback you get from other Florida shops. Regardless of the actual temperature, your printer and media will thank you for maintaining a stable temperature/humidity environment somewhere in the middle of the recommended range.

labels don’t want to peel back without pulling paper

If you are kiss-cutting the vinyl through the ink (full bleed) you are cutting too deep and scoring the surface of the backing paper. The backing paper should not be cut. You should only be able to see the slightest impression of the blade. This is controlled with a combination of cutting pressure and cutting blade stick-out from the blade holder. Read the manual and experiment to get the right combination for your media and printer. Note that this will change as your blade wears, so there is no single answer.

If you are cutting out your entire sticker through the ink (again, full bleed) either by perf-cutting on the printer or manually cutting on your table, yes you may have to wait and let the prints out-gas before cutting.

In either case, until the ink dries the solvents in the ink tend to dissolve some of the adhesive and it migrates into the cut edges of the backing paper causing the "paper pulling".

Also, I don't know if this is happening to you (yet), but you must keep your printer's cutter protection strip clean and smooth / flat. If you are doing perf-cutting (cutting out the decal by cutting both the sticker and backing paper on your printer) you will chew up the cutter protection strip and that roughness will in turn give you inconsistent cuts. Run your finger over the cutting strip and feel for grooves and the resulting ridges turned up by the blade. The farther your blades goes through the media than necessary (the more stick-out and blade pressure you use), the faster this will happen. If you are perf-cutting on a regular basis you will need to keep a supply of cutter protection strips on hand and change them regularly.

 

[gcmedia]

That sounds hot to me. It will be interesting to see what feedback you get from other Florida shops. Regardless of the actual temperature, your printer and media will thank you for maintaining a stable temperature/humidity environment somewhere in the middle of the recommended range.


If you are kiss-cutting the vinyl through the ink (full bleed) you are cutting too deep and scoring the surface of the backing paper. The backing paper should not be cut. You should only be able to see the slightest impression of the blade. This is controlled with a combination of cutting pressure and cutting blade stick-out from the blade holder. Read the manual and experiment to get the right combination for your media and printer. Note that this will change as your blade wears, so there is no single answer.

If you are cutting out your entire sticker through the ink (again, full bleed) either by perf-cutting on the printer or manually cutting on your table, yes you may have to wait and let the prints out-gas before cutting.

In either case the solvents in the ink tend to dissolve some of the adhesive and it migrates into the cut edges of the backing paper causing the "paper pulling".

Also, I don't know if this is happening to you (yet), but you must keep your printer's cutter protection strip clean and smooth/flat. If you are doing perf-cutting (cutting out the decal by cutting both the sticker and backing paper on your printer) you will chew up the cutter protection strip and that roughness will in turn give you inconsistent cuts. Run your finger over the cutting strip and feel for grooves and the resulting ridges turned up by the blade. The farther your blades goes through the media than necessary (the more stick-out and blade pressure you are using), the faster this will happen. If you are perf-cutting regularly you will need keep a supply of cutter protection strips and change them regularly.

Thanks for the feedback! my plan today once I seen what feedback came in, was to go grab a de-humidifier and a portable ac to manage both temp and humidity in the garage.

For standard vinyl, the installer/trainer left it at 47 which was way too high. I tried 37 and maybe a slight bit to much. I'm going to run a test at 25 and see how those peel back in a few hours after laying them out in the garage. As of right now, I'm directly printing from the machine and cutting after 5 minutes of dry, from the machine. Most of my incoming orders are people who want circle/square logo decals, or rectangle decals for packaging. We do the application to the packaging in-house and provide to them done: Example: We have a client who makes different flavored apple sauce, we print the labels, do application to the jars and provide to the client ready to use.

Essentially today I would run the prints, by tomorrow they should have cooled/outgassed. I weed/cut them down to individual labels, and the assistant applies to various items. We then provide to the customer completed.

However, I would like at some point to die cut, but I noticed when the pressure was too high and cutting pretty much through both layers, that the further into the media the machine had to cut, cut out decals would start punching through, getting dragged and ultimately messing up the print as a whole? I'm completely new to this so obviously there is something I'm not doing correctly.

 

[Solventinkjet]

However, I would like at some point to die cut,

Mimaki calls this function Half Cut. Instead of cutting all the way through, it perforates the vinyl instead so that it doesn't fall out during the cutting. Download the user manual from their site and look up the half cut feature and it will explain it to you.

 

[gcmedia]

Mimaki calls this function Half Cut. Instead of cutting all the way through, it perforates the vinyl instead so that it doesn't fall out during the cutting. Download the user manual from their site and look up the half cut feature and it will explain it to you.

I do see that option in settings, the training person did bring it up but I told them I wasn't going to be using it yet however now I am getting requests for them. I will look into this, thank you for the feedback!

I've seen your name a ton in threads as I tried to do some homework before making a thread with too many questions! Could you advise on the pressure I should be cutting this standard media at? I also just got another roll in today that is calendar media? its 3m with a white backing, as per my previous media had grey backing.