Suggestions Lexan Sprocket Punch-Outs Causing Intermittent Streaks Through Prints

[jochwat]

Howdy.

Sometimes (not frequently, but enough to be annoying at least, and costly at worst) when printing on 10mil Lexan on our Gerber Edge FX, everything will be printing just wonderfully, until it isn't. At most of the time, that means we're getting a continuous unprinted line down the rest of the print. I often see little waste dots of Lexan landing on the material, or the table, from the sprocket holes where they didn't come out at the factory. I'm suspecting that these little buggers are what's causing the straight-line streaks.

Does this sound accurate to any of you Gerber users? I don't think it's just a matter of cleaning the printhead, as we do that often when it happens, usually with no improvement. If my suspicions are correct about the Lexan "dots", do you have any tips on keeping this from happening?

Thanks -- Joe

 

[CanuckSigns]

Call me superstitious but I don't clean my Gerber print head, like ever. I noticed it printed worse after cleaning. Going on 4 years now, no cleaning, prints like a champ. Mind you it only sees about 2 hours of use every 3 months these days

 

[FunkotronXL]

Howdy.

Sometimes (not frequently, but enough to be annoying at least, and costly at worst) when printing on 10mil Lexan on our Gerber Edge FX, everything will be printing just wonderfully, until it isn't. At most of the time, that means we're getting a continuous unprinted line down the rest of the print. I often see little waste dots of Lexan landing on the material, or the table, from the sprocket holes where they didn't come out at the factory. I'm suspecting that these little buggers are what's causing the straight-line streaks.

Does this sound accurate to any of you Gerber users? I don't think it's just a matter of cleaning the printhead, as we do that often when it happens, usually with no improvement. If my suspicions are correct about the Lexan "dots", do you have any tips on keeping this from happening?

Thanks -- Joe

Do you have images available? Your description could indicate multiple areas to investigate.

Printhead contaminants, debris on platen, debris/contaminants/damage on squeegees, pixel misfire (doubtful), etc.

 

[Jeff grossman]

I hate when I get punched material with " boogers" . after inquiring to my supplier turns out they punch their own materials and they haven't replaced the punch tines on their machine for 3 years , once they did I haven't had a problem since ( guess they got tired of me returning materials) plotter and FX would clog and bind with many little dots ,plastic wipers would drag across the prints (FX) and destroy the print ,plotter would jump the tracts from buildup - just another day

 

[jochwat]

Do you have images available? Your description could indicate multiple areas to investigate.

Printhead contaminants, debris on platen, debris/contaminants/damage on squeegees, pixel misfire (doubtful), etc.

Funko, next time it happens I'll grab a couple of photos and add them to this thread. Thank you.

 

[jochwat]

Call me superstitious but I don't clean my Gerber print head, like ever. I noticed it printed worse after cleaning. Going on 4 years now, no cleaning, prints like a champ. Mind you it only sees about 2 hours of use every 3 months these days

Ours runs at least every other day for a few hours. Usually I'll see something on the printhead (white spots or more) and, well, it just NEEDS cleaning. Haven't had quite the fortune you've had with never cleaning it! We pretty much have to before every print run.

 

[Billct2]

I don't think it's those circles of lex, I get them too and never caused a problem. I think they would make a bigger mess and some noise if they got stuck on the roller.
Sounds more like some other contaminant.
When we got our Edge the salesman also installed & trained us. He was adamant about cleaning the printhead after every use and I do with cloths made for cleaning printheads.