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Need advice on lamp settings for Arizona 1300 series

JdBattDesignRCI

New Member
I have a real printer specific question for the Canon Arizona 1300 series.

So I've worked at a print shop for a little over a month now and my main job is running a Canon Arizona 1360 flatbed UV printer. The printer is pretty new (installed in 2018 I think) and it must have replaced an older flatbed. I am mostly left on my own to train myself on this printer. Most of what we print on is .160" Coroplast, 1/8" PVC and 3/16" foamboard. I'm at about a 60-70 percent success rate so far with the sign prints, which is pretty abysmal. The hardest thing to figure out is the correct lamp settings, to cure the inks and avoid clouding around letters or streaking across white areas.

Now I know Canon bought out Oce a few years ago and redesigned their machines. It seems they never updated their online manuals.

The print driver we have running the UV is called Canon Production Printing. It's a very minimalist bare bones program with frustratingly limited settings to change and almost no configuration menus. The previous printer the shop had must have been an Oce flatbed and it had different software. It seems the UV lamp power settings on the old printer were on a scale of 1 to 11, 1 being the lowest and 11 being the highest power for UV curing. Well, the Arizona 1360 has only 4 options for both leading and trailing lamps: OFF, 70, 85 and 100 percent. These differing scales aren't correlating well at all. To complicate this, all the notes left behind by a previous printer operator were for the old machine. I'll list the settings they wrote down for the common materials.


SubstrateLeading lamp powerTrailing lamp power
4mm coroplast511
1/8" PVC57
3/16" Foamboard59
20# bond paper55
Most vinyls59
Magnetic59

This helps me very little. Three available power settings and OFF don't translate to a scale of 1 to 11.
Again, my options are OFF, 70, 85 and 100. I guess that means percent.

If the lamps are too low the ink doesn't cure and it runs and bleeds and smudges. If the lamps are too high it warps the material and causes head strikes against edges that can damage the print heads. I've cleaned up a few carriage strikes already and spent an hour or more scrubbing ink off signs.

Has any longtime UV user run into this problem? What setting do you recommend for the above materials?

The ones I figured out so far are PVC - both at 100, Foamboard - leading Off, trailing at 70, Coroplast - both at 85. I think it's annoying the shop owner that I have to ask him what settings to use every time and on every material I print on. His notes for an older machine with different controls aren't useful to me.
 
Last edited:

Inks

New Member
Just my thoughts based on my reference point. Others may have a better reply.

The UV output of the lamps (millijoules and millwatts) deteriorate over time and are typically changed around 500 to 1000 hours (depending on the printer).
As a result the substrates that cure at 70% may need 100% later on in the bulbs life.

Next time you put a new bulb in run samples of your regular substrates at different settings, starting with 70, cross hatch and tape test for adhesion and document the results. This will give you a starting point. You may want to check again after every 100 hours of bulb use to see how much it deteriorates and make adjustments.

Theoretically the ink should cure the same on all the substrates. The variable would be coverage, high density areas and black can take more energy to cure. Sky blue background would be easier to cure and you may be able to use a lower setting.
 
Hi,

We run a 1380 and print nearly everything at 85 leading and trailing, Quality speed and bi-directional. Had it about 8 months and nothing has ever smudged or warped.
We had a 360 before that and only ever turned the lamps up towards the end of the 500 hour life but they are LED on the 1300’s and should last years.

Sounds like it could be a vacuum issue, Are you masking the parts of the bed where the vacuum zones are bigger than your media? Where does the pressure needle go when you press the pedal? it should be about 10’o clock on the dial. The vacuum is pretty strong and anything with a natural curving sucks flat most of the time if your bed is properly masked off, if not taping the edges of your media to the bed should solve it.
 

JdBattDesignRCI

New Member
Nowhere in Canon's documentation did it mention the LED lamps, interesting.
They really need to update their manual, it looks like they redesigned quite a few things on the 1360 when they stopped manufacturing under the Oce name.
The vacuum valve handles are very different, the printer doesn't say 'ARIZONA' on it, the carriage looks like it was redesigned, the UV lamp filters are smaller & mounted vertically on the sides of the carriage not horizontally on top, there's only two buttons underneath the carriage not 4. (ink flush and raise the carriage are my only options) And they did away with the vacuum suction hose for cleaning the print heads, there's not even a compartment under the tray for it.
 

JdBattDesignRCI

New Member
Now I need to print on a 2-sided banner vinyl, 86" wide, heavier than I'm used to. The roll itself weighs around 80 pounds. 15oz. Ultraflex Supersmooth PET Blockout. Is 85% a good lamp setting? Step correction 50?
 
You will find the user manual here under the manuals tab and choose 1300 series


https://downloads.cpp.canon/ProductDownloads/Index/618


To be fair to Canon we got a hard copy of this and a pdf on the PC when they installed the printer.

You don’t need your vacuum for the printheads because there is an automated maintenance station on the other end of the gantry that does it for you.

For your banner I would have my lamps at 85 but the media correction factor is something you will have to set yourself depending on whether you have horizontal light or dark lines on your print. Ours is usually in the 70’s or 80’s but by all means start at 50, do a step correction test and alter if necessary, then print another until it is right.

First off I would do an automatic printhead maintenance which purges and cleans your printheads then a nozzle check then a media step correction test.
 
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