KellyP12
Production Artist
Hey all - looking for some unorthodox advice - we are attempting to print on a relatively heavyweight coated material with a custom coating. Everything is going great except for one huge problem: the coating on the top has a bit of a dusty feel to it, and after loading the material, after a few revolutions, some of this dust will coat the pinch wheels/drive roller wheels, causing the media to slip and not feed at the appropriate rate. We've tried nearly every (un)conventional solution to this, such as:
- doing a paper advance calibration, feeding out some media and taping it to the take-up reel so as to cause weight at the bottom to feed the paper down (both with counterweight and not),
- even cleaned all the rollers and drive rollers (using the service utility "Turn Drive Roller" and cleaning the main roller extensively with Rubber Renue and Windex),
- replaced some of the small pinch rollers themselves and checked they were in proper orientation according to the service manual,
- blowing off some of the dusty top coat with compressed air, or wiping down the roll as it prints with a cloth,
- wrapping some of the pinch wheels in electrical tape hoping it would thicken it up and cause better grip on the paper.
What we've learned from this experiment thus far is it's definitely the dusty nature of the coating wearing off that is causing the irregular slipping. If we tug on the paper while it's printing test prints, to hold it down, it prints incredibly well! But it can only print about 24" or so before it gets wobbly again and the paper starts to backslide. On its own, it's as if the particulates in the coating are making the pinch wheels unable to properly hold and feed the paper, which then leads to double-striking, fuzzy prints, etc.
Are there any suggestions? We are doing a lot of R&D on this and I'm running out of ideas.
- doing a paper advance calibration, feeding out some media and taping it to the take-up reel so as to cause weight at the bottom to feed the paper down (both with counterweight and not),
- even cleaned all the rollers and drive rollers (using the service utility "Turn Drive Roller" and cleaning the main roller extensively with Rubber Renue and Windex),
- replaced some of the small pinch rollers themselves and checked they were in proper orientation according to the service manual,
- blowing off some of the dusty top coat with compressed air, or wiping down the roll as it prints with a cloth,
- wrapping some of the pinch wheels in electrical tape hoping it would thicken it up and cause better grip on the paper.
What we've learned from this experiment thus far is it's definitely the dusty nature of the coating wearing off that is causing the irregular slipping. If we tug on the paper while it's printing test prints, to hold it down, it prints incredibly well! But it can only print about 24" or so before it gets wobbly again and the paper starts to backslide. On its own, it's as if the particulates in the coating are making the pinch wheels unable to properly hold and feed the paper, which then leads to double-striking, fuzzy prints, etc.
Are there any suggestions? We are doing a lot of R&D on this and I'm running out of ideas.