printed material sticking on the takeup

[Chasez]

I've got an issue with my material sticking to itself on the takeup. I'm printing to 3m IJ8150, solid colour red 60" wide by 150ft rolls (that's the size of the print). I've tried playing around with the media feed speeds, heat settings, setting a delay in print (5 passes then 10 sec rest) and it is still sticking. I've got a blower on it, and have added a couple baseboard heaters underneath the blower to add some heat to the mix to help it dry. Printing on a seiko w-64s (CMYKLcLm). It's not printing at a high resolution, only 540 dpi so it's not laying day a huge amount of ink.

Anyone have any tricks up their sleeves to get the print to dry enough before it will stick to itself on the takeup? Only thing that we have been able to come up with (which we are going to try tomorrow) is to build a bar further away from the printer that the media will wrap around then back up to the takeup so that it has more time to set before it gets wrapped up.

Really hope someone has found a resolution to this!

Chaz

 

[shoresigns]

It sounds like you've tried everything besides a new material, so that might be the next step.

 

[rjssigns]

One of these will get you home: http://bbcind.com/product/digi-dri/

Or if you need to print a ridiculous amount of material with specific color have the vinyl manufacturer make that color.
I had inquired some years back and while it can be done...you need to buy 12,000 square feet at time.

 

[brycesteiner]

One thing that I would look at is changing profiles.
Is it possible that your machine is just putting down too much ink and can't dry?
Another thing is have it print uni-directional in the RIP, allowing the first pass time to dry before the second is put down. It's slower but it can help.
A higher resolution might put less ink down all at once and spread it over more passes thus allowing more time to dry.
When I print banners I have it move very quickly, but if there is 400% ink, I need to slow it down or it's too much.

 

[bob]

It probably wouldn't matter how many heaters, dryers, blowers, or jet exhausts, what profile or anything else. Re-rolling 50 yards of flood coated media puts an unreasonable amount of weight on the uncured printed surface. Solvent dries via evaporation, that's why it's called solvent. The process doesn't take long but it does take longer than you're giving it.

Probably the only way you're going to pull this off is to rig up some way of taking it off the printer without instantly re-rolling it. Maybe running it out a goodly distance, perhaps looping it over this and that, before you start to roll it. Good luck with wrangling 150 feet of loose 60" media.

 

[Vital Designs]

Ink limits are surely too high. One other workaround to try would be to check the humidity in the print area. If it is in an enclosed area and the humidity is on the high side (>50%) you could try a dehumidifier to bring it down.

 

[jfiscus]

Are you SURE that none of the manufacturers sell a vinyl that is close enough in color for the customer to be happy? Many of the solid color wrapping vinyls have new colors out this year. With that much material and potential problems I would try to steer them in that direction.

If the customer/order is big enough the manufacturer will produce custom colors; one of our customers gets a special color material of their own.

Try turning up the heat on the printer.
Does your printer have drying fans? I think you can buy those separately and add them on.

I have NEVER had an issue with ink sticking to backing paper on the take-up reel. I would also recommend printing a test on another material.

 

[mdjamesd]

Is the carriage moving data width, or full printer width, that could buy you a little more time for drying?