Printing on flat corrugated boxes

[PaPrinter]

Hello, I am looking for any advice on printing on a die cut flat box on our flatbed. It will have bleed so taping down is not a good option. Any thoughts on how to get it to lay flat? If i could find some larger sheets of some kind of mounting film with a temporary adhesive on 1 side that may work but have no supplier for something like that.

Any tips?

Thanks

 

[synergy_jim]

we always print prior to die cutting. thats not going to be any fun at all.

 

[ChrisN]

Crank the vacuum all the way up and mask off as much of the bed as possible. I would cut out a special template on our Kongsberg flatbed cutter to mask off the bed. If I would not have access to a flatbed cutter, I would mask off the bed with transfer tape, print an outline of the box on to the masking, and then cut out and remove the portions where the box would be. This is all assuming you have a true flatbed rather than a hybrid, and it is all theoretical because I have never done this. But that's what I would do.

 

[PaPrinter]

Crank the vacuum all the way up and mask off as much of the bed as possible. I would cut out a special template on our Kongsberg flatbed cutter to mask off the bed. If I would not have access to a flatbed cutter, I would mask off the bed with transfer tape, print an outline of the box on to the masking, and then cut out and remove the portions where the box would be. This is all assuming you have a true flatbed rather than a hybrid, and it is all theoretical because I have never done this. But that's what I would do.

Just got back trying to get this to work. I traced out an outline of the flat box on a large sheet of paper and cut it out on the inside of the line. Then I masked off everything else. It ended up sucking down to the bed better than I ever thought it would. When I go to run the job I'll print out a template of the box on the sheet for positioning.

Thanks

 

[Andy D]

I would do just as ChrisN described, except if this was a large print job and/or will be a repeated print job
I would print on slightly thinner foam board and CNC it or hand cut it.

I would then print the outline on roll paper that I use when printing to odd shaped jobs, this paper allows
the the vacuum to pull through it but works as a filter to keep the holes on my table from getting
clogged.

Then without cutting the paper I would use the printed outline to register my foamboard.
And next time I had to setup this job there wouldn't be any cutting, just reprint to the paper and
register the foamboard to it.