printing on styrene

[evie]

Can I print .030 styrene on my epson gs6000?

 

[artbot]

clear it lightly with CAB acrylic (krylon clear if it's a small piece) and you get decent results. no heat or it will buckle. sherwin williams dull rubbed effect will match the original styrene finish.

 

[mpn]

Artbot, what do you use to apply the coating, roller,spray, brush? Best way you've found? Sounds like a good project for the down time.

 

[Donny7833]

I've printed .020 sheets on mine with head set to high, I would think there's enough clearance to run .030, but I would feed from a table and out to another table. I used Onyx with Oracal 3651 profile uni, heat set at 37 pre 34 print and 34 post. Image quality is pretty darn good. Be aware that you will get some static misting in open white area's, static tinsel helps, but humidity around 40% will really help. Best of luck.

 

[mpn]

Just straight styrene, no coating?

 

[Donny7833]

Straight styrene. Print grade however, I was paying around $12 a sheet for 50x100.

 

[mpn]

Thanks for the info Donny. Now I have to try it :Big Laugh

 

[artbot]

i spray it. keep in mind that styrene can't handle a hot solvent so a fine layer with minimal to no retarder is best.

you can print direct but the image won't be a fine. just depends on the distance
viewed.

the infeed/outfeed is another issue. how big are the prints? if they are 4x8 there are several tricks to getting the material through the printer.

 

[mpn]

The job I want to experiment with would be cut down to 3x3 round cornered finish. The way I do them now is 12x24 sheets so the job is flexible in size.
Thanks Artbot.

 

[Donny7833]

I disagree about the image not being fine. We were printing table tents, cooler tags and shelf talkers for a local liquor distributor, scoring them on our Summa (roller table front and back), then peel them out of the styrene . Full color, some with photos and you could scrutinize them.

They eventually bought an Oki Data and brought that work in house. What we gave the client looks as good or better than what they print.

Wanted to mention that if you need a photographic image and your running Onyx, get the PVC 10 profile from Grimco. Really nice print, but slow.