Printing solid colors

[GraphxGirl]

Currently printing large format graphics with an Agfa Anapurna M 4F. I have tried cleaning the sintra with alcohol, rapid prep and even Windex (because you know it is streak-free). Well regardless of what I use for cleaning I still get almost like a cloudy effect in my color. You can sometimes even see the wipe marks. I attached a couple of pics.This happens a lot when solid gray is printed. There will be large "stripes" that almost have a red tint.

I don't know if we should start using something other than sintra to print on or if anyone here would have any other suggestions for me.

Thanks!

 

[miker]

Basically......you are screwed. Unfortunately, it's an alarming trend we have found from our PVC suppliers. Sintra, Komatex, Celtec, all are effected. Basically, if you don't clean the boards you will get an unpleasant smearing effect from the manufacturing process of the board, and if you do clean it you will get the effects you are seeing. We suffer from this more on light cyan covering, but also a little bit in light grey. We;ve talked to Laird, Piedmont, and Alcan and all have the same response.

Basically, we have to print a layer of white on the boards first to get decent (smear free) output. It sucks from a time and cost perspective.

 

[Pacific Coast Sign]

How about laminating an inexpensive vinyl first then printing or printing on vinyl and applying the graphic... I know this defeats the whole flatbed ideal but if your having trouble with a substrate.. ??

 

[miker]

Yes, we've tried that route as well, using Oracal 3651 and then printing on the board. The problem is that a) cheap vinyl tends to be thin and magnifies the imperfections of the board b) that defeats the purpose :Big Laugh

 

[Hzone15]

Is it for sure 100% a material problem we have been purchasing through Laird for quite sometime printing on my FB950, and have not had any issues. I clean with alcohol and lint free cloth's.

 

[SignManiac]

Is it for sure 100% a material problem we have been purchasing through Laird for quite sometime printing on my FB950, and have not had any issues. I clean with alcohol and lint free cloth's.

+1 Also...

 

[MikePro]

is it a "smear" or a uniform "banding" in the direction of the print?
edited: closer inspecition of the photo appears to be the former. disregard my inquiry

 

[particleman]

We fought this a lot when we had our m4f. The Agfa ink is bad about reacting to surface contaminates and shows it. Our fb500 is nowhere near as picky as the agfa was. Things that helped for us, 95% alcohol, lint free cloth. Ideally buy your material by the skid and only wipe with lint free cloth (or not at all). I had more than one conversion with Agfa at print shows about not even needing to wipe material with their printers.

 

[P Wagner]

The reddish tint in the gray graduated print looks to be more than an unclean board...looks more like a non neutral color profile to me.

 

[ellsmako]

How is the staitc in your production area?

 

[njwaverider]

No more banding or wipe marks on rigid pvc substrates (ie.sintra)

We have an Oce 350xt, same machine as fuji's acuity advance. The settings below refer to the options on our machine so interpret as needed for yours.

We print primarily on extruded foam pvc (sintra, palight, etc.). Our solution to the wipe marks and surface artifacts is printing on materials that have a protective plastic skin. We have have great results with Palight Premium http://www.palramamericas.com/PalightPremium and Somona Simopor-digital http://www.simona-america.com/index2.php?n=2.0.0.0 The price of PP is cheaper than Sintra at ~17.00- 18.00 per sheet.

As Particaleman wrote- buy it by the skid. We buy 1 or 2 skids (150-300 sheets) at a clip. The less handling, from the manufacturer to your door, the better. We set the boards on the flatbed, pull off the liner, and print right away; no wiping required.

We print a lot of solid fields of color and have eliminated banding using the following settings:

(note we prefer quality matte setting to match finish of the rigid sheet goods)

quality matte, bidirectional, lamps- leading 2 trailing 4, with a 2 second end of swath delay.

with these settings it is sometimes difficult to determine the travel of the printhead.

if the image is busy the 2 second end of swath delay can be eliminated.