Substrate on a Mimaki JF 1631 Flatbed?

[Team One Displays]

Does anyone have any experience with this machine? We've had the printer since the beginning of September and really have not been able to utililize it for what we would like to yet.

I'm really interested to find out what substrates people are printing on with this machine. We have been trying to print on 1/8" PVC, but the heat from the lamps warps the material and also makes the PVC extremely brittle. I've been told to run it with the lamps turned down or with just one lamp - but when we do we get significant cure banding.

Is anyone printing on 1/8" PVC? 1/4" PVC? If so - any tips?

Any recomendations on a thin substrate we could use other that PVC? It would have to be rigid, low cost, and less than 3/16" thick.

 

[J Hill Designs]

2mm dibond?

 

[Team One Displays]

The 2 mil dibond would be thin enough, but it poses another problem. About half of the graphics we produce slide into a system groove in the Octanorm brand extruded aluminum we use, which dibond works great for, but the rest of the time we attach the graphics to our structures with velcro.

With one of our trade show booths we use the graphics for several shows so the concern with dibond is that will bend easily when trying to pull it off a wall that it is velcro'ed to.

We'll have to experiment more with the Dibond but we would still love to be able to print on the PVC.

 

[drive]

i run a flatbed, but its not a mimaki. i only have the lamps come on (shutters open) in one pass direction. (left or right).
this helps with the heat and prevents 'lawnmowing'.
i usually feed thin materials out 6" or so before the ink will start laying down. this gives the material more area to disperse heat. good luck

 

[Team One Displays]

i run a flatbed, but its not a mimaki. i only have the lamps come on (shutters open) in one pass direction. (left or right).
this helps with the heat and prevents 'lawnmowing'.
i usually feed thin materials out 6" or so before the ink will start laying down. this gives the material more area to disperse heat. good luck

I'll try to start the print farther up the board instead of at the edge as you mentioned. On the Mimaki the lamps have to remain on throughout the whole print - it doesn't give the option to turn them off in one direction. Actualy, when the lamps are turned off it's a five minute process as the lights have to cool down before they will switch back on.

 

[Team One Displays]

Sucess! After a ton of trial and error we were able to dial the machine in just right and print on 1/8" PVC. In the end, it was a specific combination of color profile, dot gain, print speed, head height, and UV level - but it works beautifully!

Now to get to work printing the paying jobs!

 

[drive]

sorry, the rastek i have has shutters that will open and close with each pass. you can configure which lamps open and close with each pass direction. the lamps are on all of the time. hope i didnt confuse you and im glad you got it working. i had a alot of trial and error with the flatbed and its still an ongoing process. thanks you posting your solution. good luck!!!

 

[Team One Displays]

sorry, the rastek i have has shutters that will open and close with each pass. you can configure which lamps open and close with each pass direction. the lamps are on all of the time. hope i didnt confuse you and im glad you got it working. i had a alot of trial and error with the flatbed and its still an ongoing process. thanks you posting your solution. good luck!!!

No worries! - thanks for the tip anyway. Which model rastek do you have? We actually just bought a Rastek 650 at SGIA last month (we print a lot) and it will be here in a few weeks. Hopefully the experience we have gained learning the Mimaki will help with the learning curve on the Rastek!

 

[drive]

we have an H700, which EFI reps have stated 'they wouldn't sell to their worst enemy'!!!!
Minutes later the boss was kicked out of the sign convention in vegas this year!

I'll help if I can. PM me

 

[Team One Displays]

Ha! Great, well, we'll see how it goes!

 

[kkamauu]

are you going to sell your Mimaki? I may be interested, im in the market for a flatbed.

thanks -

 

[Team One Displays]

are you going to sell your Mimaki? I may be interested, im in the market for a flatbed.

thanks -

No - we bought the Rastek to use in addition to the Mimaki. We may have thought differently if we couldn't get the Mimaki to print on 1/8" PVC - but now it's printing great!

 

[signswi]

How do you like the Mimaki in general? Do you run white ink, and if so have you had any clog problems? How about substrate adhesion?

 

[Team One Displays]

How do you like the Mimaki in general? Do you run white ink, and if so have you had any clog problems? How about substrate adhesion?

We have not had any real issues with adhesion. If you are cutting your substrate on a flectcher cutter or tablesaw/panelsaw, you have to cut the piece to size before you print on it. If you trim it afterwards, the ink tends to chip. However, we do cut the printed piece on our CNC and it does not chip at all.

We are currently running 2 white ink cartridges and have had some issues with the white. Really it just needs to print to keep everything running smooth and clog free. Our tech told us to run the white maintenance function twice a week to keep the white heads and lines from clogging - which uses up alot of your white ink.

The prints the JF 1631 produces are just great and we are really happy with the quailty it produces. It is a very steep learning curve though.