Tile Lengths Are Not Equal.

[Ron Kelly]

We are using a Mimaki CJV150-106 to print wallpaper murals and because of the size required we quite often have tiles up to 3 metres long. The problem we are having is that the printed tiles vary in length by 2-3 mm. I know that doesn't sound like much and on most standard jobs it isn't an issue but a recent job was for a satellite image of a local town and the streets don't align correctly at the top and bottom of the print because of this variation in the length.

We are using FelxiSign 12 to create our artwork and RasterLink 6 to print it.

Anyone have a similar issue or an idea as to how to sort this problem? Thanks.

 

[AKwrapguy]

It may just be the material that your working with. Is it the type of material with the glue on the back or do you have to apply the glue after?

 

[Ron Kelly]

We are using both self adhesive wallpaper and standard wallpaper and the results are the same. I think we will try not using the take up roll and print each drop separately and see if that makes a difference.

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

We are using a Mimaki CJV150-106 to print wallpaper murals and because of the size required we quite often have tiles up to 3 metres long. The problem we are having is that the printed tiles vary in length by 2-3 mm. I know that doesn't sound like much and on most standard jobs it isn't an issue but a recent job was for a satellite image of a local town and the streets don't align correctly at the top and bottom of the print because of this variation in the length.

We are using FelxiSign 12 to create our artwork and RasterLink 6 to print it.

Anyone have a similar issue or an idea as to how to sort this problem? Thanks.

I've had the exact same problem with Rasterlink in the past. I cornered mimaki techs at SGIA to explain it to me and none of them were able to help. I was trying to print on POSPRO rigid film for pop-up panels for a tradeshow display and never could get it to work. Had the same problem with each tile being 1/4" - 3/8" variance in length. We've since been sending these to Orbus to produce because of the wasted time and material we had. I'm not sure if it was the material slipping as it went through the printer or possibly shrinkage with the heat, but I don't have the same issue on vinyl. If you figure out what the problem is, please give us an update. Good Luck!

 

[Ron Kelly]

Well it's good to see I'm not the only one having the problem. I printed a job a few days ago and I printed drop 1 separately and then printed drops 2 and 3 together. Drops 1 and 2 seemed fine but drop 3 was slightly out. I think I'll try printing all my drops separately without the take up roll and see if that helps. Also I think I'll turn the heat down a bit or maybe even off completely and lay them flat to dry.

 

[myront]

Let me throw in our experience. We often had this problem when printing wrap panels. Some of the panels were short enough to print horizontally but longer ones had to be printed vertically. Because of media feed you will end up with as much as a half inch difference. Now we ensure all panels are printed the same direction.
Boils down to media feed. Banners are the same way. An 8ft banner may print as much as .5 longer but make a media feed change and then it's 1/2" shorter. A 14ft banner ends up being 14' 1".
Another cause for this may be that we don't always tape the material to the takeup on the start but rather tape it on the fly (hate the 6-7ft waste)

 

[jfiscus]

If you take two panels straight off the roll and lay them side by side on a table, they are not the same size? - If not, this is a machine or RIP issue.
Your machine should have a calibration utility that enables you to print marks a certain distance apart and then measure and adjust the machine. If that is correct, then possibly Rasterlink is giving you improperly sized panels. However, I would think that if it was a machine/mechanical error, all panels should be the same improper size.

We use Onyx here for our Mimaki and have not had this issue.

 

[Ron Kelly]

Exactly right. Side by side, they are not the same length. (We also tape up on the fly by the way.) I'm guessing it must be a mechanical problem rather than a problem with RasterLink. We didn't set the machine up so claibrarion is down to the supplier and we have no reason to doubt they calibrated correctly. We will probably do another test and if it is still wrong I guess we would need to contact the suppliers again.

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

I thought that we had a RIP issue as well until another "friendly" Mimaki tech pointed out in the printer specs about Distance accuracy for Precision and Repeatability... +/- 0.3%. Over 8' that equates to +/- .288". Those numbers are for the JV-33 series. The CJV-150 series appears to have similar specs (Pg 139 of Operations Manual). That's why I didn't even waste more time/material to figure out how to print accurately on that film.