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Type of paper used under substrate on flatbed printer

A

Andy D

Active Member
I have seen at demo's, the tech use a type of paper on flatbed printers that allows the vacuum to hold down
the substrate through the paper (meaning the substrate lays on top of the paper) and the paper blocks most of the over-spray
ink when you have a bleed.

I now have a belt driven flatbed and taping off the bed or putting scrap stuff around the substrate isn't practical..
I'm hoping to find something in a roll, I tried thin butcher paper but it had too many creases.

Thanks
 
T

TimToad

Active Member
Hey Andy,

We have a sheet fed 5'x10' flatbed and for full bleed stuff under 4' tall we have a big roll of simple white butcher paper that we cut pieces off of from time to time, but most of the time we just let the overprint hit the bed and then scrape it off. If you're careful and lay your single edge razor blade at a pretty low angle, it just glides along with very little effort or scratching.

Our older Gerber ION might not have the same power vacuum, because we do notice a difference in holding power and I'd rather scrape the bed than have a piece of substrate pop up and create a headstrike. The clearance on ours is only 1/100th of an inch, so not a lot of play in there to fool around.

Another thing we use is the backing off laminate, but with the coated side down. I noticed even the UV won't fully dry CAT ink on the coated side.

Are you trying to use the brown kraft laminator paper? That stuff has way too many wrinkles in it.
 
A

Andy D

Active Member
Thanks for the replies signmeup and Tim.
I have done something similar to what you described tim,
except I hold the razor at 90 degrees and use it as a scrapper, it works but makes a huge mess.
My belt is a plastic mesh material, and I'm scared to death of putting cuts into it.

I 99% the VACUBOND paper is what I saw, it was at a OCE demo, if I remember correctly.

Pretty amazing stuff, didn't effect the vacuum hold down much, but filtered/blocked all the over spray.
Anyone recommend a vendor?
 
T

TimToad

Active Member
Andy D said:
Thanks for the replies signmeup and Tim.
I have done something similar to what you described tim,
except I hold the razor at 90 degrees and use it as a scrapper, it works but makes a huge mess.
My belt is a plastic mesh material, and I'm scared to death of putting cuts into it.

I 99% the VACUBOND paper is what I saw, it was at a OCE demo, if I remember correctly.

Pretty amazing stuff, didn't effect the vacuum hold down much, but filtered/blocked all the over spray.
Anyone recommend a vendor?
Click to expand...

Yeah, see our bed is an anodized black aluminum, so I can't imagine you'd want to scrape too hard on the plastic mesh material. We typically do it with the shop vac in one hand and the other doing the scraping.

I do have to ask though based on the "big mess" comment. How big of a bleed to you put on stuff? Unless we're really off on a piece of substrate, we try to limit our bleeds to .125" so its only a narrow band hitting the bed.
 
BigfishDM

BigfishDM

Merchant Member
Andy D said:
Thanks for the replies signmeup and Tim.
I have done something similar to what you described tim,
except I hold the razor at 90 degrees and use it as a scrapper, it works but makes a huge mess.
My belt is a plastic mesh material, and I'm scared to death of putting cuts into it.

I 99% the VACUBOND paper is what I saw, it was at a OCE demo, if I remember correctly.

Pretty amazing stuff, didn't effect the vacuum hold down much, but filtered/blocked all the over spray.
Anyone recommend a vendor?
Click to expand...


Yes that material is just like cheap 20# bond. If you need a quote on it let me know.
 
A

Andy D

Active Member
TimToad said:
Yeah, see our bed is an anodized black aluminum, so I can't imagine you'd want to scrape too hard on the plastic mesh material. We typically do it with the shop vac in one hand and the other doing the scraping.

I do have to ask though based on the "big mess" comment. How big of a bleed to you put on stuff? Unless we're really off on a piece of substrate, we try to limit our bleeds to .125" so its only a narrow band hitting the bed.
Click to expand...

Our older UV printer that we do all our coro on is down and we had a rush order that took about 200 4'x8' sheets.. and the "perfect cut" coro wasn't so perfect cut, more like banana cut..:banghead:
so I had to put quite a bit of bleed...
 
A

Andy D

Active Member
BigfishDM said:
Yes that material is just like cheap 20# bond. If you need a quote on it let me know.
Click to expand...

Is that all it is? I thought it more of a filter , nylon, type material..
Yes please, I.M. me a quote on the widest roll under 98" you sell.
 
T

TimToad

Active Member
Andy D said:
Our older UV printer that we do all our coro on is down and we had a rush order that took about 200 4'x8' sheets.. and the "perfect cut" coro wasn't so perfect cut, more like banana cut..:banghead:
so I had to put quite a bit of bleed...
Click to expand...

The words "perfect cut" and "coroplast" should never be spoken in the same sentence, EVER. :ROFLMAO:
 
L

lgroth

New Member
We use rolls of newsprint paper... Cheap as heck, catches overspray, just roll it out onto the bed & tape the edges down. Vacuum will hold down large pieces through it, for small pieces we print a shape file and just cut center out.
 
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