banner printing question

[David Rogers]

I’ve done six 23 foot x 4′ banners without any issues…so long as it’s aligned properly it’ll be fine.

[Matt Boyd]

hey david, are their any particular "tricks" to making sure the alignment is good on a banner that big?
cheers

[David Rogers]

Yeh, get the initial alignment perfect then don’t let it get tight at the back when it’s actually printing. Always have a bit of slack spooled off as if it’s tight and slightly mis-aligned it’ll pull off to one side, buckle and drift from under the media clamps.

In an ideal world you should be able to load a big roll of banner & just walk away from it…in reality, it takes a bit of baby sitting as the material is very rarely on the core perfectly so wants to drift and given the weight of the log it’s not just going to self level.

I had about a 1.5" drift over the 23′. The banners were 4′ – keep the media clamps in a bit – they don’t need to be right at the edges of the media…will account for the drift.

[Matt Boyd]

cheers david, will keep that in mind!! always handy to get these little tricks from people who have done it before!! as you say, ideally you should be able to walk away from the job, but………. 😕

[Jason Xuereb]

I wondered why Roland never used the pinch roller mechanism from the XJ’s on the Versacams and XC’s. There must be a reason for it but I like how the pinch rollers on the XJ’s keep the media more flat.

[Matt Boyd]

we just got our vp540i installed afew days ago…..i take it their shouldn’t be any type of issues getting it to print out a decent sized banner then?

[Gary Birch]

We printed a 19m banner on our Versacamm without issue.

As David says, good initial alignment is paramount. We spool off banner media no matter what length of banner, if you don’t it doesn’t lay as flat coming through the printer and can cause the head to catch the print or even crash.

Cheers

Gary

[Matt Boyd]

hey gary, on the 19m banner, did you use just the end pinch rollers? or some of the others? and do you liquid lam any of your printed banners?

[Gary Birch]

quote Matt Boyd:

hey gary, on the 19m banner, did you use just the end pinch rollers? or some of the others? and do you liquid lam any of your printed banners?

Yes I just used the 2 outer pinch rollers.

I have never had a need to liquid laminate banners.

Cheers

Gary

[Matt Boyd]

cheers gary. i know some people do liquid lam their banners, just wasn’t sure if that was the norm. so on long banners just the 2 outer pinch rollers is all you need….gotch ya!
cheers

[Nicholas Atkinson]

thanks everyone

[David Rogers]

quote Matt Boyd:

cheers gary. i know some people do liquid lam their banners, just wasn’t sure if that was the norm. so on long banners just the 2 outer pinch rollers is all you need….gotch ya!
cheers

Just don’t put them right to the edge of the media like you normally do with roll vinyl. Put them in far enough each side that the banner width is covered as it will account for any drift….the media edges shouldn’t lift up to catch the head.

[Matt Boyd]

Cheers david, will bare that in mind also.