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Minimise dirt / dust / outgassing issues in print
Hi
So i’ve been printing for a little while now, but i’m still having issues with dirt / dust in the print so I have a couple of questions.
Rather than ask a 1000 questions, i’ll tell you what i’m doing and i’m hoping someone can tell me what I can improve on.
Firstly, I tend to store the rolls standing up on carpet tiles, with a couple of roll holders to stop it unravelling.
Ok, a really in-depth description here…
1: Add the roll to the printer, remove the vinyl holders, feed the vinyl through, align it then leaver goes down.
2: I’m already seeing crap on the vinyl so I give it a quick wipe with my hand. (first signs of dirt and possible contamination from my hand)
3: Print and let the take up unit collect the print, now sometimes i’ve been leaving this for 24 hours rolled up thinking it’s outgassing but further reading tells me that this needs to be stood up and loosely rolled.
4: So i’ve now been taking it off the unit, unravelling the print and exposing the core, then rolling the print back up loosely onto a smaller width core, this is all done while the print is standing on the carpet, i then add the original core back onto the take up unit and leave the print standing for 24 hours.
5: I now load the print to the laminator and setup the laminator, (Laminate is stored the same way as vinyl)
6: Once it’s been laminated, although the print is good I’m seeing small particles every so often .I can think of a couple of reasons why i’m getting dirt, storage and unravelling and rolling up the print multiple times but I could well be wrong
So, how do you store vinyl / laminate?
How do you outgas? (no fart jokes here lol)
How do you get a perfect laminated print?
How do you clean the wheel on your laminator?
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4 Replies
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Hi Daniel
1) invest in some racking from Signgeer etc
2) get rid of the carpet
3) load vinyl using cotton gloves
4) make sure to use take-up roller…if your printer doesn’t have then again invest.
Do not let print go on the floor!
5) no need to take print off tube to loosen. Stand roll on end, put hand inside core and rotate to loosen vinyl. Small bit of tape to hold end.
6) clean laminator rollers and surrounding area with clean cloth damp clothHope that helps
John
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Hi Dan,
As John mention the carpet is possibly the main cause of contamination, may be invest in some of this to store your vinyl and lam on top of if you can’t remove your carpet http://www.bjffeeds.co.uk/products/Floo … -50cm.html.
All our vinyl and lam are kept upright in their box and wrapper. We always use cotton gloves when handling print vinyl. Takes a bit longer to load and unload but reduces the risk of contamination/reprints.
We give our prints a wipe down with a microfibre glass cloth not a lint free one (big difference) http://www.thewipeshop.co.uk/index.php? … 548d9185c5.
Don’t for get the backing paper can get dirty as well and when you roll up your vinyl you just recontaminated the print.
To clean the rollers we use IPA and a microfiber cloth, I would also recommend wiping the print down as it’s been laminated.
Static build up on the vinyl, lam and laminator can cause issues as well.
Vacuum and never brush the workshop.
Hope this helps. -
I think Seun is right in saying the carpet is probably one of the biggest causes for contamination. Before you spend big money replacing it try roll and stroll or one of the other floor covers.
It’s like an anti slip cover usually used during building to protect the flooring or carpet but you could use it to protect your prints from your carpet, and if it works out you could look into replacing it.
http://www.everbuild.co.uk/index.php?ro … t_id=11087
http://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-c … 00mm/72304
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Thanks guys, I’ll invest in some of those wipes posted and wipe the print as I’m laminating.
I’ve built a wall holder for the vinyl but I need to adjust it as I made holes instead of slots and it’s hard to get the vinyl off.
In regards to the carpet tiles, they’re stained so I can easily remove them and I thought about laminate flooring but I hear this can be a nightmare as well, any suggestion on floor type, what do you guys use?
In the meantime I’ll get some of the carpet protector stuff to minimise the dirt.
In regards to rolling and unrolling the print, my printer is a 1600mm wide but I print onto 1520mm media, although the take up unit can take smaller cores it won’t line up with the blue marks on the versacamm so I end up leaving the 1600mm core on and then re rolling it into a 1520 core as my laminator can’t take anything wider.
Hope all that makes sense.
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