Printing a double sided banner nightmare….

[Mark Shipley]

Hi Mark,

I’ve had similar printing banner on a VersaCAMM and yes tried hanging weights etc. from the media. 🙄

The large media clamps are part of the answer but also before you start printing, feed out sufficient media to go down to the bottom of the black ‘voltage switch’ arrow on the sticker below the dryer heater and set the base point there. I guess that’s about 200mm of media.

The extra banner material should provide enough extra weight to keep it flat on the bed and stop it puckering up.

Just a thought, but it could also be down to the liquid laminate expanding at a different rate to the media and causing the problem, you may want to try turning the print heater off for the reverse side and just use the dryer.

I hope this is of help.

Mark

[Stephen Morriss]

Have you tried printing the second side without laminating the first side?

I always find that the liquid laminates shrink and make the material curl, the heat could be exaggerating this.

Have you re rolled it too tight?

It may be better to have the print hanging off the back as this will force the banner to go flat as it feeds up onto the back of the platen.

I’ve noticed this happening on my Cadet if you clamp the vinyl down cold, if I let it warm up before lowering the rollers it doesn’t happen.
Perhaps if you leave the first foot of the banner to warm before clamping?

You can set the preheat higher so that the platen is up to temp before lowering the rollers to help this.

Hope this helps but I’ve never done double sided stuff so these are only suggestions

Steve

[Robert Lambie]

hi mark
this must be a bit of a nightmare mate, nothing worse getting a problem like this, let alone getting the problem when there is a job needing to go out the door. makes things ten times worse. 😕
I’m really do not have an answer as i haven’t used this material as yet.
that said, i have been trying different “stay flat” materials for pop-ups and the like. what i have found with banner materials that there is a sort of distort in heavily printed banners. the ones that only have text on it, “viewed from the Back” you can actually see were the solvent has caused an impression on the material. this too me says that the solvent is having an effect on the banner in various ways. reading what you have wrote it could well be that by the time you reload your banner after printing one side, then trying to run it through again, the clamps will hold the banner properly but the ink will have caused this buckling of the material so ultimately causes you bother running the banner true without any parts rising. (hope this is making sense so far)
i am far from any sort of expert on this, so my reply is guess work.

how would leaving the banner longer to dry, ridding the material of as much solvent as possible?

i have a grenadeir, guessing its the same with your versacamm, but if head crashes are the problem. how about putting the head at its highest position, has 3 i believe. that way it is possible it wont hit the material?

do you have the middle clamps down too?
are your heaters up full?

I’m sure somebody will have the answer to this mate, sorry i cant be of much help.

[Stephen Morriss]

Hi Robert

Versacamms and Cadets don’t have adjustable heads, must make em cheaper 🙂

Good point about the solvent though, I’ve noticed this as well although it shouldn’t be as much of a problem with teh Versacamm’s Ecosol inks.

Let us know how you go on mark.

Steve

[David Rowland]

hi, i been printing double sided banners on a mutoh albatros and a mimaki JV3 for well over 5 years… so I give a few tips here… Print first side and check tracking over a meter, mark start positions, print first side using centred option, rewind media back onto the original roll (with the media grips up)… leave for 48hours (however rolled doesn’t get much air to dry, layout if poss)… re-insert into the machine and check tracking over a metre to see if it is skewing left/right… realign to start point (pin pricks is a good method)… measure and setup a print’s left margin (in the rip), this helps get it bang on accurate, restart if you think it is wrong, also wise to place start points about 100mm away from the print start.

If the media is gonig through the machine and is changing direction, sticking noise and horizontal banding (black lines) then your media is not dry, or the platten is not clean or your profile has incorrect tempretures (pre heat and main heater), also tension maybe unever when you set up and track the media through, so make sure you spend a lot of time on that.

Another tip is to use Deskfans to blow on the media as it goes up the takeup roller, this helps dry the ink
Cheers

[Mark Candlin]

Ding Dang Dong…..success, I thought id try everyones suggestions.

I didnt liquid laminate, I turned off the heater but kept the dryer on.
I set the head speed to 500 (seems so slow!!)
And it printed no probs….unattended!!

I think the problem was with the liquid laminate. I think it stoped the material sliding across the back platten evenly, It became more “gripy”
when it came up to the grip wheels.

Another lesson learnt.

Thanks all for your imput….only 5 more to go……

[David Rowland]

well done… if you take a print and rub it against another area of print, if they stick to each other, “it is wet”.