Rolls Roller help – flood coating Dibond panels

[Robert Lambie]

do you have to run it down the middle of the table? have you tried near the edge of the table?
reason i say… maybe because you have such a long "narrow" board, then applying "maybe too much" down pressure on the roller. its causing an arc in the middle of the board, causing the creasing?
im guessing of course. but thought ide mention it…

[Bart Van Wassenhove]

hey rob,

we tried it in the middle, near the edge with another panel on the other edge to have equal pressure, with a lot of pressure and with less pressure,…

[Robert Lambie]

i dont have one of these, or tried one… but…
lets say you have the vinyl in position. (half way you clamp it down)
you flip back and feed the vinyl over the roller and remove the carrying paper. now i assume from having watched the video, you walk forward pushing the gantry as it lays the vinyl?
if so… (this is just a suggestion) have a second person holding the vinyl being applied, slightly taught as its being rolled into situ… by that i mean the bit of vinyl that’s fed over the roller to the rear being tugged back slightly but off the surface.
the reason i say that is that your vinyl might be reacting to a cold/cool workshop? causing it to dishape a little. but as its being applied over a length with pressure any little buckles in the vinyl is exaggerated over the length causing it to pucker and wrinkle? with that in mind a second person gently tugging back on the vinyl as its being applied may take the pucker/slack out the vinyl as its applied?

phew… i do rabbit on dont i? hope that made some sense…
as i said, just guessing as ive never operated one of these.

[Kevin Flowers]

Just a quick thought, what about hinging it so start in the middle pull the backing off one end and slit the paper. Now run the roller & apply that side then go back to the centre & remove the backing for the remaining side. May not be the correct way but at least you are halving the distance you have to travel; & keep straight.

Kev

[Jason Xuereb]

When you do a dry run does it slip?

And start from the middle like suggested. Take the half back over the top of the roller. Removing the backing paper. Slice it and fold it under. Then slowly move the roller down. Watch the vinyl going over the roller make sure its always flat. Then go back to the middle and repeat to the other end.

[Bart Van Wassenhove]

hey guys,

sorry for my late reaction but i had a whole weekend off! 😎

So, I’ll try to explain it in my best English (which isn’t that easy :lol1: )…
The problem is not that the vinyl wrinkles when being applied (it doesn’t wrinkle when the backing paper is removed!) but that it wrinkles when we try to "pre-roll" the vinyl.
We "pre-roll" the vinyl (with the backing paper still in place) assuming that it helps to apply the vinyl without going sideways (I hope my explanation is good enough 😕 ). We just do so because we’ve seen the experts do it in the Rolls Roller-demo…

Rob, is there any possibility you pass this discussion to the experts from William Smith? Here in Belgium the RR-dealer hasn’t an answer for us 🙁

Cheers,
Bart

[Robert Lambie]

Hi Bart
yes that’s not a problem mate…
I actually have a meeting with them this week… so ill show them this post and get back to you. either that or someone from Smiths will make a reply here because I’m sure there is a couple of folk from the company already registered on the site.

[Bart Van Wassenhove]

thx a lot rob! You’re the best :praise1:

[Stuart Taylor]

Hi Bart

Sorry to hear you have had problems with your RollsRoller – You are right that we show "Dry Running" in our video, this is not a necessity but does help make sure that your alignment is correct and you will not run off. I have seen "wrinkling" on the RollsRoller before and as you say ONLY when running over the graphics with the liner still on. In our experience this is 99% due to moisture in the liner. It never happens with Synthetic liners (which take no moisture) but only with thinner paper liners. Good storage helps, make sure your factory is warm and dry (minimum 20 degrees) Also when printing with screen or digital make sure the vinyl is dried correctly as a large amount of solvent in the vinyl can cause movement between vinyl and liner.

Finally I would suggest if none of this helps then do not "Dry Run" but position your vinyl by hand correctly, use the Roller to lock vinyl in position in the middle of the panel and then pull vinyl tight by hand along both sides of the panel with the liner still on. This should also confirm that your position is accurate enough. Then simply take 1/2 liner off as shown in our video and you should run true and have no wrinkling problems.

Hope this helps and please let me know if you require any more advice.

Stuart
William Smith

[Bart Van Wassenhove]

Hey Stuart, thanx a lot for the info!

Cheers,
bart

[Craig Brown]

Great first post Stuart…great bit of kit…but when are you coming to see us?

[Stuart Taylor]

Hi Craig

Thanks for that,

I go on holiday this weekend :plane: but will definitely come and visit in New Year

Cheers

Stuart