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Trouble printing onto pop – up PVC material
Hi,
Yesterday we tried printing onto PVC pop – up material for the first time, it didn’t go too well. The material is image perfect 2910, 450 thickness and 635g weight. Printer is a JV-33.
The problem is it’s not printing straight, getting a banana shaped print. It’s going on a spider frame made of 6 panels. The roll on the back of the printer is very springy, pulling the material around.
I tried cutting enough material for just one print, to see if the reduced weight on the back would help, and let the printed media creep across the floor instead of tie-ing it to a roll. It has got better, but is still not straight and still moving to the side slightly.
I printed a 5m run onto vinyl just before attempting the pop-up and it was perfectly straight. I printed the panel dead size, I have thought about giving it a bleed then trimming it off but surely the image will still be distorted and won’t line up?
Can anyone shed any light/ advise what you do for this material? All comments would be greatly appreciated. Currently not getting that Friday feeling 🙁
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3 Replies
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I’m guessing this is the stuff with the slippery backing? If so, it’s notoriously difficult for a Mimaki to print on it. Or more to the point, feed it. I would try setting it on the the take up with quite a high tension, then set your media compensation up. Now when you print, it should be relying on the pull from the takeup rather than the push of the pinch rollers. Another thing to do is get some small but solid blocks (preferably magnetic) and set them at either side of the media before it goes into the printer, that way it will force the media to feed straighter.
God luck, and let us know the results.
Stafford
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your initial pull to find the center and to see how skewed you are is important. What I have found with other printers is the media will drift ( so we dont attach to take up) as the Takeup is now pulling it the other way to correct it.
So you must achieve perfect loading, 100% square (if everything is spirit level flat)
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Thanks for your comments Stafford and Dave. In the end I left it off the take -up, as that what was causing the banana effect. The media did still stray a little but the print stayed straight so happy days. I ran it with only the post heater on.
The job came out well in the end, and I learnt a few things in the process 😀
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