Hey all, Great forum. Now I can vent and maybe someone will listen. I've had CP64 for about a 1.5 months. I have had moderate success printing on most materials except for the following issues. 1) Banner material temps are hard to dial. banner bunches between rollers and I get head strikes...anyone know a good set of temp settings (current, Frt@41deg, Mid@42deg, R@45deg) 2) prints start out with no banding, but after 3' or so, banding gets progressively worse 3) what cleaning wipes does everyone use. I used those stupid cute-tip things they gave me until they ran out. Now I use un-died polyester fabric from Walmart, barely any lint. Most "wipes" on the market have a solution pre-embedded. 4) Looking for other profiles to try for: 3M ControlTac Plus-IJ180, Metamark 5yr, 13oz banner(give me banner brand too).
After it is all said and done, the CP64 does a GREAT job....when it does it at all.
Hi Brendan. I use a heat setting of 30/35/40 when printing banner material. We use Bantex made by Herculite and get decent results. I used to have the same problems with rippling until I turned the heat down a little. A part of your problem may be the tension on the roll as it is pulled off the feed roll. It's a pain in the ass, but periodicaly winding out some slack on the back side of the machine may also eliminate some of the bunching. The banding could also be caused by the same tension after the slack runs out (about three feet?). Some things to try anyways. I would try to run the heat as high as you can though. The lower your heat setting, the more washed out some colors may appear. Good luck.
Just quickly - it might be a red herring but I've found that by lightening the pinch pressure with the lever to the left of the machine, i seem to get a lot less problems with ridging. I've found banner (well, my Avery stuff anyway) performs better with a lot less pressure on it, both from the rollers and by NOT attaching it to the take up. Clear as mud?
In short, I can guarantee problems if I have heavy pinch pressure (lever down) and by attaching it to a take up. Don't know why though.
rippling media is normally associated with a number of variables.
firstly it needs to be loaded straight, and the core makes a lot of difference. if the media is not wound straight onto the core then lots of problems arise.
secondly, the temperature. normally banner needs a higher heat to dry, as it's thicker. therefore becuase of the high heat certain medias will go quite soft and flexible and therefore wrinkle.
thirdly, the roller pressure is a good one. high heat, soft media equals less pressure required.
the material ripping is the biggest gripe i have with the machine. aside from mounting the core nice and securely and loading the material nice and straight, what else can we do?
while loading a roll, when i'm prompted to adjust the edge guards, i'll flatten my palms on either side of the material and gently pull it forward a bit, smoothing it down, then adjust the edge guards.
when the printer starts heating up prior to printing, or even during printing, if i see it start to ripple, i'll actually put my hands on the material on the front and back (while standing at the end of the machine by the heater control panel) and gently press/pull on the material and attempt to smooth it out.
also, i was advised by the tech to take the material out of the printer overnight and insert another sheet of paper (apparently it's preferable to always have some sheet sitting in the printing area). it prevents your material from being overheated.
unfortunately, with the heavier media, sometimes there's not a thing you can do except roll out more until it has enough weight/tension on the end to smooth itself out.
I have had alot of issues with banner and banner mesh materials on this machine, most of them are heat related because of the rippling which leads to a headstrike 90% of the time. We use temp settings of 15/30/off for our banner printing and it works much better. We use DigiDry infrared dryers when we do the banner which allows us to turn off the rear heater. Also, if you get a small headstrike that is on white space on the banner, wait for it to come out of the printer and you can normally clean it off with a swap dabbed in some wiping solution, then dab it with a cloth to get it dry (because that wiping fluid eats through....EVERYTHING! lol) just thought id share that quick fix because I know its terrible to waste material an it drives me nuts.
We usually print with little or no heat on the machine itself for banners. Just the heat from the external heater.
The prints are still a bit tacky as they reach the take up but usually are fine. One problem we have suffered is when the take up malfunctions and the prints hit the floor or each other. They are too wet for that and ruin the print. You have to keep close watch on the take up if it's a long run.
