I've been running a lot of 8' banners lately and have been having trouble getting the banner material to track properly onto the take up reel. Part of the problem is the material. We are using Bantex Billboard 98, which is a glossy 10 oz. scrim banner. The material sticks to itself and as it wanders on the reel it starts to bind. The prints still turn out OK, it's just irritating to have to cut off and re-web after a couple of prints. Does anyone else have problems like this? I've tried using the tension bars and end plates with no success. It's hard to blame all this on the machine as the sticky material is partly to blame. However I have problems with other materials tracking off as well, but it's not a big deal since I can merely push the roll back into place.
Anyone out there have a different banner material that they like?
have you the large flanges on the take-up cores? they really help with wandering. the sticky issue is down to drying, try increasing the airflow across the substrate to quicken the solvent gas-off
When I've used the flanges the material continues to wander and then bind on itself even worse. Maybe I'll try putting a fan in front of the prints. The prints don't seem to be that wet as they come out the machine though. Is there a banner material that you've had success with? Is this an issue with mainly glossy materials? I've only had difficulties with gloss banners. Thanks for the ideas.
i use matt banner all the time and have no problems with the wind up or drying. when i use a 2500wide roll i need to keep an eye on the take up as it sometimes wants to fold over itself but i have left it overnight with not too much dire results..
even when i print onto backlit banner (double ink) i havent had an issue with drying on the take up but i have pulled it off once finished and hung up to dry properly
My 100s is going back. One of the weakest points of this printer is the spooling mechanism. There was an enhancement kit that was suppose to fix the uneven wind problem. But test have shown this not to work. Seiko's own tech said not to use it. His methos is to just drop part of the tensioning bar into the loop. Problem is that it will walk to the end of the media and then cause other issues.
After a lot of discussion with Seiko and our sales rep, we have found a few things to have helped with this situation. Seiko thought that the problem was due to the material not being taped to the core straight enough. I did find that the machine was slightly off level where it sat on the floor. After fixing that it did wind up a little better, but it still will wander some. The other thing that helped was reverse winding the material onto the take up reel. It puts better tension on the material and kept it from bunching up inside the machine.
