THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS DIALOGUE BETWEEN A CUSTOMER AND OUR TECH SUPPORT - WE HAVE INCLUDED THIS HERE AS AN INFORMAL DISCUSSION AS THE TECHNIQUE DISCUSSED HAS HELPED RESOLVED PUCKERED DREAMSCAPE FOR VARIOUS FLATBED USERS.
CUSTOMER: We are printing on Oce Arizona with genuine inks and onyx rip going roll to roll. The media is lifting in the middle of the roll whilst printing, this causes head strike after the first meter or so. Some of the Dreamscape rolls are working fine while others are problematic. The problem rolls seem to have ripples lines going the whole width of the roll, these ripples do go through the whole length of the rolls.
DREAMSCAPE SUPPORT:
The OCE Arizona is a flatbed machine with a roll kit. Generally, when users print roll to roll on a flatbed, they can not use the vacuum as it prevents the media from transporting. Having no vacuum, they have no assist to help keep material that "wants" to pucker to lay flat on the print bed. We might request that they increase tension, but that may cause edge curl, again, because there is no assist to keep the media flat.
Since suede embossing does sometimes have a tendency to "pucker," one might expect to find this effect on some rolls. We suggest, when running Suede on a flatbed with a roll kit, puckering might be manageable by increasing tension along the web (some flatbed roll kits have this capability). This must be done carefully so that the material does not "cup" or curl across the web. Another idea is to run the machine with increased passes at a lower cure energy. Regardless of speed, the lower energy will help keep the media cool, ultimately controlling buckle. Increasing passes will lower machine feed length which may help to manage wrinkling. While there is no universal solution, some of these adjustments may help keep wallcovering media flat while printing roll stock on a flatbed. Apologize for this situation, but it is true that our products run more reliably on true roll 2 roll machine. Hopefully with a little extra effort as described above you can obtain suitable results with your flatbed.