Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: artbot on June 13, 2012, 07:04:46 pm
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my partner is about to pull the trigger on a inkjet canvas coating set up (inkjet canvas, canon 9100, about 20-60 canvases on any particular day).
the starlam 1600 so far has been highly recommended. but i have one dissenter (competitor) talking the machine down for the
purpose of canvas coating.
i would so much appreciate any stories/experience that might shed light on the starlmam 1600 pros and cons for
inkjet canvas liquid lamination.
thanks in advance!
aa
also worth pasting. here is an excerpt from a thread discussing the machine with marabu. discussing compatibility issues. i would appreciate
any information concerning compatible canvas types.
"Just based on the number of ink/substrate combinations that there our end-users have, we typically request that the customer send us a roll of their printed material to coat on the StarLam. It’s especially important to do this with canvas applications as each canvas manufacturer, and each canvas type has a different make-up of the ink jet receptive layers of the canvas. This can greatly affect the way the laminate reacts with the material. If Skyline can get me a printed roll of their material that would be fantastic. We would be happy to coat it here and turn it right back around for their consideration. More than 10’ would be good though, because we need about 3’ before the coating can begin, and they’ll lose 3’ at the end of the roll. That wouldn’t give them much of a sample to consider. "
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I saw that very machine demo'd at the WCAF show a few months ago. I was struck by two things...it was very slow moving, and it seemed to require a lot of work on the part of the operator. Also, it seemed like the operator was spending a lot of effort on keeping the application bar clean, and he was keeping a very sharp eye on the output quality. I don't know what that might mean in a production situation but my impression was that it wasn't the sort of machine that you could just start and come back later when the job was done. The machine's dryer generates a certain amount of heat and fumes from the dried coating, and that might require some changes to the workspace ventilation.
I have a reasonably efficient spray coating workflow, and I think I could get more canvas coated with HVLP with the same amount of time and effort. If you already have a good spray booth with exhaust, spraying might be a better choice.
However, the Starlam coatings looked great! And compared to older machines where the coating was held in a muck and skin generating tray the Starlam is a superior design.
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was it coating inkjet canvas? or vinyl? the feedback i'm getting back is the waterbased coating plus the waterbased media/ink is just too
too hydrophilic of a combination for the chemistry to work.
when you say "keeping the bar clean" ... do inclusions get picked up from the print then drag on the coating bar? please explain. thanks for the feedback.
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It was matte canvas, the coating was one of the water based Clearstar products. I remember being really impressed that a single coat could produce such a high gloss on matte.
There are a lot of controls for speed and such, but I think that ultimately the throughput speed is limited by the drying step and perhaps that might give too much wet-time at the roller for certain media. I am quite certain the machine could not be used for applying water-based coatings to any of the aqueous-compatible glossy canvases like Crystalline or Epson gloss or satin, because the long wet exposure times would lead to dissolving of the ink.
Well, my total exposure to the machine was maybe 1/2 hour. I kind of recall that he would remove the bar and soak it in a tray down towards the base somewhere, then put the roller back. Sorry, have to be vague. But he did something of that nature between each print on the roll, and then went through the routine of re-establishing the pour, etc. Maybe an inexperienced operator, who knows? Maybe he was changing the type of coating. But it all seemed like too much work and for me to justify that kind of machine it's got to cut down on the workload.
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??!!?? so the machine had let's say 100 feet of printed canvas. and every time a single image (about 6') was printed, the operator would pause the machine, clean off the coating rod, replace, then start it up again?
i was very much under the impression that although slow, the machine could "run a roll".
when speaking to the competitor, they did mention that many waterbased canvases would not work due the hydrophillic nature of the media. but he didn't completely deny that there were some compatible ones. just that you'd be limited. he also mentioned that for a solvent printed canvas, the coating machine was much more suitable. but unfortunately the gs6000 are far from archival.
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Hi Guys,
It seems as if there is some confusion here regarding the StarLam. Just to clarify a few points that I have read:
1) Speed - The StarLam will run between 2-4 feet per minute depending on the media and coating used. At the WCAF show we were running the machine very slow. This was because we had a limited number of printed rolls of canvas for the entire show and had to make them last for 3 days. It will run faster in a production environment.
2) The machine will coat an entire roll of canvas. The metering rod was not removed after each print, it was removed and cleaned after the roll was completely coated. The trade show environment is the most difficult environment to operate in. After each roll it is recommended that the rod be cleaned. The idea of the wash trough is that once a roll is coated the rod can be submerged in the water so that the coating does not have a chance to cure on the rod while you are removing your coated roll. Most of our customers buy 2 rods so that they always have a clean one on hand. Once the new roll is loaded on the machine and running, the operator can go back to the rod in the wash trough and clean it.
I hope this clears up any confusion. If anyone has questions about the StarLam or our products please do not hesitate to give us a call.
Thanks,
Chuck