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vertigosystems · 4 Weeks Ago

Hi, I'm new to the forums, and we just got our Flexi-S model about 2 days ago, the white garment printing was a piece of cake, we got that working right out the box with phenomenal results, couldn't be happier with the light garment printing. However, then there's the white ink printing on dark garments.... Oh how I'm not enjoying this. We're having pretty bad convergence problems with the color not landing on top of the white correctly, we had a bit of a growing pain with the pre-treatment, but we got that hammered out quick (water, pre-treat, water, de-dew, press hi pressure) however the flexi-rip software doesn't seem capable of lining up the color layer onto the white layer, which seems incredulous, since the base looks like it's well made with a screw-drive system.

Really, anyone with any advice or experience with the flexi would be welcome, we're actually on the verge of sending the unit back if we can't get the results we want.
Thanks in advance!

YoDan · 4 Weeks Ago

The choke and feed feature within the RIP will allow you to set up the white ink registration, and you only need to do it once.

Dan
"HAPPY PRINTING"

vertigosystems · 4 Weeks Ago

Dan, Thanks for the quick reply,

Does the choke pixel option for the 4 sides stretch the image at all, or does it just move it around? i.e. if I put 10 in top and 10 in bottom, it's not moving it at all then?

Would I have to move the registration for each resolution set (720/1440, 1440/1440/ 360, et all)

According to tech support with AA, they said the feed adjust and choke/feed options might have to be changed for each "type" of image I print.

Any advice on this other problem we're having a problem with the white ink I think. (We have the machine from All American (DDM) the east coast distro of flexi-jet)
The ink they say is not the dupont but some rebadged ink they call AA (all american) the prints on black appear to have a fiberous look once pressed, you can see what looks like white fibers as if they were pressed down, I'm not sure if this is part of the registration issue, or something wrong with the ink. How does it compare to the inks that you're dealing with?

Thanks much.

YoDan · 4 Weeks Ago

The only thing we have control of in the RIP is the white base layer, it gets set once for each print resolution than it is saved within the RIP settings.
Fibers sticking up tells me that the pre-treatment process/curing was not done correctly or you are using too much pressure when curing the final print.
Dan
"HAPPY PRINTING"

FredP · 4 Weeks Ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by vertigosystems


	... the flexi-rip software doesn't seem capable of lining up the color layer onto the white layer...

The problem you are seeing is not due to the RIP. The RIP is not only capable of registering the color and white layers perfectly but it also has way to compensate for hardware irregularities. Dan has already mentioned the Choke. You should set your choke to default (-1), adjust the "feed adjust", then set the choke. Like Dan said, you only have to do this once. The exact procedure is listed at www.flexijetusers.com If you don't yet have a username and password, request one from All American.

Just FYI..

One of the problems with the registration is that the Epson 4800 moves in incrementally different steps between resolutions. Since a greater white resolution must be used to achieve maximum coverage, the white layer tends to be a little "shorter" or "longer" due to the slight feed difference in the 4800. This is corrected by setting the "feed adjust". The other problem is "spread". The sheer volume of white ink required tends to "spread" the pixels out a bit. Also, because a 720x720 grid cannot mathematically fit exactly on top of a 1440x1440 grid (since you can't move in half-pixels) the white ends up "peeking" out from behind the color. This is corrected with the "choke". What the choke does is "erode" pixels from the edges according to your settings. The value in the choke field is in resolution pixels, so at 1440x1440, a value of 30 would be .0208 inch.

Once you have your feed adjust and choke dialed in, you'll never have to touch it again and the Flexi will nail it dead on every time.

-- Fred

YoDan · 4 Weeks Ago

Quote:


	Once you have your feed adjust and choke dialed in, you'll never have to touch it again and the Flexi will nail it dead on every time.

I would recommend that once you get your settings correct that you write them down as when you update or reload the RIP those numbers will go back to the default settings and if you do not write them down you would have to go through the complete process again

Dan
"HAPPY PRINTING"

vertigosystems · 4 Weeks Ago

Thank you both for the much better clarification than both the flexi "manual" and the user forums could provide, only one last question, currently I have it set to do two pass of 720 white and one pass 720 color, this seems to give me the resolution and quality that I want for most shirts (while not costing a fortune) and it takes almost exactly the same amount of time as a 1440 white 720 color (1440 color seems to lay down too much ink for my liking and makes most of the artwork appear far too dark)

So, the question is, since in 720 (white and color) the white peeks out the bottom by about 1/32th of an inch where would I apply the choke, on the BOTTOM setting or on the TOP setting? I assume about 90 would be correct for that resolution.

I apologize if I'm being long winded, I just want to make sure I get this nailed before I have to throw in the towel for good (it's been a frustrating learning experience)

The feed adjust, according to flexi forums only really does anything over a long length of span of 54" (in relation to the flexi L i guess) by "shrinking or growing" the entire length by a maximum of 1/4"

Thank you all so much for your help, last question is the DTGInks white ink better than the dupont? (opinions only of course)

YoDan · 4 Weeks Ago

What are your current numbers in the feed and all the 4 choke positions?
You use the feed adjutment untill both designs look the same (White being off) than you use the choke to fine tune it.
Dan
"HAPPY PRINTING"

vertigosystems · 4 Weeks Ago

I pretty much did test print after test print in each resolution I planned to use (72/720, 1440/1440) and lined them up manually, after I had them perfect I did a shirt or two which came out great, then I printed a very small sleeve logo, the logo turned out good, but the text part of the whole image was slightly misaligned giving the text the look of a white drop shadow (it doesn't look bad, but I know what it's supposed to look like so I'm being a little critical)
I'll continue to tinker with it until I'm satisfied. Thanks much for the help though.

Mistewoods · 4 Weeks Ago

The DuPont white can stick to the silicon sheet when curing and casue that fibery appearance. A flash ( hovering the heat press) of 30 seconds before curing with light pressure is one way to avoid that problem.