Printing on vinyl

[John Arneson]

pun_lavor,
As I stated earlier it is possibly your fountain solution. I assume you are using the proper ink. I also asume the substrate is TRANSLEWRAP. (not sure of the spelling). I run this stuff a lot and when I changed my fountain solution drying times were in an acceptable range as in the next morning.
Call me if you like , I run this stuff a lot on a sheetfed non uv press.
John 206-728-2820

[Dan Roll]

There are a few things one can do when running on non-porous substrates. Try adding hydrogen peroxide to your fountain solution. This temporarily increases the oxygen level in the fountain solution, stimulating drying by oxidation. About eight ounces to twenty gallons seems to be enough, the problem is you have to add it at regular intervals as it is unstable. Every hour seems to work.

Another old trick, put a few drops of water on the substrate. If the water beads up like water on a freshly waxed car, things should go smoothly. If the water spreads out, effectively wetting the surface, call in sick until that job is out of the plant. I learned this back in the sixties from the old timers when we were printing on acetate sheets. All of the pallets of acetate looked the same, but the old guys would segregate the pallets with the wrong surface energy and trick us youngsters into running them.

[larsmvistisen]

You should try our X+Y=Dry ink dryer, it is a 2 component system, and it is mixed into the inks. The drying component will only be activated once the inks containing the X+Y=Dry get into contact with the dampening solution on the plates. You can also use an IPA FREE fount, a one part solution, as you will have a thinner water film on the plates, due to the nature of IPA FREE founts. As you have a thinner water film on the plates, you will actually need to run less inks, and you will still have the same color density. As you run a thinner ink film, your drying will also speed up. So a combination of X+Y=Dry and our Titan Elite IPA FREE fount, and you should see drying time improved dramatically. You should be able to work and turn during the same day. Please go to our web site www.abcalliedchem.com for more info.

[Lukew]

I have used both mentioned products above but not on synthetic stocks, just a xerox color-copy stock (ie very slow drying stock) And had to print reflex blue & PMS 431. I can say that the ink didn't dry much faster then what it has without the drier, but what the reflex did was dry completely, but this still took two days, the grey which was a solid never dried and needed varnishing.

I have found that the amount of glycols in the fountain solution have a dramatic effect on dry times, followed closely by the ink/fount emulsion - "Ink lay".