Elaborating on temperature, speed, and ink load, I want to discuss a category of media
that I call temperature-sensitive media.
Temperature-sensitive media can be any number of different media that,
if you go past a certain temperature point, the media is going to tend to warp or deform.
That can be polypropylenes, can be polystyrenes.
It can be HDPEs.
It can be PETs.
It can even be PVC banners.
There's a lot of material that, when you put a little heat on it, it doesn't like it,
and it either warps, or it curls, or it bows.
All those things mean that you have too much heat on it.
And in order to adjust, you lower the temperature until it straightens out and flattens out.
And then when you do that, you are almost certainly going to have to slow it down to
compensate for the reduction in temperature.
If you reduce temperature, generally speaking the rule of thumb is you reduce the speed.
Now, once you have those in line, then you see how much ink you can put down,
and then you can build your own preset.
So, I'm going to use two banners to illustrate the principle.
Because when somebody says “banner”, well, I think, do they mean scrim banner,
do they mean PET banner, do they mean, you know, there's smooth banner.
There's a lot of different kinds of banners.
Some are designed for long-term outdoor use.
Some are really designed just for indoor use.
So, I have two banners here that are both under the heading “banner”,
but they're very different materials.
And I think it will illustrate the temperature-sensitive differences.
The first one I have here is a certified media.
This is one of my favorite thin, printable banners.
This is a scrim banner.
This is made by Bantex, and it is a 10-ounce, black back, curl free.
Curl free products don't curl on the edges.
I love this for roll-up banners.
Anything hanging, because, I like the black back, I think it looks elegant.
But you want this to not curl.
And that curling on the edges, which I see everywhere, this has a curl-free guarantee.
So, this is a very nice banner.
It's thin, and it's very temperature-resistant.
You can put this at a hundred and, 241 degrees Fahrenheit, and it does nothing.
There is no buckling, no warping, no puckering; nothing.
It's a very well-made product.
This Bantex is certified to reach compliance, and an excellent banner.
And I can run this at very high speeds.
This is probably my favorite four pass banner.
Now, this has been running six pass.
Six pass is very fast.
That's 245 square feet an hour.
If you go to four pass, you're at 335 square feet an hour.
The reason it makes it so effective is, when I turn a thinner banner – this is actually
thinner than a 13-ounce – with all of that heat on it, it can take the heat.
It doesn't buckle, which means I can get more ink down
on it at four pass than I can with comparable banners.
It's a very good idea to run this fast.
This is great at six and four pass.
This is a heat-resistant scrim banner that is really designed to take some temperature.
That allows me to put a lot more heat on it without any effect, put more ink down.
This is a very versatile banner.
Completely impervious to heat.
Let me look at another banner.
This is a banner of a different composition, entirely.
This is not even PVC, like Bantex is.
This is a PET banner.
This is a Value Vinyls smooth, 15-ounce PET.
Now, I don't even think this is on the Media Locator.
But if you had a smooth banner like this – and this does represent a certain class of banners,
this not like that other banner at all.
This is much more heat-sensitive and 15 ounce.
Some of these even go down to 14 or 12 ounce.
Like, Ultra Flex has a couple of products.
They have a 12- and a 14-ounce DSS.
A PET, generally, is much more temperature-sensitive.
You put 240 degrees on this banner and it's going to start warping all over the place.
And a smooth banner that has warped ripples all over is no longer a smooth banner.
It doesn't have any value.
So, you want to keep this nice and smooth,
which means you cannot put the temperature on it.
This particular banner I ran at 12 pass.
What I have is 12 pass.
My guess is probably 195 degrees Fahrenheit, maybe 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
And then I figure, based on that speed and that temperature, how much ink I can put down,
using the calibration chart.
It's a simple series of steps.
But the first thing I have to accept is, this is not like an 18-ounce, or a 10-ounce,
or a 13-ounce heavy scrim banner.
It's a very different product.
And within the banner category, you have those different kinds of products.
So, this is more of a ten, twelve, and in some cases, even 16 pass, depending how temperature
sensitive it is, how thin it is, and then also how much ink you want to put down.
The more ink you put down, the richer your color gets, the richer your color gamut is,
the deeper your saturation.
So, this is a representative of a temperature-sensitive material.
It requires a great deal of awareness of that sensitivity, and then you just make the adjustments.
It's real easy.
But this is a 12-pass product, that's a four-pass product.
These are different banners.
This is a good way to illustrate temperature, speed, and ink load, and then also explain
how these temperature-sensitive medias are best dealt with.
Slow and low; that's kind of the rule with temperature-sensitive medias.