Cutter registration marks on clear material

[JPR-5690]

Recently got a roll of transparent HTV and did a small print-and-cut job to test it out.

Of course, because nothing is ever simple, our vinyl cutter (Summa s2 t160) can't read the barcode or registration marks.

So far I've tried:
- calibrating the OPOS to the media
- putting multiple pieces of masking tape behind the barcode to make it opaque
- calibrating the OPOS to the media with multiple pieces of masking tape behind the calibration square
and none of them made a difference.

Tomorrow I was going to try masking the back with white vinyl and then my last resort is going to be figuring out how to register the blade manually which Im dreading so if anyone has any tips or tricks Im all ears.

 

[P Wagner]

Tomorrow I was going to try masking the back with white vinyl

Adhere a strip of white self-adhesive vinyl along the platen strip where the OPOS sensor traverses. It provides the necessary contrast to allow the sensor to see the reg marks and should work with the barcode, provided that the media is mostly transparent.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

In conjunction with P Wagner's suggestion, you can also use the yellow filter if the white isn't enough contrast.

 

[Andy D]

I'm not sure what your reg marks look like, but with the ones I use an easy fix is to put white vinyl (not opaque) over the marks & take a black pen and redraw them.

 

[GAC05]

Depending on what hardware and software you are using you could try reverse registration marks.
This prints a black square leaving the 'mark' the color of the material. It's an option with Flexi and Cutting Master 4 on Graphtec plotters. Might help.

 

[WYLDGFI]

We use Wagner's suggestion of the white strip all the time. The optically clear we use has a frosted backer and the Graphtec does't like it much. Always have to use the white strip in that case.

 

[myront]

We've had similar problems with reg marks on window perf. What our print tech came up with worked yesterday. We've had a circle punch around for years. Cuts a 2" circle. He cut a batch of circles from our inexpensive white vinyl which has a bit of a matte finish to it. Watch the perf print and as soon as the reg marks start to print he pauses the printer by lifting the window. He then drops the white circles in place where the crop marks are to be printed. Drops the window back down to resume printing then does the same for the other end of print corners. We then laminate over it all and bam!

 

[Commando]

American Traffic makes a clear film with a white paper backing. Its pretty good stuff. And fairly cheap.

 

[JPR-5690]

Adhere a strip of white self-adhesive vinyl along the platen strip where the OPOS sensor traverses. It provides the necessary contrast to allow the sensor to see the reg marks and should work with the barcode, provided that the media is mostly transparent.

Something along those lines crossed my mind as I was leaving when I realized that the cutting strip is that tan color which is neither reflective or dark enough to provide any contrast.

Does the white vinyl on the cutting strip interfere with cutting at all? I guess I could pause it and pull the vinyl up before it actually starts cutting...

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Something along those lines crossed my mind as I was leaving when I realized that the cutting strip is that tan color which is neither reflective or dark enough to provide any contrast.

Does the white vinyl on the cutting strip interfere with cutting at all? I guess I could pause it and pull the vinyl up before it actually starts cutting...

The sensor is actually behind the cutting strip slightly.

 

[JPR-5690]

The sensor is actually behind the cutting strip slightly.

Oh am I looking at this wrong? I thought the little pin light was kind of like a laser pointer showing where the opos dropped down...

 

[JPR-5690]

Side note...does this make anyone else think of Mr Holland's Opus? Just me? Movie night this weekend?

 

[Pewter0000]

Did anything you do work? I am curious!

We've manually registered the Roland a few times, it wasn't off by much. I don't know what a Summa's crop marks look like, but we've done both the "sharpie technique" and the "stick a old crop mark ontop" technique and both have relative success if you're OK with 1/16th to 1/8th inch off or so.

 

[WYLDGFI]

We always use the white underlay strip.

 

[JPR-5690]

Did anything you do work? I am curious!

We've manually registered the Roland a few times, it wasn't off by much. I don't know what a Summa's crop marks look like, but we've done both the "sharpie technique" and the "stick a old crop mark ontop" technique and both have relative success if you're OK with 1/16th to 1/8th inch off or so.

I put a strip of white vinyl on the cutting strip and it read the marks just fine.
As soon as the OPOS was done scanning everything I paused the cutter and peeled off the vinyl just to be sure that it didn't interfere with anything.
Im going to do some tests leaving the vinyl on the cutting strip to see if it actually affects the cutting at all.

We always use the white underlay strip.

Do you leave it on during the actual cutting process?

 

[WYLDGFI]

We leave ours on when cutting. Doesnt interfere with the blade or anything.