Cutting is off slightly

[rydods]

Thanks in advance. We have a Graphtec FC 9000 and are using Versaworks for printing by adding marks in FlexiSign then contour cutting in FlexiSign. For some reason, just sometimes, our contour cut is off just slightly or 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch. Enough for it to not be good enough.

No matter what we try to do to correct it, it consistently cuts in the same spot. The sample photo I have is reflective which I though was the issue but, like I say, it's consistent every time. Even if we turn the media section around, it's slightly off.

Is there a way to correct or adjust this. I can't figure out why this happens sometimes and others, it's perfect.

 

[GamecockGrafx]

following

 

[victor bogdanov]

https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...6953642990/The+Sensor+Offset+Adjust+Guide.pdf

 

[ikarasu]

Is it always off in the vertical direction? Looks to me more like your tool is in the wrong blade holder, or your cut setting has the wrong tool set.. that's pretty much exactly the amount when it's in the wrong spot

 

[DarkerKat]

reflective vinyl can mess with the way the sensor reads registration marks, if it is only happening on that material it might be worth printing some extra reg marks on plain white stock and applying them to your print before trying to register it.

 

[rydods]

https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...6953642990/The+Sensor+Offset+Adjust+Guide.pdf

Thanks! I will try this.

 

[rydods]

Is it always off in the vertical direction? Looks to me more like your tool is in the wrong blade holder, or your cut setting has the wrong tool set.. that's pretty much exactly the amount when it's in the wrong spot

Really good question because we recently started per cutting decals. I checked and it is over the cutting strip and in the proper holder.

 

[rydods]

reflective vinyl can mess with the way the sensor reads registration marks, if it is only happening on that material it might be worth printing some extra reg marks on plain white stock and applying them to your print before trying to register it.

Yes, we have issues with reflective from time to time but this also happens with regular material as well. For this one, I'll try some marks on regular material and see if this changes anything.

 

[rydods]

Update....So I did a registration mark offset adjustment on just this print and we adjusted it so that the first cut was fairly accurate to the letter it was cutting. This letter is towards the front of the print (the sheet we're cutting is about 36" long) As it Gets further along towards the back of the sheet, it get further and further off.

How do we adjust this? I'm using (4 points type 2 marks)

 

[dasigndr]

if the vinyl ius too glossy or reflective, we use matt scotch tape over the reg. marks. This helped in the past for us with a similar issue.

 

[DarkerKat]

Could also be the print itself. we've had this issue on hardhat decals before (lots of little circles tiled up on a sheet) take a ruler and measure the exact distance between the registration marks on your print, then compare to the file. Sometimes the printer will skew/stretch the print and even a slight variation will throw the cutting off.

 

[ikarasu]

FC9000 doesn't need scotch tape -

Use intermediate marks. How are you generating the marks? Print a mask around them if possible, it helps a lot with reflective.

There is also different scan modes...reflective works best on scan mode 4.

 

[rydods]

FC9000 doesn't need scotch tape -

Use intermediate marks. How are you generating the marks? Print a mask around them if possible, it helps a lot with reflective.

View attachment 176356


There is also different scan modes...reflective works best on scan mode 4.

We are generating them from FlexiSIgn (Effects/Contour Cut Mark) We then export to Versaworks and print there (profiles are much better here). When we're ready to cut, we remove the marks in flexi and let Flexi's production manager do the cutting process. So my guess is the generated marks are different for the ones in Production Manager. What I don't understand is how it is fine the majority of the time and sometimes not.

By Printing a mask, do you mean. Make the marks white and put a black or grey box behind it, like in your example?

 

[rydods]

Could also be the print itself. we've had this issue on hardhat decals before (lots of little circles tiled up on a sheet) take a ruler and measure the exact distance between the registration marks on your print, then compare to the file. Sometimes the printer will skew/stretch the print and even a slight variation will throw the cutting off.

I can imagine the printer and laminator might "stretch" the printed section a bit but how the heck would you adjust for this? Should we use the Graphtec marks that have extra marks in the center? Would that correct this?

 

[BigNate]

I can imagine the printer and laminator might "stretch" the printed section a bit but how the heck would you adjust for this? Should we use the Graphtec marks that have extra marks in the center? Would that correct this?

Once you have the position figured out so the plotter and the printer at least have a common point of understanding.... you can use the segmented area correction on the Graphtec to correct for any length/width distortion from the printer... it just keeps scanning the sides and adjusting the plot to match the scan of where the image is... this helps on the longer prints too as it also corrects for the rollers getting slightly off.

 

[ikarasu]

We are generating them from FlexiSIgn (Effects/Contour Cut Mark) We then export to Versaworks and print there (profiles are much better here). When we're ready to cut, we remove the marks in flexi and let Flexi's production manager do the cutting process. So my guess is the generated marks are different for the ones in Production Manager. What I don't understand is how it is fine the majority of the time and sometimes not.

By Printing a mask, do you mean. Make the marks white and put a black or grey box behind it, like in your example?

Yes, and Onyx and then cutting Master there's an option where you're pretty much reverse printing, so it is reading the reflective material and then the black doesn't get read. It makes reading materials that are reflective and holographic very easy

 

[signheremd]

We are generating them from FlexiSIgn (Effects/Contour Cut Mark) We then export to Versaworks and print there (profiles are much better here). When we're ready to cut, we remove the marks in flexi and let Flexi's production manager do the cutting process. So my guess is the generated marks are different for the ones in Production Manager. What I don't understand is how it is fine the majority of the time and sometimes not.

By Printing a mask, do you mean. Make the marks white and put a black or grey box behind it, like in your example?

if you set the print and cut up in Flexi and add the marks, and then print in Versaworks, you put the print in the Graphtec and initialize it, then you move the knife bland to the center of the right hand crop mark (standing in front of the machine) and instead of choosing Cut/Plot you choose ContourCut (has a knife symbol over a red rectangle with rounded ends and the Graphtec should then read all four marks and begin cutting. Just remember to rotate the cut in the CutContour screen to match the way you have it in the plotter - as you view the screen, bottom of screen is the front edge of the machine, so if bottom of layout in Flexi is to your right in the plotter, put the little man symbol with his feet to the right. But if you are not aligning to the cropmarks or just using Cut/Plot the machine is not calculating where the print is compared to where to cut

 

[rydods]

if you set the print and cut up in Flexi and add the marks, and then print in Versaworks, you put the print in the Graphtec and initialize it, then you move the knife bland to the center of the right hand crop mark (standing in front of the machine) and instead of choosing Cut/Plot you choose ContourCut (has a knife symbol over a red rectangle with rounded ends and the Graphtec should then read all four marks and begin cutting. Just remember to rotate the cut in the CutContour screen to match the way you have it in the plotter - as you view the screen, bottom of screen is the front edge of the machine, so if bottom of layout in Flexi is to your right in the plotter, put the little man symbol with his feet to the right. But if you are not aligning to the cropmarks or just using Cut/Plot the machine is not calculating where the print is compared to where to cut

Thanks so much! I'll definitely try this. I'm not sure why I didn't notice or try this before. I had no idea!