Cutting issues with Graphtec FC8000

[parrott]

We are printing decals on a Epson gs6000 (colorburst rip) and cutting to shape with a Graphtec FC8000 (via Illustrator) and having reading issues. The plotter seems to read fine on any matte materials, but the second you throw any gloss on there it will not read the registration marks. Has anybody else had this issue? We have tried all the tricks (tape, scratching, lights off, lights on, stripping less up, etc.) and still no luck. It might read 1 out of 7-8 attempts. I have heard that it has a harder time with gloss than matte, but this is damn near ridiculous.

Graphtec has no answers other than to keep trying. Is this normal? If it is normal are there any secrets that we are unaware of? It seems that they half ass produced this part of the machine. It does everything great, but the reador/sensor was short changed.

If this is normal, we will be sending the machine back and replacing it with something else. Any suggestions on plotters that will actually read registration marks on all types of media?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Kwiksigns]

Have you tried different types of registration marks?
There are a few

 

[parrott]

We have not. Thanks for the heads up. We will try it and report back with results.

 

[bob]

Turning the lights off or laying something on top of the plotter to reduce the light falling on the media during mark read time will do the trick. For me, turning off the lights and perhaps closing the blinds on the window right behind the plotter did the job the few times I experienced this problem.

 

[LittleSnakey]

We had nothing but problems with ours finding the marks (same thing once in a while after 8 attemps it would find them sometime not at all), we use 99% high gloss media and could never get it to consistantly find the marks, it was a very fusterating machine for us to run. Between that and the menus that make no sence. Forget about reflective. Luckily the Roland cuts : ) and always find the marks.... but its accuracy on long stuff isn't too good.

Graphtec blamed flexi, flexi blamed graphtec, our salesman replaced the eye system, nothing worked. Graphtec called us saying we are trying to fix something that isn't broke, but for some reason it didn't work.

Shutting off the lights didn't work and if that is what it would take to make the machine work its unacceptable.

We print with a vp-540 using flexi as the rip/cut. It didn't work with cutmaster either.

Our salesman took the machine back after we bought a Summa.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Call Drew at Summa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are printing decals on a Epson gs6000 (colorburst rip) and cutting to shape with a Graphtec FC8000 (via Illustrator) and having reading issues. The plotter seems to read fine on any matte materials, but the second you throw any gloss on there it will not read the registration marks. Has anybody else had this issue? We have tried all the tricks (tape, scratching, lights off, lights on, stripping less up, etc.) and still no luck. It might read 1 out of 7-8 attempts. I have heard that it has a harder time with gloss than matte, but this is damn near ridiculous.

Graphtec has no answers other than to keep trying. Is this normal? If it is normal are there any secrets that we are unaware of? It seems that they half ass produced this part of the machine. It does everything great, but the reador/sensor was short changed.

If this is normal, we will be sending the machine back and replacing it with something else. Any suggestions on plotters that will actually read registration marks on all types of media?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[parrott]

We had nothing but problems with ours finding the marks (same thing once in a while after 8 attemps it would find them sometime not at all), we use 99% high gloss media and could never get it to consistantly find the marks, it was a very fusterating machine for us to run. Between that and the menus that make no sence. Forget about reflective. Luckily the Roland cuts : ) and always find the marks.... but its accuracy on long stuff isn't too good.

Graphtec blamed flexi, flexi blamed graphtec, our salesman replaced the eye system, nothing worked. Graphtec called us saying we are trying to fix something that isn't broke, but for some reason it didn't work.

Shutting off the lights didn't work and if that is what it would take to make the machine work its unacceptable.

We print with a vp-540 using flexi as the rip/cut. It didn't work with cutmaster either.

Our salesman took the machine back after we bought a Summa.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Call Drew at Summa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the feedback. Please tell me more about the Summa. Do you have any of the problems with the Summa that you had with the Graphtec?

 

[Cutter Guru]

go to the service mode when you hold on to the TEST+ENTER+POWER keys and do the RMS sensor sentivity with your gross material. hope this will help you.

 

[LittleSnakey]

Yes we tried that.

go to the service mode when you hold on to the TEST+ENTER+POWER keys and do the RMS sensor sentivity with your gross material. hope this will help you.

The summa works real good, the only material it wouldn't find the marks on was chrome. The only things I don't like about it is that it needs a computer connected to it, cannot connect via network cable & no one comes out to set it up and show you how to work it. I was able to get it working after 2 calls.

We went with the D Seriec S140, its built way better than the fc but also costs more.

 

[AUTO-FX]

hey,this may sound dumb Q but let me ask you something about this "finding the mark business" . my machine (rebranded graphtec 7000 from SW) has no trouble getting to the mark, but it's a one at a time deal. It goes to the sensor, i fine tune it and hit ok, and it goes to the next one, i fine tune it, hit ok blah blah. Are these machines supposed to find each mark in sequence without user intervention?

 

[LittleSnakey]

Yes, it should find them all without any help.

 

[Cutter Guru]

Has you try to use the invisible tape to cover the registrations marks? this will help the RMS scan the marks better.

 

[parrott]

The invisible tape helped, but this still has not solved the problem. Had I known that I would have to stand there and tape every darn corner mark that goes through the plotter, I would have never bought it. When you are running multiple rolls through the plotter at a time, this becomes a huge P.I.T.A.! The bottom line is the reader/eye is not fully developed yet. It reads well on matte materials and rarely on gloss materials. Sorry for the vent (cutter guru).

 

[Bill Modzel]

I don't know what your problem is with the gloss but my FC7000-100 never misses a blip.
Gloss Oracal plain or with 290 gloss laminate. A few weeks ago we ran two full rolls of Oracal 3164. I'd printed sheets of 30 stickers, 5 at a time. I liked up the first mark and off it went until all 5 sheets were done. I lined up the next set and off it went.
I let Cutting Master set the 4 corner registration marks in Illy CS3, print the eps file with PosterJet RIP. Put the roll on the Graphtec making sure the registration marks are square to the bed, line up mark one and lett'er go.

As long as your registration marks are comfortably inside the pinch wheels you should have no issues. The only time I get an error is when that space is too close and it can't read the registration mark without going outside the maximum cutting area of the plotter.

 

[round man]

I have no clue about the registration mark issue but it would seem if there is a photo sensor issue with gloss material you could print a small area where the registration marks go and bypass any issues by making sure there is a matte ink under the registration marks prior to their printing thus making it a non issue,...maybe it would have to be a patch on the printing software end I dunno just flyin a kite here,..

 

[AUTO-FX]

RM- in theory same idea as the invisible tape, the gloss laminate may defract the laser just enough to confuse the sensor. sensor lens clean?

 

[LittleSnakey]

We tried everything tape, lights on, lights off, shining a flashlight on the mark and even sanding with 400. Sometimes it would find the marks, somtimes it would find three out of four, sometimes if you kept sending the same file it would find them, sometimes it would not ever find them. Sometimes it would find them then cut off. The machine was fusterating and wasted more time and material than putting the stuff back into the Roland to cut it.

this is how we fixed ours.