Cutting Printed/Lam Reflective -- Need Tips

[bmortvedt]

Hello,

I am cutting 100 sheets of a company's logo at 46" long. The reflective is bunching up as it goes through the cut cycle. Sometimes it can complete a sheet and other times the vinyl between the rollers bunches up and causes a motor error. This has become too much material to be wasting.

I'm looking for tips on cutting this. I have currently used up all my resources in trying to find the right combination.

We're using Oracal 5700 reflec. (i know!) cutting with a 60 deg. blade. The speed is down to 5 cm/s and the pressure has been at 75. It is weed-able, cuts it just enough. I'm not worried about how it weeds right at this moment. I need more usable production.

Thanks in advance.

bm

 

[Checkers]

What software are you using?
What plotter are you using?
How many are you attempting to cut at once?
Are you cutting the graphic with a "weed" border?
Is the plotter cutting the graphic in the right order?
Do you have the option to "sequence" plot with your plotter software?

Checkers

 

[bmortvedt]

What software are you using?
What plotter are you using?
How many are you attempting to cut at once?
Are you cutting the graphic with a "weed" border?
Is the plotter cutting the graphic in the right order?
Do you have the option to "sequence" plot with your plotter software?

Checkers

ColorRip - SP-300 - No weed border. - Unsure of the 'right' order to cut. I'll include an image. - I have no sequence plot.

The reflective bunches because of the knife pressure between the rollers. The reflective is staying centered between the rollers, the vinyl won't stay flat

 

[chopper]

I just did some today I am using oracal 5600
reflective with lam printed on a roland sp300v
I printed them yesterday and lamed them this morining
then cut them shortly after what I did is turned the heaters off before I cut them on the roland
and did a test cut to adjust cutting force and ran them thru with no problems
are you printing?
laminating?
or just cutting?
if you printed them they get kinda soft you you dont let the ink cure out before you cut add some more info and we'll see if we can figure this out
//chopper

 

[bmortvedt]

what info would you be looking for.
i will try the cut with the heat off. haven't heard that one yet.

had twenty sheets laying out over night and lam'ed them this morning. do you get choppy cutting with your blades with they get dull? after two sheets my cutint starts looking messy.

 

[chopper]

you were replying while I was writing the last post .
you need to turn off the heaters//chopper

 

[chopper]

yeah if your balde is dull or not protruding far enuff out of the blade holder you will get crappy cuts change your blade and shut off the heaters and you should be good to go //chopper ps...also I was running at 275 gram force with the standard blade

 

[petepaz]

turn the heat off for cutting is good
i had that with some polycarbonate lamination i used on some vinyl overlays i did and they bunched and cut bad also you may have to fool with the blade depth

 

[bmortvedt]

yeah if your balde is dull or not protruding far enuff out of the blade holder you will get crappy cuts change your blade and shut off the heaters and you should be good to go //chopper ps...also I was running at 275 gram force with the standard blade

chopper,

what do you mean by the standard blade? what was your offset at?

 

[chopper]

Iam using a offset of .250mm
and I am using a standard 45 degree blade sorry about the delay been out for a bit//chopper

did the heat being turned off not work?

 

[bmortvedt]

chopper,

what speed are you running your cutter at? your saying you don't get any problems of bunching material when you are running at this pressure?

 

[Checkers]

Chopper (and just about anyone else) knows more about your equpment than I do. So maybe he can guide you better if I make this suggestion?
Sequence plotting just a function of your cutting software that tells the plotter which letters and shapes get cut first. So, if you're cutting text that reads "ABC", your software should tell the plotter to cut the A first and the C last. If the plotter is trying to cut the material in any other order, you can have issues that you describe.
Another suggestion for the future is to outsource a project like this. Cutting, weeding and taping 400+ feet of reflective vinyl takes a good amount of time and effort on your behalf and puts a fair amount of wear and tear on your machine. If you outsourced this project to a reputable wholesaler, you could have continured with your regular routine and had the graphics completed and shipped to you within a week with no headaches.
And just one more thought, when you laminated the reflective, it sounds like you could have used too much tension on the laminate, causing it to not want to lay flat.

Checkers

 

[bmortvedt]

Checkers,

Thanks for the insight. The heater off works much better. I run the speed at 5 cm/s and 200 gram force. I works beautiful. THANK YOU.

The boss doesn't want to outsource this job. He says, 'we bought this machine and it was made to print and cut this stuff.' I was about to tell him to. I was ready to give up. This site helped me a lot.

Checkers, it sound very logical to do that but I think every one here in the office is willing to put forth the extra effort to get this stuff out. We're used to the busy rush of a large order like this. We have two large trucking company clients that like to buy trucks and trailers in bunches. So doing decals for them is a constant thing, it seems.

Thanks for all your input. I hope I can add something in the future.

bm

 

[Checkers]

I like your boss' can do attitude
Sometimes it takes some practice, but things will eventually work out.

Cheers,

Checkers

 

[chopper]

sorry I have been out all day but to answer your question my speed is set at 30 cm/s and yes I have had zero problems with doing this, but I am not doing the volume you are no bunching just cuts like regular vinyl, I did have a problem before with bad cuts and I changed my blade but later found that I was trying to control the cut pressure from the pannel on the machine and my software was actually controlling the cut pressure at a lower setting that wouldnt cut though the material so I disabled the settings in the software and had few problems since, the other problem I had was the power went out and the cutter reverted to factory defaults and I had to reset to correct presure
// chopper

 

[Baz]

Your problem was definately the heat! It softens up the vinyl and makes it warp and your knife easily goes through the backing paper. You also risk damaging the teflon cutting strip (that plastic strip on the printer where the blade goes down on).