FC 7000 Tracking

[datcat]

New to Graphtec products. Bought a barely used unit and have it up and running but I'm having to keep an eye on my media tracking on cut vinyl. My Summa never waivered. I've read the manual and done all that is suggested, even prefeeding the roll stock for to get the grit roller imprint into the vinyl before I run it. It's not a big deal on current run as it stays on the pinch rollers for about 3-4 groups of 45" runs but I'd expect it to perform better than it is. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[datcat]

Bump for pics and help needed

Here's the latest. Done everything I can think of to fix the latest problem with no success. Don't know if its related to the tracking or another bug. I've litterally cut thousands of these decals with my old summa and have had bugs here and there some coming from corrupt files or something wacky in the memory but I've tried all my tricks here. The single picture shows what occurrs after the blade lifts and media advances for a recheck of length before proceeding. You can see that the Orb and the first few big letters and a couple of small ones were prior to the pen lift...the rest is post lift. All the orbs in the remainder of the row of 6 are also cut prior to pen lift. Once the cut starts again there's an over cut into the orb of the soccer ball. The next row cut is fine (because the pen doesn't lift and media doesn't advance again. I have 2500 of these to run and run 6 rows of 6 so that it's handier to deal with on the sheer. This did not occur until somewhere in the first 50 sheets and I've gone thru another 10 trying to get the bug out. Wasting 6 decals every run is cutting into the profit as I know there were many done before I caught it. I ran several sheets and weeded them first because this was the job I've done on the machine and needed to get the pressures and offsets correct so this is how I know it didn't do it at first. I did change the media lenght to try to run 2 simultaneous runs at one point so I don't know if that did anything but have since set it back to just larger than my group. Running LXI Master Plus and using 3m 7725 for easy weed. Help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[datcat]

bump again for day crew

 

[omgsideburns]

that's weird.. i've never seen something like that where two things so close together get that far off... it's only cutting one group at a time right?

 

[Stephenedwardgraphic]

Make sure your not fighting a static issue. Within the last week it's gotten much colder here in Wisconsin and I have been fighting static with both of my cutters. An (FC7000 and Roland GX24) which looks similar to your problem. The cut will start off good but as you get further into the run the entrance path of the cutter gets charged up from the vinyl passing in and out of the cutter. I see it on more complex jobs with many cuts.

There's a couple of ways to tell if its static.
1. You will hear it. sounds like a bunch of snapping
2. Release the rollers from the viny when its loaded. Pull the vinyl out by hand. If theres static you will feel a lot of resistance as you start to pull it forward.

To fix I cut up a couple of dryer sheets and tape them to the entrance path of the vinyl so the vinyl travels over it. Make sure you have it taped down good. You can also buy an anti static spray for electronic equipment from Radio shack. Last year they had some stuff that came in an aerosol can that worked like magic. Sounds like they discontinued that but you can still buy some made by Endust that works okay.

 

[AnotherSignManiac]

Also make sure that your bars that the vinyl sits on are even, one of mine was on a different track and I didn't notice for a good 2 or so weeks, and caused what your getting, I was starting to think that it couldn't cut anything straight!

 

[CS-SignSupply]

Check the rubber rollers as well... if they are out of round or the rubber is separating from the bearing housing, you will get poor results.

 

[CS-SignSupply]

One other thing to try as a test.... on the backside of the clear liner, put a strip of masking tape along the path where the pinch rollers will be... then load and test.

The grit roller and pinch rollers may not be gripping the mylar backing strong enough and cause the media to move/slip

 

[datcat]

Thanks to all...I do have allot of static as noticed when sheets are piled up on table...as I stated..this result is only happening when media length check and pen reseats.

 

[datcat]

Success

Thanks again for all the suggestions. Posting this to help anybody else who may do a future search for tacking isues. I don't know what actually had the biggest effect on it but I found a few things...

• 1 media roller had a sizeable bow to it so I reference marked the highs and pushed it out.
• something was piling up on the media entering rail (felt like adheisive but it was ~ 3/4" wide and 1 1/4" long trailing behind the left hand pinch roller). Don't know how it got there but I cleaned it off.
• Reset all my set up parameters mannually and slowed my cutting speed to 20 initially but raised it up again to 25 with positive results.
• Set up a prefeed to 1 1/2 x my group length.

Didn't clean for static as it didn't seem to be present when checking as described. Did check all the pinch rollers and they were fine as anticipated.

This machine litterally has not seen any use. I bought it from an individual who landed one round of state highway signs and lost the bid. Had been sitting since. Was purchased new from SW. 2yrs ago. I've got a better opinion of Graphtec this evening.