Help please!!!

[signrios]

my vp-540 is acting up on me. when printing a large banner, it veers off almost 1/2 an inch.
just tried to do contour cutting and it is way off.
i replaced the pinch wheels 2 weeks ago thinking it would solve the problem. but i guess it has nothing to to with the pinch wheels.

please see pictures attached.

thanks

 

[TimToad]

my vp-540 is acting up on me. when printing a large banner, it veers off almost 1/2 an inch.
just tried to do contour cutting and it is way off.
i replaced the pinch wheels 2 weeks ago thinking it would solve the problem. but i guess it has nothing to to with the pinch wheels.

please see pictures attached.

thanks

When is the last time you cleaned or replaced your encoder strip?

What exactly do you mean by "veers off"? Is the material pulling off the roll crooked or is the print process itself not printing accurately?

We tend to start with the easiest stuff first when troubleshooting.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Encoder strip is what I was going to suggest. It's a long thin piece of plastic that goes along the width of of the machine where the print head goes back and forth. Wipe it down and clean it. If that doesn't work then you have to replace it.... it's not a hard repair.

 

[signrios]

When is the last time you cleaned or replaced your encoder strip?

What exactly do you mean by "veers off"? Is the material pulling off the roll crooked or is the print process itself not printing accurately?

We tend to start with the easiest stuff first when troubleshooting.[/QU

Encoder strip is what I was going to suggest. It's a long thin piece of plastic that goes along the width of of the machine where the print head goes back and forth. Wipe it down and clean it. If that doesn't work then you have to replace it.... it's not a hard repair.

thanks. i replaced the encoder strip 2 moths ago. after that it was printing and cutting perfectly.
it just started doing this 2 weeks ago.

"Is the material pulling off the roll crooked or is the print process itself not printing accurately"

is feeding crooked. is not printing right. as you can see on the pictures the images look jagged and fuzzy on the edges.

 

[signrios]

When is the last time you cleaned or replaced your encoder strip?

What exactly do you mean by "veers off"? Is the material pulling off the roll crooked or is the print process itself not printing accurately?

We tend to start with the easiest stuff first when troubleshooting.

When is the last time you cleaned or replaced your encoder strip?

What exactly do you mean by "veers off"? Is the material pulling off the roll crooked or is the print process itself not printing accurately?

We tend to start with the easiest stuff first when troubleshooting.

Encoder strip is what I was going to suggest. It's a long thin piece of plastic that goes along the width of of the machine where the print head goes back and forth. Wipe it down and clean it. If that doesn't work then you have to replace it.... it's not a hard repair.

we replaced it 2 months ago.

thanks

 

[TimToad]

we replaced it 2 months ago.

thanks

Did it gradually get this bad or just one event and it was this bad?

There are other more technically knowledgeable folks who hopefully will weigh in.

 

[signrios]

Did it gradually get this bad or just one event and it was this bad?

There are other more technically knowledgeable folks who hopefully will weigh in.

all of a sudden. two weeks ago. i didnt do much cutting til' this week.
i was on vacation last week so just encountering this nightmare lol!!

funny thing is i just printed and cut a decal 12x12" and contour cut looks great, it only messes up on long runs and with multiple contour cut images

 

[Solventinkjet]

Just in case you didn't know, Roland printers have tapered pinch rollers so if you get the left and right mixed up, it will cause skewing. If you already took care of that, load your material like normally and then draw a line on the right edge of the media on the platen. Now scroll the media forward and watch the line. The machine is always going to have some skew to it because it's not perfect but the edge of the vinyl should not move very far from that line within about 4 feet. In about 8 feet you can expect about +/- 1/8th inch. If that looks good, then your encoder is probably dirty or damaged. If the encoder sensor is older it could be failing as well. If the material moves more than that, you have a feed issue for sure.

 

[signrios]

Just in case you didn't know, Roland printers have tapered pinch rollers so if you get the left and right mixed up, it will cause skewing. If you already took care of that, load your material like normally and then draw a line on the right edge of the media on the platen. Now scroll the media forward and watch the line. The machine is always going to have some skew to it because it's not perfect but the edge of the vinyl should not move very far from that line within about 4 feet. In about 8 feet you can expect about +/- 1/8th inch. If that looks good, then your encoder is probably dirty or damaged. If the encoder sensor is older it could be failing as well. If the material moves more than that, you have a feed issue for sure.

did the test. definitely a feed issue. fed about 6 ft of vinyl and it skewed almost 3/8" what can be causing this?

 

[Solventinkjet]

did the test. definitely a feed issue. fed about 6 ft of vinyl and it skewed almost 3/8" what can be causing this?

The main culprits are usually a crooked take-up system, a telescoped roll of media, dirty platen, worn out pinch rollers, and/or not loading straight to begin with. I would clean the platen with alcohol and get any ink and adhesive build up that might be causing the media to catch. Make sure the media isn't telescoped as well. Sometimes you just get a loose roll. Then if you are using a take-up, try the same test without it and see if it changes at all. Not much else affects it so it has to be something along those lines.

 

[signrios]

The main culprits are usually a crooked take-up system, a telescoped roll of media, dirty platen, worn out pinch rollers, and/or not loading straight to begin with. I would clean the platen with alcohol and get any ink and adhesive build up that might be causing the media to catch. Make sure the media isn't telescoped as well. Sometimes you just get a loose roll. Then if you are using a take-up, try the same test without it and see if it changes at all. Not much else affects it so it has to be something along those lines.

Thanks. we did a limit initialization and now it's back to normal