HP 570 new user problems

[The Sign Depot LLC]

So we just bought our first latex printer, the HP 570. We have a Roland XC540 and a HP FB500 as well.

The problem I have is that almost every time I start a print, the media touches the top heating element, sticks and causes a huge jam. The only reliable way I've found to prevent this is to feed the media to where it just starts to stick out of the heater. But that means I'm wasting about 20 inches of material on every load. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

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[P Wagner]

PM/ Conversation sent

 

[ikarasu]

I have the issue with cheap media. Media specifically for latex, or cast media hasnt been a problem for me. Anything that curls when heated will likely hit. It'd be nice if the heaters were higher... but thatd likely affect drying also. The only way ive found to fix it is to extend the media out past the heaters a little bit... usually that stops it, if not then when you put it on the take up reel it'll keep it flat. You could tape some banner / other media to the end of your vinyl, then attach it to the take up reel and it'll keep it flat.

 

[Behrmon]

Higher vac and lower temp should help pending media.

 

[Bly]

It's normal. Waste the 20" and move on to trouble free latex printing.

 

[ikarasu]

I used to be cheap. I have 2 rulers... I'd wait for the media to get close, shove it up the heater area and it's make sure the media doesn't hit the heater. It might still rub on occasion, but it never caused a jam. Just don't use plastic rulers, they lasted all of one time...

Now I just waste the couple inches on cheap media. I find 3m 180 can be started right in the front no problem. It's just the cheap $100 a roll stuff that has issues. I'd rather waste $1 on media than risk a head strike that that could potentially cost me $100, so I just waste it now.

 

[AKwrapguy]

So we just bought our first latex printer, the HP 570. We have a Roland XC540 and a HP FB500 as well.

The problem I have is that almost every time I start a print, the media touches the top heating element, sticks and causes a huge jam. The only reliable way I've found to prevent this is to feed the media to where it just starts to stick out of the heater. But that means I'm wasting about 20 inches of material on every load. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

Sent from my SM-N950U using

Ok so first are you doing the "smile" cut on the media before you load it in. This will help. Second you can attach a leader, and rewind the material. With my 570's I usually stick my hands into the heater (it's not on or hot) and you can feel a small I guess you can call it valley or depression on the bottom of the inside of the heater. Move the material just past that and you should be fine, you will still wast about a foot or so but ya it's a thing. While it's frustrating you bought the 570 cause its made to do large long runs. An extra foot of wasted material shouldn't matter... it's a 'forest from the trees' mentality you're going to have to develop.

 

[The Sign Depot LLC]

Ok so first are you doing the "smile" cut on the media before you load it in. This will help. Second you can attach a leader, and rewind the material. With my 570's I usually stick my hands into the heater (it's not on or hot) and you can feel a small I guess you can call it valley or depression on the bottom of the inside of the heater. Move the material just past that and you should be fine, you will still wast about a foot or so but ya it's a thing. While it's frustrating you bought the 570 cause its made to do large long runs. An extra foot of wasted material shouldn't matter... it's a 'forest from the trees' mentality you're going to have to develop.

What is this "smile" cut you refer to?

And yes, truth be told, I mainly had to wrap my mind around the idea of wasting the material at the beginning. We are a true "full-service" so we do both short run and long run jobs on a variety of materials. Its doesn't bother me as bad when I load a new roll and run the whole roll. Its more of an issue when I have small run where the waste piece is larger than the piece actually needed for the job.

I've been running Rolands for the last 15 years and its interesting how different they are from HPs. Its not that one is necessarily better than the other, but they both have very unique strengths and weaknesses.

The 570 was the right move for us but now I have a lot to learn in order to get the most from it.

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[Clem]

we cater mostly for the mining industry, so when this started happening to us more frequently, the expense of media was really going up as we use primarily class 1 & class 2 reflective medias.

the head honcho is a machinist by trade, he made some nice brass weights that clip to the front of the media (see pic).

they also make a nice little *ting-ting noise when they touch the dancer bar- which if i hear it prompts me to attach it to the take up reel.

once attached we wind it back so the clips are just before the printing platen (stabbing at terminology here) and they've gone from almost daily to one every few months- which is usually from adhesive buildup.

the front printer in the pic has been wound forward so you can see the weights fully attached.
the rear printer you can see has just *ting-ting'd, so i gotta go.

hope this helps

media weights

• Clem
• Jan 28, 2018

weights for the media

 

[The Sign Depot LLC]

we cater mostly for the mining industry, so when this started happening to us more frequently, the expense of media was really going up as we use primarily class 1 & class 2 reflective medias.

the head honcho is a machinist by trade, he made some nice brass weights that clip to the front of the media (see pic).

they also make a nice little *ting-ting noise when they touch the dancer bar- which if i hear it prompts me to attach it to the take up reel.

once attached we wind it back so the clips are just before the printing platen (stabbing at terminology here) and they've gone from almost daily to one every few months- which is usually from adhesive buildup.

the front printer in the pic has been wound forward so you can see the weights fully attached.
the rear printer you can see has just *ting-ting'd, so i gotta go.

hope this helps

media weights

• Clem
• Jan 28, 2018

weights for the media

I like what you did there. I may try to come up with something similar or use a leader whenever i run reflectives as well.

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[dypinc]

Small woodworking clamps work well for me. But I don't think the curing area design is as problematic on the L300 series as the L500 series.

 

[AKwrapguy]

What is this "smile" cut you refer to?

And yes, truth be told, I mainly had to wrap my mind around the idea of wasting the material at the beginning. We are a true "full-service" so we do both short run and long run jobs on a variety of materials. Its doesn't bother me as bad when I load a new roll and run the whole roll. Its more of an issue when I have small run where the waste piece is larger than the piece actually needed for the job.

I've been running Rolands for the last 15 years and its interesting how different they are from HPs. Its not that one is necessarily better than the other, but they both have very unique strengths and weaknesses.

The 570 was the right move for us but now I have a lot to learn in order to get the most from it.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

No problem, it a new piece of equipment and requires a little getting used to and finding out all the little quirks. The smile cut is when you cut the material off the printer you give it slight rounded look, so it looks like it smiles. This will help feed the material through the machine for the next load up.

 

[papabud]

what i do when i have to load material. i run a line of masking tape on the lead edge folded over the back so it holds them together and doesnt jam up

 

[Dallas225]

We have a L365 and we noticed the same thing.. the trick that has worked with every adhesive backed media we print is to wrap the leading edge with painters tape before we load it. We haven’t had one jam on any material since we started doing that. I can load the material now and not scroll any out! It was my main gripe with this machine going from the Roland that wasted nothing. Now it wastes just enough that your out of the contaminated touched portion of the roll which I would have scrolled out anyways. Good luck!


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[jadrewitz]

I just bought the HP 115 print/cut, moving up from an older Roland and I have the same issue. I've been using a calendared 3M and the backing paper seems to "stick" in the drying area. It's been frustrating. I'm going to purchase some HP calendared and see if I have the same issues.

 

[Asuma01]

I'll add my frustrations to this thread also.
Here is my HP 560 Review.
It has the WORST loading system of any digital printer I have EVER used. The 560 has wasted more material in the few short months I've used it than any other printer I've had experience with. It jams and ruins material ALL.THE.TIME.
HP touts their new loading and take up system as a technological breakthrough. That has not been my experience. AT ALL.
Buyer beware for sure on this thing. Too late for me. Hopefully I can dissuade someone else from making the blunder I did.

 

[Asuma01]

IMO we shouldnt have to wrap tape on the leading edge of our material just to keep it from jamming. HP should have designed around this.

 

[BigfishDM]

I'll add my frustrations to this thread also.
Here is my HP 560 Review.
It has the WORST loading system of any digital printer I have EVER used. The 560 has wasted more material in the few short months I've used it than any other printer I've had experience with. It jams and ruins material ALL.THE.TIME.
HP touts their new loading and take up system as a technological breakthrough. That has not been my experience. AT ALL.
Buyer beware for sure on this thing. Too late for me. Hopefully I can dissuade someone else from making the blunder I did.

When using the smiley face technique I never have an issue, I also never have an issue if I attach the fabric feeder tool, you can use that on every material if you have an issue with loading.

 

[dypinc]

Where are you getting the media presets from for the 560. You surly can't use the ones for the 360 as the heat setting for the 360 would way to high for the 560 given the different curing design. For those running both the 360 and 560 how much lower do you need to set the curing heat on the 560?

 

[AKwrapguy]

I'll add my frustrations to this thread also.
Here is my HP 560 Review.
It has the WORST loading system of any digital printer I have EVER used. The 560 has wasted more material in the few short months I've used it than any other printer I've had experience with. It jams and ruins material ALL.THE.TIME.
HP touts their new loading and take up system as a technological breakthrough. That has not been my experience. AT ALL.
Buyer beware for sure on this thing. Too late for me. Hopefully I can dissuade someone else from making the blunder I did.

My 570's will jam sometimes but most of it is because of user error. If it's jamming ALL THE TIME, when is it jamming, when it's printing or when it's loading?
If it's jamming when your loading, try to give the material a 'smile' cut, this way the center will lead through the machine.
If it's jamming when it's printing, is it jamming at the beginning or randomly while printing. I see that one of your major concerns is the wasted material, if it's at the beginning try attaching a leader to a take up reel ( I found banner material works great for this) and than to the material and feed the material back through the machine till your satisfied. This will help keep tension on the material and reduce both the jamming issue as well as the wasted material issue.
If it's jamming during printing try some of these:
Make sure the printer is level
Your vacuum setting might be to high or low
Your heat setting might be to high
Try using the edge guards

If you would like I would be more than willing to share my profile settings for my material this might help you out as well or at least give you a starting point.