HP cutter issue reading registration mark #2

[jimbug72]

We have an HP 315 and an HP Latex 54 Plus Cutter using Flexi. When doing print/cut procedures, we occasionally seem to have an issue with the cutter reading the 2nd registration mark. Reads the barcode just fine, then reads the fist registration mark just fine but it will start to look in the wrong place for the 2nd cropmark. It's far enough off the mark that it will never find it (it starts looking about 4" or so above where the mark is.) Once we "forced" it to look in the correct place, but it when it started cutting, it was waaaay off of where it was supposed to be cutting.

As far as we can tell, it seems to be completely random, and thankfully not super common. Very frustrating though, especially when it happens on large prints.

Any ideas?

 

[balstestrat]

Next time try to turn it 180° I think usually it makes the marks with standard distance say 15" but the last one can be less say 11".
Barcode should always turn it correct way but say you for some reason sent it manually from the cut queue it could be it.

Another is if you have it on a roll and autoload is turned off, then it doesn't unload it before reading the marks and could jump a little. Dirty grit rollers make it happen as well.

 

[jimbug72]

Next time try to turn it 180° I think usually it makes the marks with standard distance say 15" but the last one can be less say 11".
Barcode should always turn it correct way but say you for some reason sent it manually from the cut queue it could be it.

Another is if you have it on a roll and autoload is turned off, then it doesn't unload it before reading the marks and could jump a little. Dirty grit rollers make it happen as well.

Thanks for the response.

We've tried flipping and loading it with the same result. We pretty much never put them back on a roll.

I don't think it's a feed issue, because it consistently overshoots the mark by about 4 to 5 inches, but the prints aren't distorted. It often happens on the second registration mark, but not always (sometimes it's the 3rd or 4th mark). The print that prompted me to post on Friday, the guy working on it tried clearing the cache in Flexi, then reloading the same file & had the same issue. He saved the file in another location under another file name, same issue. Removed some text in the file (not live text, but converted to outlines) and it ran without issue. What makes it even more weird, there were other files with the text, using the same original file but with different color setups that ran without issue. It happens when we use the barcode, or when we send manually from Flexi.

Might be worth mentioning that we design in Illustrator, print/cut from Flexi.

 

[davideagles]

We have an HP 315 and an HP Latex 54 Plus Cutter using Flexi. When doing print/cut procedures, we occasionally seem to have an issue with the cutter reading the 2nd registration mark. Reads the barcode just fine, then reads the fist registration mark just fine but it will start to look in the wrong place for the 2nd cropmark. It's far enough off the mark that it will never find it (it starts looking about 4" or so above where the mark is.) Once we "forced" it to look in the correct place, but it when it started cutting, it was waaaay off of where it was supposed to be cutting.

As far as we can tell, it seems to be completely random, and thankfully not super common. Very frustrating though, especially when it happens on large prints.

Any ideas?

The issue is likely seems to be Flexi software misinterpreting crop marks—try re-calibrating the cutter and ensuring proper lighting.

 

[jimbug72]

The issue is likely seems to be Flexi software misinterpreting crop marks—try re-calibrating the cutter and ensuring proper lighting.

It seems software related to me, rather than an optical or feed issue. The marks appear to be consistently spaced every time, meaning none seem to be in the "wrong" place. When it happens, the sensor overshoots the mark every time, by seemingly the same amount every time and starts looking for the mark about 4-5 inches above where the mark actually is. It usually overshoots the second mark from the beginning, but it has been the 3rd mark a few times, and even a 4th mark before. Sending from barcode or manually sending from Flexi makes no difference.

It's the seemingly complete randomness that's the head scratcher. It seems to me that if it were a calibration issue there would be at least some consistency. The one that got us Friday, 2 files, both copied/pasted from the same original layout. Both were the same size. The only difference between the two was literally just the fill/stroke swatch colors. One print/cut w/o issue. The other had the issue. We cleared the cache, loaded and sent it through again. Same issue. We tried saving the file under a new name in a different location, same issue. Deleted the text (converted to outlines, not live type) from the file and it worked.