Need Help Material shifting on take up! HELP!

[Chasez]

I've always had this issue from day one with this printer (epson s50-670). With long runs (40ft or more) the material moves back and forth on the take up roller (almost like a zig zag when its rolling up). Currently printing a large job that is a continuous print the entire length of a roll (150ft) and I have 5 rolls to print this way. I'm on the third roll and each time around half way the material will sway/zig zag on the take up and cause the material to come away from the edge guards and then cause a head strike stopping the printing. So far each roll has run into the night when no one is at the shop so it hasn't been discovered until morning. I have tried starting the print then attaching to the take up when the material gets there, also I have tried pulling material through and attaching to the take up and rolling a couple turns then putting the pressure rollers down but am still getting the same issue. Is there something I'm doing wrong or missing to get the take up roller to wind the material straight?? any and all help is much appreciated!

Chaz

 

[eahicks]

Are your prints straight? Do they zig zag? Your takeup should pull as straight as your media is being fed....so if it's zigzagging that makes me think your printer's rollers are not applying even pressure or something, causing it to feed erratically.
When you attach to the takeup, do you attach at one point in the center or on the lead corners? I always attach at one point on the center, so once it make a turn or two on to the core, it straightens out and runs fine.

 

[a77]

With my S30, I would see this. Didn't happen on everything but it did happen often enough that I needed to watch it. It would go a good 50ft before becoming an issue and just a slight tug on the material near the takeup reel (left or right) would straighten it out. So overnight printing was a bit scary. I never had it go so far to the edge that it would lift up enough to cause a head strike, but it did look a bit scary when there was a big bulge on one side, the edge guards never popped up on me. If you align your feed roll and takeup roll, you will get better performance for sure - I would do that right away if I were you. I had that done on 2 occasions when I owned mine and it did help.

I will admit that the S40 I have now has perfect takeup, even when sloppily taping it to the takeup roll (not centered). So I will say they fixed this problem, and I think it mainly has to do with the shape of the post heater - I watched a video on the Epson website where the japanese engineers explain this. It also solves the problem when running long banners 14'+... the wrinkles that form due to slightly imperfect takeup tension do not propagate up to the print area like the S30 did.

 

[Chasez]

Are your prints straight? Do they zig zag? Your takeup should pull as straight as your media is being fed....so if it's zigzagging that makes me think your printer's rollers are not applying even pressure or something, causing it to feed erratically.
When you attach to the takeup, do you attach at one point in the center or on the lead corners? I always attach at one point on the center, so once it make a turn or two on to the core, it straightens out and runs fine.

The prints are straight (they follow the edge of the material). When I attached to the take up I put 1 pc of tape in the middle and attach to the core that way. I have done it where I attach to the take up while printing (to conserve media) as well as pulled the media through, attached to take up, wound a couple turns then put the pinch rollers down (which SHOULD make the print pull through straight) but still had the same issue both times.

The take up and the feed were rollers were set straight by the tech that setup the printer 2 years ago and the take up wheel and feed wheel (closest to the control panel) are never moved while loading/unloading media.

Need to get this figured out as we will be running lots of full length rolls in the future! Is there something I should look for to tell if the pinch rollers are not applying even pressure? Is there a way to easily tell if the feed/take up rollers are pulling straight?

Chaz

 

[a77]

Yes you can see how straight your feed and take up system is by putting a core on both and using a string (or some paper or vinyl) to measure. Make a loop in your string/whatever big enough to loosely fit over the core. Bring it up to the print area and see where it reaches the cut groove or any other feature near the print head path. Check at different points along the core to see if that length varies. You want both feed and take up as straight as possible to the pinch rollers.

Sent from my SM-N920W8 using Tapatalk

 

[CSOCSO]

can you take a picture of the rollers for me? a decent up close sharp picture please.(rollers meaning the stuff that pulls the material while it prints)