media comp grey lines not straight?

[Kinkajou]

Today my client encountered (again!) a problem of misalignment of the cuts for screw holes. I sincerely don't know what to do. Every week I make prints for 4 type of electric scooter boards: xiaomi PRO, xiaomi STANDARD, G30 MAX and G30 LE.
Xiaomi PRO prints and cuts are ALWAYS perfect wether I laminate with no heat, with heat or whatever. The other boards keep giving me a headache. Last week the prints for xiaomi STANDARD were perfect. Cut holes matched perfectly. This week they are a mess along with G30 MAX (which holes have been modified according to measurement by eye...). I begged my client to have me do the holes by hand with a cutter, but he still doesn't want to rely on this manual operation. Now he's giving me 3 sample acrylic boards with precutted holes for screws to test my prints... but I guess this (w)hole madness will never end.

 

[Proofread People]

Today my client encountered (again!) a problem of misalignment of the cuts for screw holes. I sincerely don't know what to do. Every week I make prints for 4 type of electric scooter boards: xiaomi PRO, xiaomi STANDARD, G30 MAX and G30 LE.
Xiaomi PRO prints and cuts are ALWAYS perfect wether I laminate with no heat, with heat or whatever. The other boards keep giving me a headache. Last week the prints for xiaomi STANDARD were perfect. Cut holes matched perfectly. This week they are a mess along with G30 MAX (which holes have been modified according to measurement by eye...). I begged my client to have me do the holes by hand with a cutter, but he still doesn't want to rely on this manual operation. Now he's giving me 3 sample acrylic boards with precutted holes for screws to test my prints... but I guess this (w)hole madness will never end.

Ask your client for the acrylic template for each scooter board. Use a cast vinyl so it will not shrink, calendered vinyl will shrink up to .25". Make an art cut file for each scooter board style and run a test print. It may take a few tries but at least you have the real Mccoy template from your client. We once had a customer that used to come to us for face plate prints for electronic equipment, luckily it wasn't that often.

 

[Kinkajou]

Ask your client for the acrylic template for each scooter board. Use a cast vinyl so it will not shrink, calendered vinyl will shrink up to .25". Make an art cut file for each scooter board style and run a test print. It may take a few tries but at least you have the real Mccoy template from your client. We once had a customer that used to come to us for face plate prints for electronic equipment, luckily it wasn't that often.

The real problem here is that my plotter prints up to 2 mm shorter OR 5 mm larger (always in the Y axis) whichever file the RIP software (rasterlink6) send to it. It can be small labels (outer box was printed 1 mm shorter BUT every label indise it kept the correct size) to 100 cm x 80 cm print that comes out 100 cm x 80.5 for no reason. I'm thinking about a RIP problem at this point... It's like it is messing up with proportions despite I'm checking the "keep proportion" box and set the scale to 100%.

EDIT: I've upgraded RasterLink6 to RasterLink6Plus. Now I'm upgrading RL6Plus to RasterLink7 for free. Hope to see some improvement...

EDIT #2: I got RasterLink7. Nope, still printing 1mm shorter.

 

[Proofread People]

The real problem here is that my plotter prints up to 2 mm shorter OR 5 mm larger (always in the Y axis) whichever file the RIP software (rasterlink6) send to it. It can be small labels (outer box was printed 1 mm shorter BUT every label indise it kept the correct size) to 100 cm x 80 cm print that comes out 100 cm x 80.5 for no reason. I'm thinking about a RIP problem at this point... It's like it is messing up with proportions despite I'm checking the "keep proportion" box and set the scale to 100%.

EDIT: I've upgraded RasterLink6 to RasterLink6Plus. Now I'm upgrading RL6Plus to RasterLink7 for free. Hope to see some improvement...

EDIT #2: I got RasterLink7. Nope, still printing 1mm shorter.

did you try unchecking "keep proportion"?

 

[Kinkajou]

did you try unchecking "keep proportion"?

Yup. I always printed with that check off. I started checking it hoping for better accuracy.
Anyway... a little update. After 2 days of tests, I found a solution in changing the pressure of pinch rollers from Light to Medium. That 1mm discrepancy is gone. So it was "JUST" a media slipping problem all this time?

5 pinch rollers out of 7 are set like this: M_MMM

 

[Proofread People]

Yup. I always printed with that check off. I started checking it hoping for better accuracy.
Anyway... a little update. After 2 days of tests, I found a solution in changing the pressure of pinch rollers from Light to Medium. That 1mm discrepancy is gone. So it was "JUST" a media slipping problem all this time?

5 pinch rollers out of 7 are set like this: M_MMM

oh wow, glad you found the culprit. Yep, live and learn, we should have ordered our plotter with more pinch rollers. Also, I think from time to time, they should be cleaned. That reminds me I need to do that...

 

[Kinkajou]

oh wow, glad you found the culprit. Yep, live and learn, we should have ordered our plotter with more pinch rollers. Also, I think from time to time, they should be cleaned. That reminds me I need to do that...

I found the culprit... for now! But for today I call it quit and go home victorious.
Yeah, never underestimate pinch rollers! Thank you for your replies