Question Motomark 12mil Laminate

[anthony smith]

Hey,

I have a customer that has asked me to print some motocross kits for him. He told me his old supplier used the General Formulation Motomark Series 4mil vinyl and 12mil laminate. So I ordered a roll of each and we got the kits to print great and are all lammed... But the issue is when i come to cut the kits. I ordered a special blade that was more suited to this thicker material... But my problem is when the knife is travelling from location to location in between cuts, the vinyl sort of arches and does not want to stay flat enough and my blade drags across the laminate and scratches it... I even bought an extra pinch roller thinking it would help keep the media down and more flat but it did not... I am having to push the media down with my fingers the entire time while following the blade to make sure it doesnt scratch the media. To compensate the only way I was able to get it not to scratch is if I moved my blade in the blade holder to a high position but then the blade struggles to get a nice deep cut into the material...

Does anyone have advice on how to deal with this type of thick material?
I have a Graphtec FC-8600 Plotter if that helps.

Thanks.

 

[BigfishDM]

I asked our tech and they recommend using a flatbed cutter vs. the roll unit. Sorry but that's the best I got, we have issues cutting anything heavier than 10 mil so your solution is even thicker.

 

[Jburns]

If the material is bending from the Arc created in the cutter, I have heard of others setting up tables in front of and behind the cutter- so the material is always on a flat plane with the cutting strip.

 

[3SixtySigns]

I had this same issue with Roland SP540V. I also had to keep the pressure manually. I did have the option of increasing the vacuum though which helped. Try slowing the cut right down too.

 

[signwizz]

could you do a couple of passes at a lighter pressure??

 

[SlikGRFX]

Reduce the up speed so that the blade/vinyl moves slower between cuts

 

[tomence]

You just need a different brand cutter, that's all. Summa S2 Tangential is what you need, and you will never have any problems cutting anything, as simple as that.
Graphtec people always have excuses.

 

[TDFcustomSL]

You just need a different brand cutter, that's all. Summa S2 Tangential is what you need, and you will never have any problems cutting anything, as simple as that.
Graphtec people always have excuses.

While I want to agree 100% with you, I can't. I upgraded from the graphtec to a Summa S2 T Series but when cutting Substance material, 16 mil total thickness, I have the same issue. The easiest fix I found was to tape a cleaning swab to the head housing to keep the material pushed down close to the blade. Doing this solved the issue of the blade dragging. You would think for a $10,000 machine they would have some fancy attachment for this, but I guess some masking tape and a swab will do the trick. The Summa is TONS better than the graphtec tho. Very happy I made the switch.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

While I want to agree 100% with you, I can't. I upgraded from the graphtec to a Summa S2 T Series but when cutting Substance material, 16 mil total thickness, I have the same issue. The easiest fix I found was to tape a cleaning swab to the head housing to keep the material pushed down close to the blade. Doing this solved the issue of the blade dragging. You would think for a $10,000 machine they would have some fancy attachment for this, but I guess some masking tape and a swab will do the trick. The Summa is TONS better than the graphtec tho. Very happy I made the switch.

Are you using the thick material nose piece? We were having that issue on ij39 with 8512(when it was still around) and once we switched to the other nose piece we never had the issue again.

Back to the original question, with our old GCC cutter we had to build feed tables for the thicker stuff, we put the roll holder in the lower position and put a pool noodle on the feed table to keep constant tension on the material. Once upgrading to the summa that is 100% gone and our new iEcho is event better (other than some service quality issues)

 

[FireFab]

I am running a 8600-130 and cut a lot of Ij5100 with Oracal 210. 9.5 mil combined. Not quite as thick as the MotoMark. I have added 3 additional pinch rollers for a total of 6 while cutting 48" media and have had zero problems. Soon I will be cutting some MotoMark and I can test out the additional pinch rollers. If not I have the metal fabrication side of my business and I will look into designing an aluminum in-feed and out-feed extension for the Graphtec.

 

[TDFcustomSL]

Are you using the thick material nose piece? We were having that issue on ij39 with 8512(when it was still around) and once we switched to the other nose piece we never had the issue again.

Back to the original question, with our old GCC cutter we had to build feed tables for the thicker stuff, we put the roll holder in the lower position and put a pool noodle on the feed table to keep constant tension on the material. Once upgrading to the summa that is 100% gone and our new iEcho is event better (other than some service quality issues)

Now I feel like a complete dumb @$$. This cutter is still extremely new to me...no, I did forget to switch the nose piece out . I will try switching that out before I cut any more thick stuff. They look the same to me, other than the color of it but I suppose there has to be more of a difference than that. Thanks for reminding me about it tho .

 

[tomence]

Now I feel like a complete dumb @$$. This cutter is still extremely new to me...no, I did forget to switch the nose piece out . I will try switching that out before I cut any more thick stuff. They look the same to me, other than the color of it but I suppose there has to be more of a difference than that. Thanks for reminding me about it tho .

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Now I feel like a complete dumb @$$. This cutter is still extremely new to me...no, I did forget to switch the nose piece out . I will try switching that out before I cut any more thick stuff. They look the same to me, other than the color of it but I suppose there has to be more of a difference than that. Thanks for reminding me about it tho .

We did it too, that's why I asked. I hope it fixes your issue! The only consistent issue we have had with our machine since purchase is our cutter doesn't finish the last cut on anything longer than 8'. It could never be tracked down and summa did everything they could for us including a new control board.

 

[cyclerc]

Set the temp to the max. I used motomark, if you can change to substance cut easy. 60deg blades 300g pressure Roland sp300v


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