Need help from really experienced Roland techs.

[Ernest Tortuga]

Pardon my french, but the Roland tech in our country sucks big time.

Anybody here that could help me with resolving my problems with crop cuts? I am using an EJ-640 and VS-640i as my printers, then a GR-540 as my cutter. My issue is simple, cut alignment when doing cuts thru crop marks.

Thanks!

 

[jfiscus]

Could be a lot of things. We are going to have to know what RIP you are using and what marks you have set up in it.

 

[Ernest Tortuga]

Could be a lot of things. We are going to have to know what RIP you are using and what marks you have set up in it.

I’m using Versaworks 6. What do you mean by “what marks you have set it up in”? If you’re pertaining to crop marks being set manually i.e. thru cut studio, I don’t. I just let versaworks do that for me

 

[Joe House]

Can you describe the problem better? What material? Laminated or not? Are the cuts all off in the same direction? Does it work sometimes? Since it's not likely that one of us will come to your shop, more info is needed if you expect any kind of quality help here. Pictures help if you can post some that show the problems.

 

[Ernest Tortuga]

I’m using Versaworks 6. What do you mean by “what marks you have set it up in”?

Can you describe the problem better? What material? Laminated or not? Are the cuts all off in the same direction? Does it work sometimes? Since it's not likely that one of us will come to your shop, more info is needed if you expect any kind of quality help here. Pictures help if you can post some that show the problems.

My apologies for my lack of information. I'll try my best to keep it detailed as much as I can. The example photos below are printed on an EJ-640, and cutting done on a GR-540.

1. I am using vinyl stickers as my media. Regardless if I am using Ritrama or some china branded media, the cuts are still off. For Ritrama, I am using an 80 GSM kind, and the China one is 120 GSM. All of my media is 55" in width and below.
2. I do the cutting in GR-540 by batch, meaning it's not loaded in the GR as rolled.
3. I am using Versaworks 6 as my RIP software. I also place the crop marks using versaworks as well.
4. Cut Contour lines are done thru adobe illustrator cc.
5. My prints are not laminated.

 

[victor bogdanov]

are you loading the material as straight as possible into the cutter? have you tried not doing a registration mark of every single circle?

 

[victor bogdanov]

also using a narrower material like 30" could help since the result is ok one one side and gets worse on the other side

 

[Ernest Tortuga]

are you loading the material as straight as possible into the cutter? have you tried not doing a registration mark of every single circle?

Yes, i’m doing that best that I can to load it as straight as possible. The guides that you see are not registration marks, those are margin marks only. Registration marks are done as a whole.

As much as possible I do not want to make my media smaller since I never had this problem before.

 

[Jester]

Have you replaced or cleaned the pinch rollers regularly/recently, or might they be dirty (slippery) or wearing? Ditto for cleaning the grit rollers.

 

[Ernest Tortuga]

Have you replaced or cleaned the pinch rollers regularly/recently, or might they be dirty (slippery) or wearing? Ditto for cleaning the grit rollers.

I'm cleaning the pinch and grit rollers regularly (every other day). However there some adhesive residue that's being left in the grit rollers even if I use an adhesive remover chemical. Was planning to remove the grit rollers from the machine so that I can clean it properly but I find it such a pain to remove the platten. haha

 

[Notarealsignguy]

It looks fine to me and bet it's within tolerance. It looks more like you're seeking perfection in something that will never be. It's just the nature of the beast.

 

[Ernest Tortuga]

It looks fine to me and bet it's within tolerance. It looks more like you're seeking perfection in something that will never be. It's just the nature of the beast.

I understand the accuracy tolerance of the machine, but this doesn't happen before. If I'm seeking perfection then I wouldn't even bother adding bleed to the artwork. haha

 

[Joe House]

If it's off at the start, then you need to adjust the print/cut calibration or it may be called crop/cut. If it changes through the job, then you likely have either a distance adjustment error or you need to replace your pinch wheels. I wouldn't use adhesive remover on your plotter. Don't use anything stronger than alcohol and a toothbrush. And it seems like you're cleaning the grit wheels and pinch wheels an awful lot. If you get adhesive buildup that quickly on your grit wheels, I'd look for a better vinyl. I don't know of any of my customers that have to clean that often. Monthly is probably the most frequent cycle. Also, don't take the grit wheels out, unless you like experimenting. You're just adding another possible cause of problems down the road. You should be able to clean them adequately without removing anything.
I would start by checking your calibration and replacing the pinch wheels.

Good Luck

 

[Ernest Tortuga]

If it's off at the start, then you need to adjust the print/cut calibration or it may be called crop/cut. If it changes through the job, then you likely have either a distance adjustment error or you need to replace your pinch wheels. I wouldn't use adhesive remover on your plotter. Don't use anything stronger than alcohol and a toothbrush. And it seems like you're cleaning the grit wheels and pinch wheels an awful lot. If you get adhesive buildup that quickly on your grit wheels, I'd look for a better vinyl. I don't know of any of my customers that have to clean that often. Monthly is probably the most frequent cycle. Also, don't take the grit wheels out, unless you like experimenting. You're just adding another possible cause of problems down the road. You should be able to clean them adequately without removing anything.
I would start by checking your calibration and replacing the pinch wheels.

Good Luck

I cleaned it with adhesive remover probably once or twice only, but I always stick with alcohol. I clean it regularly simply because I just one it clean, not because I am seeing and dirt or residue that's being left on the grit roller. For the pinch roller, I use a very mild dilution of Chemical Guys' All Clean+. I use a 100:1 dilution instead of their suggested 10:1 as I know that it will dry out the pinch rollers.

With calibration, I know that the VS has a "crop-adj" function, is there a similar function with the EJ? And what function where I can make distance adjustment?

Thanks!

 

[Joe House]

With calibration, I know that the VS has a "crop-adj" function, is there a similar function with the EJ? And what function where I can make distance adjustment?

Since the EJ isn't a cutter, it won't have that calibration. You have to do it on the plotter. You're calibrating the reg mark sensor relative to the knife, so it has to be done on the plotter. There's a calibration in service mode that uses black vinyl to calibrate this, I'm not sure how to do it in user mode.

 

[Sean@CedarHouse]

Hey Ernest,

I have some thoughts as well. First back to basics. If this is a new issue then there is a likely chance that things are just wearing. So. Fresh blade that is sharp, new cut pad with no groove. Make sure that the blade pressure is as low as possible while still getting your vinyl cut.

If the blade is dull or there is a groove in the cut pad then it will push the vinyl around causing the cuts to be off. This is most noted when they are on at the start and then off later is the cutting process.

If all that is done and things are still off, then go through the steps of the crop/ cut adjustment on the cutter. If you are using the VS then do the print/cut adjust first, then the crop/ cut adjust next.

Also, If you want to get tight, you can use the Custom Cut feature in VW6. This feature also works with a separate cutter as well You can have it print the crop marks instead of cutting.

Hope this helps.