Not cutting through vinyl on one side

[R D]

Folks, need some help. I have a Roland SP300i. I've been printing and cutting stickers and decals. Today I printed an order of die cut stickers using the same settings I've been using - and none of the stickers on the left side of the media are cut through.

Its like the blade is losing force as it moves farther to the left side of the sheet.

I'm using GF 222 semi rigid matte vinyl media.

I have it setup to do a contour cut and then a perf cut on the same line.

I swapped the blade, and I've tried tweaking the cut force settings. I've now tried 4 times print/cutting 10 stickers at a time as a test with various settings. I just tried it at 75gf for contour and 200 for perf, which is quite a bit higher than what I have been using - and it still gives the same result.

Any ideas on what might be causing this? Did something in the cutting head get misaligned? Should I try even more force? I do have some other media I could try but this is what I use for all my stickers.

 

[Dasdesignguy]

Has the machine been serviced recently? Was the platen taken off? Mimaki's have a level test where you can remove the blade, replace the blade holder, and it will travel across the length of the plotter and display the distance from the platen to the blade. I'm not sure if the Roland has that same feature though.

 

[victor bogdanov]

Is the cutting strip in good shape?

 

[Andy D]

Is the cutting strip in good shape?

Agreed, the cutting strips is a consumable and needs to be changed every 6 months - 2 years, depending on how much plotting you do.

 

[ChaseO]

If it just started out of no where, it's in the machine. It could be a cut carriage cable or encoder strip, so cleaning or replacing them will get everything back to normal. If it became a gradual problem, the cutting strip would be a great place to start. Also, if you are using Versaworks, make a change to your print file where it needs to re-rip and see if that makes any change.