Not finding reg marks

[Artworks]

So, I got the new FC8600 and I have only been able to get it to find the Registration marks on two of my prints so far. I have plenty of distance around the reg marks, (i think?), and even when it did find the registration marks and started cutting out two of my previously saved files, the cuts were way off and ruined my prints. I tried to call Graph-Tec yesterday and left messages again today. I also left them an email to their support team. Are all of their customers having these problems or are they seriously lacking on customer support? I am beyond FRUSTRATED RIGHT NOW!!

I never had these types of issues on the Roland and Mimaki I used in the past. Grrrrrrr!

 

[eahicks]

Is this with laminated material? Which marks are you using? Is this with Flexi? or....? Need more details.

 

[Artworks]

I am using their Graphtec studio. I do not have access to Flexi yet. o you think its their software?

 

[Artworks]

They are large reg marks about two inch by two inch. The material is laminated, but the sensor won't even go near the reg marks saying its too close to the -X axis. I have about 2" all around the reg mark of white space. I know with most of these cutters they need plenty of space around the reg marks so I did set it up that way...

 

[Makproductions06]

Is your step size set correctly?

 

[Snydo]

http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?67150-Graphtec-FC8000-Reference-Settings <---might help, it's for an FC8000 but they are very similar machines.

Those are some monster sized crops, 1/2" crops are sufficient if your machine is dialed in. You don't really need a ton of room outside your crops, the width of the pinch rollers is really all you need.

Turn PAPER WEIGHT on in the ARMS menu if it's not.

Good Luck

 

[Artworks]

The program that came with the cutter suggests that the crop marks be maximized especially on laminated material. All of the settings are correct. Still having the same issues. Thanks for all of your suggestions. Better support here than with GraphTec!

 

[Graphic Destruction]

Have you calibrated the sensor to know what white looks like using a sheet of paper? The manual walks you through this process. I agree with others, those are huge crop registration marks.

We have an issue with sun glare from the windows that will cause this also. Make sure there's no glare on the crop marks when it's reading them. Some days we have to physically shield the glare with our hands if it's really bright in the shop.

 

[niksagkram]

WOW, 2" crop marks? That's huge! Our Rolands are ½" and the Summa cutter with OPUS cut is only 7mm.

 

[Artworks]

Yeah, the program let's you set the size and thickness of the crop marks. I figured it was a pretty cool feature. The bigger they are, the easier for the sensor to find it. I never had any issues with the Roland I used to work on. The Mimaki was kind of a PIA sometimes. But so far this new Graph Tec takes the cake on lack of user friendliness.

 

[Artworks]

Have you calibrated the sensor to know what white looks like using a sheet of paper? The manual walks you through this process. I agree with others, those are huge crop registration marks.

We have an issue with sun glare from the windows that will cause this also. Make sure there's no glare on the crop marks when it's reading them. Some days we have to physically shield the glare with our hands if it's really bright in the shop.

Unfortunately, the sensor isn't going any where near my crop mark to sense it. IT is staying toward the edge of the page, which is driving me crazy. I even manually tell it where to look and it moves over to the edge of the page. What ails me the most is that it is likely a simple setting and STILL no call back or reply from GraphTec... 2 days of production lost now

 

[GAC05]

As long as your marks are inside of the outer pinch rollers it should be able to pick them up.
When you set your print in the cutter and let it register the width do you move the cutter head over to the
right crop mark?
It seems to work best if you set the head so the blade holder is inside the little corner mark and not over it.
Once the head is in place don't reset the origin (if you are doing that), just send the plot file from the computer.
The first few times I tried to contour cut I was doing this and the cutter could not find the marks.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Snydo]

Are you setting the origin point in this general vicinity?

 

[DigiPrinter]

I have a 7000 series Graphtec and cut fine with smaller registration marks (1/2"). I do have to set my margin in my RIP (Wasatch) before printing. Just curious if you are setting margins? On 30" material I set those to (top to bottom....I'm not at my work so I can't tell you tab names off hand): 26.800, 1.350, .750, .750

 

[Mosh]

2" crop marks don't sound right to me. Try and trim the laminate off the crop marks and see if that helps, when I have problems that has worked every time.

 

[bob]

As long as your marks are inside of the outer pinch rollers it should be able to pick them up.
When you set your print in the cutter and let it register the width do you move the cutter head over to the
right crop mark?
It seems to work best if you set the head so the blade holder is inside the little corner mark and not over it.
Once the head is in place don't reset the origin (if you are doing that), just send the plot file from the computer...

That's interesting. My Flexi/FC7000 always moves to the origin and then starts a diagonal scan from there. Thus if I set the blade holder in the crotch of the lower right registration mark and do not set the origin to the point as well, the plotter will move to the original origin and commence its scan from there, never location the first mark.

The larger the marks the more the feed compensation on the printer and plotter can vary and the plotter will still find all four marks. On small images it's not a big consideration but when you start trying to cut panels over 48-60 inches a larger mark can make the difference between finding the mark or not.

When all else fails you can print your own marks on the corners of a rectangle of known dimensions and use the plotter's built in automatic or manual mark sensing. Or you can print bomb sight marks and use the built-in light pointer and locate them manually. The latter never, as in ever, fails.

If your contour cutting is off in any direction you probably need to go through the marker sensor adjustment outlined in excruciating detail in the plotter manual. The sets the logical distance between the mark senor gear and the blade tip. If the actual distance between these two items is not exactly the same as the logical distance [that being what the plotter thinks it is] the contour cuts will be off in either or both the X and Y directions. If the contour cut is off but the error is not consistent but is cumulative then the problem, or at least part of it, is in the feed and carriage movement compensation or, shudder, some sort of material or belt slippage. The latter cause is most unlikely.

 

[Turnergraphics]

Have you calibrated the sensor to know what white looks like using a sheet of paper? The manual walks you through this process. I agree with others, those are huge crop registration marks.

We have an issue with sun glare from the windows that will cause this also. Make sure there's no glare on the crop marks when it's reading them. Some days we have to physically shield the glare with our hands if it's really bright in the shop.

We've had problems with glare too.

 

[Artworks]

The marks were only .75". I just thought they looked huge so I over exaggerated. I finally got a call from the tech. Turns out I needed at least three inches of leader at the bottom of my print (I only had like 2"). Of course I didn't see anything about that on any of the videos or written content. Also, i placed the entire carriage inside the reg marks, not just the sensor and the instructions said to do. Now it is finally cutting and finding the marks just fine. Thanks for all the help!