Our Summa D160 is in slow motion..

[cdiesel]

I've got an order for 3,000 decals we're trying to finish today, but I can't get our cutter to speed up. We're running Winplot, and doing contour cutting using the OPOS. It's set to max speed (800mm/sec) using the Summa Cutter Control and it shows 32 IPS on the plotter LCD. But, it's cutting at about 8 IPS. The weird thing is, it cut at the faster speed on one group of decals, and then went back to cutting slow?? Anyone know what's up?

 

[cdiesel]

Nobody else ever see this problem??

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Is this a new problem or does it always happen? How complicated is the contour cut? How is the plotter connected?

 

[cdiesel]

It's a pretty new machine, and we don't use it much for contour cutting, so I'm not sure if it's new or not. First time I've noticed it. It's connected via USB, and the contour is only a rectangle with rounded corners. The thing that puzzles me is that sometimes it cuts fast, and sometimes slow.

 

[dclet]

are you re-sending from the plotter control panel?

Are you trying to do all 3000...

I haven't seen this yet with any of my Summas... be interested in what Summa has to say.

 

[cdiesel]

Only sending 40 at a time.. Very simple vectors, nothing fancy. I called Summa and they don't know..

While i was on the phone with them, I loaded some 48" regular vinyl and it cut fast as it should. When I reloaded the printed vinyl, it went slow again.

 

[dclet]

hmmm did you try using the serial connection...usb is quirky sometimes.

 

[cdiesel]

I don't even think the problem has anything to do with the computer or winplot.
When loading the vinyl, I can tell if it's going to cut fast or slow based on how it returns to the origin. It'll either haul ass back there or poke. That shows how it's going to cut, and that's before even interacting with the computer at all.

 

[cdiesel]

All right.. think we figured this one out.
It appears that the cutter is weighing the material when it loads, and because the static cling we're trying to cut has so much drag against the plotter and the roll of media behind the machine, it thinks it's heavier than it is, and slows the whole thing down automatically.

 

[dclet]

and slows the whole thing down automatically

Didn't know they did that...saves some motors I guess...ya gotta love summa.

Must be the D series...I know I can run 30 mil magnetic through the t750 with out issue.
I haven't tried that with the d160...I don't think I will.

 

[Pat Whatley]

Interesting because we started having the same problem with two of our Summa plotters last Thursday. They will cut at full speed all day but for some reason on one job a day they'll slow down to a crawl.