Print and Cut Off

The media may be skewing due to a bad pinch roller wheel on the home side. The wheel could be slipping on the material.

 

The media may be skewing due to a bad pinch roller wheel on the home side. The wheel could be slipping on the material.

 

Try running the job as a print/cut job with crop marks, as if you were going to laminate, but don't remove the material from the machine, but have it read the marks before cutting, is there any change? How about if you do remove it from the machine and reload? All of these processes use slightly different setups and can help pin point the issue.

 

Going by the pictures they use the crop marks for print and cut jobs (I do too, even without laminating, safest option).

I think he’s saying if he just says “cut after print” then it will print, read the reg marks then cut with an offset. If they cut it off then feed it back in, works fine.

 

When you do a print and cut without removing the printed media, the machine is rolling the media backwards to re-align - I still think a bad pinch wheel could be a problem. Also - make sure that the grit rollers on both sides are not contaminated with adhesive. When you remove and replace the material, there is no rolling backward - A quick and temporary fix may be to clean the roller wheels with solvent and test again.

Also involved in feed is a feed encoder wheel near the head park position - check to make sure it is not dirty or has ink on the wheel - if so, clean with 90% alcohol like you would clean the scan encoder strip - otherwise, the print and cut adjustment and the crop and cut adjustment in the user menu - I noticed your test print and cut test on your media is possibly a little off Not that bad - as you know there is also a crop and cut adjustment in the same menu.

I just went through a print and cut and crop and cut issue - changed the cut cable, the cutting board, wheels only to find out that the feed encoder wheel was contaminated with ink due to the waste ink tube being pinched by the waste bottle which backed up and blew a hose off the pump - it sprayed ink all over the works, the worst being the feed encoder wheel. Cleaned it off good and got better results.

Sorry, didn't mean to run on about it.

 

What software are you running? For both RL5 and RL6 I send all jobs with crop marks. Even print and cut jobs. (Just in case).

it will always print the job, read the marks then cuts. Never just prints then cuts if I have the marks on. Maybe something there going wrong?

 

Make sure that you're not using "Center on Vinyl" when doing any print and cut. That's a known issue that can cause print/cut registration issues.

 

I have a VS 640 - The feed encoder can be found by taking the cover off the right side - behind the head carriage, attached to the main axle is a round plastic encoder wheel - it looks clear but there are position marks - if there is ink or grime on it - it can be cleaned with 90 percent isopropyl. If you have a different printer, you'll have to look and find it, but I believe its a pretty standard part.

 

It is standard, but some are the clear disk like you mentioned and some are enclosed in a device that sits on the back end of the feed motor.

 

I believe you have an SP-540V, correct? You may have a bad pinch roller assembly, not just a bad pinch roller. Do a print-cut with just the outer rollers in the machine and then repeat the job with all the middle rollers installed. Compare the error in the cut and see if it is less with all the rollers installed. I have the same problem on a customer machine and am waiting for the 2 assemblies to be delivered from Roland. If you want to determine if the assemblies themselves are the issue, do the following. You will need to remove the door and front metal cover of the printer.
Get a fish scale that reads in ounces. Makes a loop out of some heavy string. Remove any media from the printer. With the rollers up, put the string loop behind the roller and close the rollers. Attach the scale to the loop and observe the force required to just start to lift the pinch roller off the grit roller. Do the same thing for the other outer roller and for all the middle rollers. All the forces should be close. On my customer's printer, I had 35 oz on the left roller, 48 oz on the right roller and 56 oz on all the middle rollers. Running with only the outer rollers with these pressure differences was consistent with direction of the skewing I was getting. It will be best to replace both assemblies at the same time.
I will report back after replacing the assemblies to confirm my diagnoses of the cause.

 

i am having the same issues i am laminating though. Roland wont help. I am on my third new machine and it is doing the same thing.