Printing and cutting long decals

[koverall industries]

Im having problem after problem with my roland versa camm 540 when i try and cut long decals. Im currently working on a job where each decal is 20 feet long by 6 inches wide and its printed on reflective vinyl. Everything goes well in the print stage then once laminated a set up the crop marks. The machine finds them and then the problems start........ Sometimes the media gets caught on the machine some how and jams..... or the knife just start going off on its own wrecking all the decals its suppose to be cutting. Im using a 60 degree blade but nothing seems to help and its not much fun trying to cut these decals by hand. So my question is... Are theses decals to long for my machine to cut? Has anyone had luck creating decals this long? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Speedsterbeast]

First of all. What speed are you cutting at?
I would slow it down to about 10 cm/sec for starters.
That should eliminate the material getting caught up, as you can manage it as it cuts.
I seem to remember hearing that worn pinch rollers will cause the material to go off track too.
Also, make sure that the feed of material is NOT wound tight around a spool, but moving quite freely. Any tension on one side as it feeds will make the print or cut out of plumb, even if it is unable to see visually.
I'm sure you'll get more and better advice though. I've only owned my Sp-300V for a few months and the longest I have print/cut is only about 6 feet so far

 

[D3G]

There is a clear plastic strip that runs the length of the machine (above where the print head runs) that will get dirty. This strip has markings on it which tells the cutter where to cut. If the strip is really dirty the cutter can't pick up the locations of your cuts. You can pull out the strip and clean it with alcohol. It's a bit tricky to get out and you have to be careful but I've done it so just about anyone can.

Hope that helps.

 

[anotherdog]

As above, slow the cut right down and clean the pinch rollers. I had a similar issue with a 15ft vehicle decal, part of the problem was the backing sheet being so smooth.
I slowed the knife right down, cleaned the rollers and took the vinyl off the roll (I had to lam anyway) so there was no tension. If you are not full width and using only a few of the rollers, that may be causing a problem too.

The way you can tell that its a cutting issue is that the head finds all the print/cut marks and begins to cut. The vinyl must be slipping after it begins.

 

[petepaz]

all of the above suggestions and also as the material runs front to back on the machine to cut you have to make sure you don't get any kinks or wrinkles in the material. i have never cut anything that long but i have noticed on 10ft items as it pulls back through if you get a kink or wrinkle the material can go off track
(make sure it piles up evenly but slowing the blade down will also help with that)

 

[Gino]

All of the above here, too.

Another thing could be with the thickness of reflective and then adding a laminate to the equation, your pinch rollers might not have the clamping power they once had and things are getting pulled through too fast and skewing all around in there.

 

[koverall industries]

Thanks for all your help guys!!! Ill be printing some this afternoon so hopefully it works out a little better this time!