Roland Please Cut Where I Tell You to Cut

[bhewlin]

Hello, The Roland SP-540v is cutting the first row of decals dead on, the second row the cut is offset by 1/4 of an inch, the third row 1/2 inch and so on.

ive been getting by by only printing one row at a time but to cut a decal more than 4 ft is impossible

Ive replaced the sensor and the strip 6 months ago - ive cleaned the sensor strip, tightend the guide wire. ran the calibration multiple times, the result is always the same as above.

Please Help!

 

[ova]

Couple of things first.

1. Is it miscutting on the scan or feed or both? Scan is across. Feed is front to back.
2. Are you printing/ laminating or is it just vinyl?
3. Are the images miss cut the same across the sheet?

Some things to check that you have not mentioned are:

1. Pinch rollers dirty or worn out.
2. Are you pre-feeding off of the roll or letting the machine pull the vinyl?
3. By strip do you mean encoder strip? If so, and you have already calibrated the cut, did it mis cut then or progressively get worse?
4. Try doing a Factory Default in the Menu. When you get to factory Default, just hit enter. If you do this, all of your cut off-sets that were in the memory will go back to 0.00 and you'll have to start over.

There's probably a lot more to check, but these should be some things to try.

Last thing.

Welcome to s101. Might want to introduce yourself, do some searching of past posts on your problems and if you can't find a remedy, I'm sure someone will come to the recue.



Dave

 

[PrytecSolutions]

Roland Cutting:

Hello,

If the cutter is increasing in steps, I would check the resolution of the cutter, to make sure it is configured correctly...ie. cut a 500mmx500mm square and measure to see if it is 500mm. It is possible that your steps/resolution is out on the cutter of the SP-540, or perhaps the softwares resolution is out.

Regards,

Ray

 

[threeputt]

or....could simply be the muffler bearings.

Hi, and welcome from the great Pacific Northwest.

Trying slowing your speed to 10, if that corrects the mis-cuts even a little bit, my guess is that the vinyl with laminate (especially gloss laminate) is slipping some under the pinch rollers.

 

[bhewlin]

yes the encoder strip--
after calibration it mis cuts on the feed, the first scan cuts correctly then progressively gets worse.

it mis cuts wether regular vinyl or laminate, and we pre feed.

Thanks for all the suggestions,
i will start with the rollers, then check the resolution, I really hope its not the muffler berrings.

 

[threeputt]

One other thing that occured to me is this. Are you being certain to do a Environmental Match prior to cutting? Do this every time you cut a job!!!!

If the material has been out of the machine, allowed to dry, laminated and then fed back into the machine, temperature and other conditions in your shop could have changed. Do the Evironmental Match.

 

[rushworks graphics]

hey threeput......whats an enviromental match? hows that work? had our vp540i since summer and have never heard of that.

 

[ova]

Not sure about your machine, but on our sp300v, all you do is get in the menu. Scroll until you get to Enviromental Match and hit enter. This is supposed to calibrate the printer to the ambient room temp etc.

I do this also, but sometimes wonder about this function.

Dave

 

[bhewlin]

yup the environmental match has never had any effect when troubleshooting problems, btw still having problems. nothing works.
is there a better brand than roland? anyone want to recomend a printer/plotter that works!

 

[JRSdecals]

Rushworks, on your machine it performs an enviornmental match everytime it sets up or reads the media width. On the older machines if you wanted it done you had to go into the menu and perform the ENV MATCH from there.

bhewlin - might check the linkage from the lever that lowers or engages the pinch roller bar. Seen this once where something was loose there and the machine could not put the correct amount of pressure down to hold the media properly, causing it to slip as it was feeding back and fouth while performing cutting.

 

[Trimline20]

bhewlin,

Are you setting the prints to be centered aligned on the media? If so, try printing/cutting on the right (head park) side edge close to the right pinch roller.

This advice raised some controversy yesterday on another thread but I've experienced cut alignment problems when printing center aligned and no issues when right aligned. When I discussed this issue with my Roland servicing dealer, they confirmed that print/cut jobs should always be right aligned.

Mark

 

[darmaduke]

Hello, The Roland SP-540v is cutting the first row of decals dead on, the second row the cut is offset by 1/4 of an inch, the third row 1/2 inch and so on.

ive been getting by by only printing one row at a time but to cut a decal more than 4 ft is impossible

Ive replaced the sensor and the strip 6 months ago - ive cleaned the sensor strip, tightend the guide wire. ran the calibration multiple times, the result is always the same as above.

Please Help!

ok.. heres the deal...:signs101:

Roland is completley F****D when is comes to registration marks. We had a huge problem with this a few months ago, (1500 decals ) so much so I specifically went to the SGIA show in Vegas to find a roland rep and ask him WTF...wanted to kill someone..seriously i was not happy....

So it turns out after talking to 4 guys who tried to tell me that it was calibration/software/corupt file/allignment of mars to venus or even static in our shop etc.... all my fault of course.. eventually I found a tech guy that knew what he was talking about.

HEREs THE DEAL....

Roland does not put registration marks relitive to to the graphic, nor is it relative to the size or location of the media, it is some combination of both. as determioned by some software.. so if you print something, then let it off gas, a day later try and cut it, and the pinch rollers have been moved,...your Fucked. there is a big problem because the printer needs the pinch rolles in exactly the same spot, and the media in the same spot as well. If you have centered the ark work in versa works it will cause it to get confused and either not find the crop marks.. or the first line will be ok, but by the end it will be off by 1/2" or more...this is all because of the way is puts allignment marks on the media,

basically if your doing a print cut, make sure the location of the pinch rollers is always the same, put a mark on the media before you start. Make sure you have told versa works to get the size of the media before you rip it, and make sure that size has not changed when you cut it. AND DO NOT CENTER IT ON THE MEDIA...

Example...

day 1 printed and ripped at 52.4 inches wide.
day 2 off gas and laminated
day 3 try try cut but rollers are now a 51.8 inches... it wont work properly.

keep everything exactly the same and no centering,,,, you should be ok 90% of the time.. the other 10% .. who knows wtf the printer does when it goes over the crop mark 5 time and still cant find it. frigging crop marks...lol

ALSO dont print multiply coppies over several days using the same versa file because the rollers will move just a bit each time, and that will cause a huge problem. because it need thing exactly the way the first time it rip to stay the same. everything, location of the media, location of the edge of the media realitive to the rollers, and width of the rollers. don't change anything...

funny point.. we printed 50 sheet over 5 days with the same file, the exact same job in versa works..after laminating 10 sheets cut ok.. the rest we had to cut out the crop marks because they were in the wrong spot as compaired to the first sheet printed. we move them about 1/8 in various directions to get it to cut properly.. you could tell the crop marks had moved because they were differnt from the first set we did, this was because the rollers had moved from the first print done 5 days before..( printed at different times over 5 days so each time the rollers were a bit different)


good luck..

 

[Colin]

From my limited experience so far with my SP540i, it seems that it is important to have most (or all) of the pinch rollers in place with 54" media, and not just the end two. If you have just the end two in, then the media can possibly move around a bit, especially when the cutter is in the centre area, and especially due to the fact that you're using more down force pressure to cut through the lam and vinyl.

Think of the physics of it: You have a considerable span of 54" wide piece of wobbly vinyl, and two miniscule points of contact on the edges trying to hold it in place while a drag knife is coming down with 150 grams of pressure while the media is being moved fore & aft! One should expect it to move around and have contour cuts be off without the assistance of the mid-section pinch rollers.

 

[SE SignSupply]

ok.. heres the deal...:signs101:

Roland is completley F****D when is comes to registration marks. We had a huge problem with this a few months ago, (1500 decals ) so much so I specifically went to the SGIA show in Vegas to find a roland rep and ask him WTF...wanted to kill someone..seriously i was not happy....

So it turns out after talking to 4 guys who tried to tell me that it was calibration/software/corupt file/allignment of mars to venus or even static in our shop etc.... all my fault of course.. eventually I found a tech guy that knew what he was talking about.

HEREs THE DEAL....

Roland does not put registration marks relitive to to the graphic, nor is it relative to the size or location of the media, it is some combination of both. as determioned by some software.. so if you print something, then let it off gas, a day later try and cut it, and the pinch rollers have been moved,...your Fucked. there is a big problem because the printer needs the pinch rolles in exactly the same spot, and the media in the same spot as well. If you have centered the ark work in versa works it will cause it to get confused and either not find the crop marks.. or the first line will be ok, but by the end it will be off by 1/2" or more...this is all because of the way is puts allignment marks on the media,

basically if your doing a print cut, make sure the location of the pinch rollers is always the same, put a mark on the media before you start. Make sure you have told versa works to get the size of the media before you rip it, and make sure that size has not changed when you cut it. AND DO NOT CENTER IT ON THE MEDIA...

Example...

day 1 printed and ripped at 52.4 inches wide.
day 2 off gas and laminated
day 3 try try cut but rollers are now a 51.8 inches... it wont work properly.

keep everything exactly the same and no centering,,,, you should be ok 90% of the time.. the other 10% .. who knows wtf the printer does when it goes over the crop mark 5 time and still cant find it. frigging crop marks...lol

ALSO dont print multiply coppies over several days using the same versa file because the rollers will move just a bit each time, and that will cause a huge problem. because it need thing exactly the way the first time it rip to stay the same. everything, location of the media, location of the edge of the media realitive to the rollers, and width of the rollers. don't change anything...

funny point.. we printed 50 sheet over 5 days with the same file, the exact same job in versa works..after laminating 10 sheets cut ok.. the rest we had to cut out the crop marks because they were in the wrong spot as compaired to the first sheet printed. we move them about 1/8 in various directions to get it to cut properly.. you could tell the crop marks had moved because they were differnt from the first set we did, this was because the rollers had moved from the first print done 5 days before..( printed at different times over 5 days so each time the rollers were a bit different)


good luck..

I think you might benefit from training on print/cut workflow. :Welcome:

 

[Cre8tive Advertising]

I have the same machine and have never had a problem with printing, then letting stuff sit and moving the rollers around then going back and cutting... Not sure why a tech told darmaduke all that... I do know that the roland print marks will register a print when placed within .5" of it's original path...

As to the problem at hand... Is it your media that is moving to cause the row of cuts to be off? One way of knowing is to place the media and clamp down. Then stick a piece of tape on the print platen along the edge of your vinyl... If it is moving side to side as you cut you will be able to see it referenced on the edge of the tape.

 

[bmendes]

bhewlin,
Using the centre on material option can give your issues if you move the Left or Right pinch wheels, if you have used the centre on media option and moved the position of the pinch wheels before cutting make sure you don't get the media width before you send the cut file.

The Left and Right pinch wheels are conical and steer the material they must always be on the media, the center wheels are flat, do you always lift the media clamp leaver when you have finished printing, if not the springs can become soft and not apply enough clamp down force to hold the media correctly - you need to have a min of 4 pinch wheels on the media for acurate cutting.

I think your problem will be the pinch wheel assembly itself, possibly the weakened springs but most likely you will find a small crack in the assemble. It will be very hard to see. Look at where the pinch wheel assembly goes over the square shaped bar at the back of the printer, the bar that you put the center pinch assembles on and off when you remove them. The crack will be in the Left or Right hand side assembly possibly both, it will be in the corner of the U shaped section that that sits over the square bar and will be only visable when you clamp the leaver down (you will need a torch), the crack should sligtly open when clamped down.

hope this helps
Regards
Brett