Roland SP540V cutting problems

[charlie62]

My Roland is driving me nuts. I'm printing stamp sized stickers in sheets of about 255 x 310 mm with one repeat of each job. Cutting is just repeated horizontal and vertical lines. Between jobs (or repeats), there should be a 10mm gap. Onte Right, there is about 2 mm while on the left there is 11,5 mm. This result in the stickers being cut off 8mm into the image on the left of the machine while on the righ, it is cut 1,5 mm above the image. The vertical cutting lines are also of by about 1,5 mm (which is not normal for this job - I've printed thousands of them).

But wait for it: with the next job, the horizontal cutting lines are (almost) correct while the vertical cutting lines are off by about 5mm, resulting in the image being cut off in the other direction.

I have checked a) the pinch rollers, b) the grit rolles, c) the media clamp, d) environment match, e) the Test Pattern was perfect and f) the blade is inserted correctly.
In service mode I also tested the Calibration (100%); same when I tested Feeding Mode and Prnt/Cut position adjusment.

The other odd thing is that I will struggle my backside off and just the very next job prints and cuts perfectly without having changed a single setting.

Any ideas on what may be wrong please?

 

[rjssigns]

You may want to try a search and look at my posts as I have the exact same machine.

Provided everything else is perfect like new outer wheels installed and in the correct orientation etc... Plus ALL calibrations that can be done through the service menu have been done.

You may want to check nip pressure. Or how hard the pinch rollers actually pinch. You machine like mine is old and that adjustment is probably out. Not so much from the mechanical end of things, but from sliding the plastic pinch wheel holders back and forth over the metal track. That tends to wear things out over time.

Right now I have my down pressure maxed out. Next project is to shim the roller bodies to get them back to OEM clearance. I'm too cheap to pay almost $100 a piece to replace them. Especially when stainless shims are less than a buck a piece and one will do all four bodies.

 

[DRamm76]

You should consider the "linear cutting distance" here. Linear Cutting Distance is the total length of cutting information sent in a complete file. Imagine taking all that cutline info and making it a straight line. The more cutting distance the more "tolerance" for cut lines being "off". Which is why you can send a diff job with no change.

Switch the CustomRoll to Custom Cut and instead of running a long print and cut job with a lot of cutting detail, reduce the page length. When switching to Custom Cut, you'll notice the Length of the sheet is able to be changed.

So say you have an SP-300i, and you have 200 5" x 5" decals You can get roughly 5 across. Instead of sending one massive long print and bring it all the way back to cut. Break it up into 30" x 16" pages using Custom Cut. This will reduce the level of tolerance in the Linear Cutting Distance and the less chance the cutline is off.

Not to mention, if you have a 14 ft length of print and cut, we all know if there's going to be an issue it's going to be after you print all that vinyl. With Custom Cut, you can send small batches to print, cut then it sends another batch. You only need to hit print once.

Look into this. It's a HUGE time saver, and media if something goes wrong

 

[phototec]

You should consider the "linear cutting distance" here. Linear Cutting Distance is the total length of cutting information sent in a complete file. Imagine taking all that cutline info and making it a straight line. The more cutting distance the more "tolerance" for cut lines being "off". Which is why you can send a diff job with no change.

Switch the CustomRoll to Custom Cut and instead of running a long print and cut job with a lot of cutting detail, reduce the page length. When switching to Custom Cut, you'll notice the Length of the sheet is able to be changed.

So say you have an SP-300i, and you have 200 5" x 5" decals You can get roughly 5 across. Instead of sending one massive long print and bring it all the way back to cut. Break it up into 30" x 16" pages using Custom Cut. This will reduce the level of tolerance in the Linear Cutting Distance and the less chance the cutline is off.

Not to mention, if you have a 14 ft length of print and cut, we all know if there's going to be an issue it's going to be after you print all that vinyl. With Custom Cut, you can send small batches to print, cut then it sends another batch. You only need to hit print once.

Look into this. It's a HUGE time saver, and media if something goes wrong

Thanks so much for taking you time to explain this, lots of us can benefit from this....