Need Help Roland SP540V Vertical Banding?

[Myster Enigma]

Hello everyone, I have recently purchased a used Roland SP540V. This is the first print and cut printer that I have used coming from a cheap chinese vinyl cutter/plotter.

I haven't yet manually cleaned the printheads and printer itself yet but have ran a few powerful clean tests. The nozzle check showed some gaps but overall the stickers that I have printed looks acceptable. At this moment in time I am still in the early stages of practising as the seller has given me quite a bit of sticker vinyl which I will use to practice with.

So I decided to print out some personal stickers for myself and used a 1320mm roll. Whilst printing at the 1000mm mark I get this strange vertical band as you can see from the photo I attached. This happens in the same spot because I test printed another image. I find it strange that this was only happening at a certain point of the vinyl roll.

Can anyone explain this problem. Thank you

 

[strypguy]

Try cleaning the encoder strip. You may need to replace it if it's bad. John

 

[Myster Enigma]

Try cleaning the encoder strip. You may need to replace it if it's bad. John

Thank you John I will give this a go tomorrow May I ask why you think it's the encoder strip and why it would cause that problem?

Also I wanted to add that the printer only came with 2 pinch rollers so I have to use one on each side and nothing to keep the middle pressured into place. When I print a onto a large 1000mm roll vinyl the print looks very fuzzy and grainy. And does only using 2 pinch rollers tend to cause issues with accurate contour cutting? Even when I am using a smaller 500mm roll the contour cut does not accurately cut where the marching ants show up on Versaworks. It is close but too much to one side so I have a slight edge of the design cut off.

Thank you

 

[hand851]

I agree encoder.

 

[strypguy]

If you do a search you will see a bad or dirty encoder strip will cause all kinds of problems and I've experienced a lot of them. A new encoder strip fixed if for me but you may get lucky if it's just dirty. Youtube will have videos of the cleaning and/or replacing process. John

 

[Myster Enigma]

If you do a search you will see a bad or dirty encoder strip will cause all kinds of problems and I've experienced a lot of them. A new encoder strip fixed if for me but you may get lucky if it's just dirty. Youtube will have videos of the cleaning and/or replacing process. John

I see, I had no idea that the encoder strip can cause so many problems as my ink jet printers never had any issues. I suppose there's a lot more maintenance and moving parts for a print and cut machine. In regards to the pinch rollers do you think I need to buy and add more? Right now I am using this for print and cut vinyl stickers and will be doing t shirt heat transfers soon. Thanks

 

[strypguy]

I rarely use more then two pinch rollers. John

 

[Myster Enigma]

Hi John, I have just cleaned the encoder strip and now the prints are perfect No more fuzziness and the lines are completely gone. I think the contour cutting is also a lot more accurate now too!! However when I'm print and cutting stickers out at a roll that is 1300mm the contour cut seems to be off by a few millimetres. Using 2 pinch rollers on 500mm roll contour cuts perfectly. As you rarely use more than two pinch rollers and haven't had any problems I'm now wondering what could be the cause of this.

 

[strypguy]

I don't do a lot of contour cutting with my 540. It's hit and miss and I find that the accuracy of the cuts sometimes depends on the type of material I'm using and the size of the design. The larger the design the better the cut for me anyway. I think the blade can get held up in thicker material and throws off the rest of the cuts. A good sharp blade that is adjusted correctly is a must. There are ways to adjust the print cut feature in the settings. A third pinch roller may help hold the material in place as well.

 

[Myster Enigma]

I don't do a lot of contour cutting with my 540. It's hit and miss and I find that the accuracy of the cuts sometimes depends on the type of material I'm using and the size of the design. The larger the design the better the cut for me anyway. I think the blade can get held up in thicker material and throws off the rest of the cuts. A good sharp blade that is adjusted correctly is a must. There are ways to adjust the print cut feature in the settings. A third pinch roller may help hold the material in place as well.

Thanks for the reply John. The vinyl which I'm using is quite thin and the blades seem okay. I do believe that a third pinch roller will sort this out because it seems to be doing an excellent job contour cutting on smaller rolls.

My last question is to do with posters. I have another roll that the seller gave me to practice with. If I wanted a borderless rectangular poster lets say 420mm wide and 300mm height will I need to hand cut/paper trim this manually or is there an easier way? Also if I were to do a huge poster around 1.3 meters wide and lets say 2 meters tall will I need one of those large format paper trimmers.

Thank again