Roland Versacam CAD cutting decals

[Chuck Taylor]

We have a 54" Roland Verscam that is about 12 years old. Our problem is when we print, lam and then CAD cut decals, they tend to skew a lot. We are not sure if it's a heat issue from the dryer that may be causing the material to stretch and then shrink (we tried turning the heat down, turning the heat right off, etc. etc.) but the cutting tends to walk on us. Anyone else have this issue, or recommend another way of achieving a more accurate cut? We are printing onto Hexis gloss and laminating with an Arlon gloss film (both calendared). Thank you in advance for your suggestions - we have had to redo this order twice and are getting nowhere fast

 

[weyandsign]

Try cleaning the pinch rollers with rubbing alcohol. And make sure the grit rollers are clean.

 

[Chuck Taylor]

Try cleaning the pinch rollers with rubbing alcohol. And make sure the grit rollers are clean.

Thank you for your suggestion... unfortunately, that did not fix it. Appreciate your message though.

 

[vondegroot]

Inspect the pinch roller frames for cracks... It can happen.

Also, I'm assuming you've don't the crop cut alignments?

How long is the print? I only do a yard at a time of grouped decals.

 

[victor bogdanov]

My 11 year old Roland VS series doesn't cut great anymore either, I'm guessing due to the age. But I have separate cutters so haven't tried to fix or figure out the cause

 

[damonCA21]

I agree, it is probably time to replace the complete pinch roller assemblies. The frames can crack, but also the springs can weaken over time leading to a loss of grip.

There are normally used ones for sale on Ebay. Avoid the cheap chinese copies as the quality is nowhere near as good as the original Roland ones!

 

[Chuck Taylor]

Thank you everyone - I will have to check out the pinch roller frame/assembly, hopefully that's all it is, as I've recently dropped over 4 grand into this piece to have the print head replaced and it prints beautifully, but this recent cutting issues has really screwed our production up.

On another note, I was running some QEP today (which is only about 30" wide) and the temperature on the right side of that metal piece that the material feeds out onto feels much hotter than the left side, so I'm not wondering if possibly the material may be stretching more on one side than the other. Although I have tried printing these pieces without heat, and they still gave me issues. The cutting is acceptable when it's just a print and cut, but when I Print, Lam and Cut is where I'm having the biggest issues, and of course, I have several projects like this that are due at the beginning of next week F.M.L... it's always something, isn't it!