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Roland VP540 cutting issue/question

one13designs

New Member
I am having an issue with cutting thicker materials on my vp540. I previously had a sp300 and never had an issue but now with this machine I can't seem to get it to work. I am cutting dirt bike graphics on 4mil base and 12 mil lam. I have it set to double cut, have a new 60 degree blade and cutting strip. I set the cutting force very high at around 250 grams and slow the speed down to 10. The issue I am having is that when it does a contour cut of the shape parts of it will be cut out sometimes all the way through the backing paper even and then other parts on the same cutting path won't even make it through the lam. It kills me having to go back through with an xacto and finish the cuts. Is the blade possibly too deep? I have tried a variety of settings but can't seem to get it to work. I think the worst part is it work on the other machine no problems with much less pressure. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 

mpn

New Member
Watch your print and see if it's buckling when cutting. Is the back/front end of the sheet bouncing off the ground or printer frame?
 

one13designs

New Member
Watch your print and see if it's buckling when cutting. Is the back/front end of the sheet bouncing off the ground or printer frame?


I do notice that the print is almost lifting off the bed almost like waves in the material close to the blade because of the pressure I'm assuming. The lares print that I did today was not long enough to reach the ground in front or back and still had the cutting issues.
 

mpn

New Member
If its lifting like you say, maybe try reducing your pressure and adding a cut pass.

Another thought, is the print hitting the roll of material, assuming it's still in the printer?
 
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one13designs

New Member
If its lifting like you say, maybe try reducing your pressure and adding a cut pass.

Another thought, is the print hitting the roll of material, assuming it's still in the printer?

No I remove the roll of material when I go to cut. I am already double cutting but maybe if I reduce the pressure it will help. Like I said I'm going through the backing paper in some areas but not through the laminate in others. The "waves" in the material are right in front of the blade and move with the direction of the cutting head. So maybe less is more? Thanks for the response by the way.
 

one13designs

New Member
so after a few days, i have tried different cutting settings and blade depths. I reduced my blade depth and reduced my force down to 150 starting point. I loaded some media and a filing with multiple different shapes. then tried cutting it changing the settings each time. after the first cut which didnt make it through anywhere on the sheet i increased the blade depth but left the force, it cut through partially on some of the shapes, then i increased the depth again and left the force, after doing this it cut through the shapes in the center of the media, but not on the outside edges at all. I then upped the force and left the depth, It got a little better almost cutting the entire shape on the outside edges and dragging paper on the shapes in the center, so next I raised the force again but reduced my blade depth, which gave me my best results though still not perfect, i cut all the way through everything but the outside edges were hard to pull as they were not cut all the way through. All of these cuts were double cuts and my end grams of force is 215 right now. It didn't raise the media as it had in the past when my force was extremely high. I guess my problem now is Why does it cut all the way through the center perfectly but the edges of the media it has a hard time making it through and it is on both left and right side of the media. I have included a picture but obviously it is hard to see since it is just the white media but you can see the shapes that were removed and the ones that were not on the outside. I am getting really frustrated, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 

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one13designs

New Member
in the beginning I did, but it seems to cut better with the heaters on, making the material softer. But I will try again with them off. I will try anything at this point.
 

trik

New Member
Actually we had to turn the heat way up, where it was hot to the touch to get them to cut with a double cut set. Not at the office, so I am not sure the exact settings, but it was high and it worked. Which brand of vinyl and laminate?
 

one13designs

New Member
right now i am using general formulations base and laminate but the same thing happened while using substance base and lam and was actually a little worse due to substance being thicker. I have my heat setting close to all the way up, i believe it is at 112 print and 114 dryer. It is just weird to me that it cuts perfect in the center of the media but has the problems on the outside edges...the closer to the edge of the media the worse it is.
 

trik

New Member
Yeah substance is what we used as well. It took a while to figure the setting but we had it working. Heat settings sound about what we had ours at.
 

trik

New Member
Yes, I know it is a pain sometimes on smaller rolls, but we use them in every open spot on anything we print, and the small ends.
 

one13designs

New Member
you use them while printing too? you don't get the roller marks in your print? or do you just put them in when you cut? You also use the small feet on the ends?

Ill have to try this tomorrow and see if it helps
 

trik

New Member
We do not get roller marks when we print(maybe once in a great while), and we use the small feet on the ends. If you do get roller marks, put them in when you go to cut. good luck, hope it works for you.
 

GTSTech_1

New Member
Confirm that your offset is set to .5 when using a 60 deg blade, .25 when using a 45 deg blade (change it under advance setting under cutter controls). Also confirm that you have an EPS margin set to at least .01 (I usually set it to .05, change it under file format tab in VersaWorks).

My .02

GTSTech_1
 

Malkin

New Member
no just the end ones...possible problem? did you use all of them? and the short media feet clamps?

This.

I have the same machine and have run the same material successfully. You do really need to use all of the pinch rollers to help the material stay flat.
I use a new 60 deg. blade from Clean Cut, weight is typically around 270 to 300 since the knife dulls fast so I have to chase the weight, then start with a fresh blade after a while. This is with only a single pass cutting. We tried double/triple cutting but the accuracy would be a little off and it just didn't work.
 
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