SUMMA S2 T75 PROBLEM, notches in circle letters, SEE PIC!

[depps74]

My brand new SUMMA S2 T75 tangential cutter is not cutting circles properly. It leaves a notch on the sides of these letters. Basically o's and dots on i's or any letter with a curve. I ran 20 yards or so of 1" Futura font through on multiple settings, relieved the head, switched out the head, tried the drag knife setting, multiple knife, pressures, speeds, and tested it on MacSign, Winplot and Flexi. Nothing worked. Summa claims that their plotters can not cut Oracal 631 because it "shifts" during cutting. This was a $6000 purchase and I find it hard to believe that its the material and not the machine being that my little SignWarehouse QE60+ can cut Oracal like a champ. When I called Oracal they laughed and said that was a real line of bull that Summa was feeding me. Any help or feedback on this would be very helpful and appreciated.

BTW its brand new so I know it can't be the cutting strip or blade holder. We switched out the blade holder and the cutting strip has no noticeable grooves

 

[AF]

Slow down the cutting speed for starters. If the material tends to slip under the pinch roller then going slower reduces the g forces and can help the problem.

Switch materials to see if the 631 is the culprit. 651 cuts well on our S2T.

Use all the pinch rollers. Make sure the far left and far right pinch roller are on the material.

The font may be to blame. Draw some circles in AI and se how those cut. Try a different font as well.

The only time I recall having a similar issue was when the artwork had a poorly designed non-professional font. Switching to a proper vector font fixed it for me.

 

[depps74]

Thanks so much for your reply AF! 've slowed it down to 4 inches per second. I use both rollers (only 2 provided) I can't use other materials, because all my clients need a matte finish, but I did run 651 through it as well and it still happening. Oracal 631 is the only brand that sells a matte finish vinyl though so I am kind of stuck. Also this never happened on my QE60+ which is about 1/10 the price of the SUMMA. The font thing I can't adjust either as its my biggest clients' preferred font. I tried drawing circles too hundreds of rows at different sizes and it still happens. Isn't Futura a proper vector font?

 

[Jburns]

Have you tried cutting a circle using your circle tool, and cutting that?
This would help identify if it's a font of machine issue

 

[depps74]

What is the circle tool? If you mean a vector circle designed in illustrator, I did try that and it still happens. I can't see any notches in the vector files. Even when close up.


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[Bly]

Not sure but I think you can increase the roller pressure on the S2s.

 

[FrankW]

You should do a knife calibration. You will find an instruction in the full manual on the CD or online at the summa website.

And be shure that the knife depth is correct: the knife tip should not be much lower than the estimated thickness of the media. A knife which is set too low can make problems with the movement of the media.

 

[letterman7]

I'm going to second the knife calibration. I've got a T750 that's over 15 years old and I just replaced the head last year as it was starting to do what you are looking at. It's remotely possible that the head wasn't set correctly at the factory or it got moved/damaged in shipment. Call Summa - their tech department is great. Adjusting the head is pretty easy, but you need a starting point.

 

[AF]

Please do the knife calibration! Also make sure the knife is not in the pounce hole. Double check that you have the correct blade guide installed in the knife holder. You should definitely try different material to eliminate the media as the cause. The pinch rollers have to be clicked-in over the bottom rollers (for the end pinch rollers, middle rollers can be raised). Plotter language at the machine and the computer must match. Are you using Winplot to send the design to the plotter?

 

[methogod]

can you post a photo, also i know on my plotter in flexi overcut solves this...

 

[letterman7]

Apparently depps is blasting this unit on other threads. If you're that unhappy with the plotter, I'll gladly trade you my T750 for yours...

 

[SlikGRFX]

We just had our S Class 2 T140 installed and the installers commented on being careful not to lean on the top of the cutter when loading vinyl. They said that it can cause alignment problems etc. It's probably not as bad on the narrower machines, but it's probably worth checking everything is level and square. They also said they are sensitive to being transported and need to be moved carefully.

I would remove the cutter from the stand then take apart and rebuild the stand, making sure you are working on a completely level surface. Bolt everything up tight then check it is square before attaching the cutter.

 

[depps74]

I did all the suggestions above including: Swapped the plotter head, re-leveled the head, swapped the blade, ran it on drag, ran it on tangential, calibrated the knife, tested the depth on many different levels, tested different materials, ran it through 3 different computers and 2 different softwares. I would never recommend SUMMA to anyone because in the end I have now lost a lot of money in material and time dealing with this lemon. I've been doing the same font, with the same material for 10 years on a cheap QE 60+ with no problems whatsoever. I've been cutting vinyl for 20. I know my plotters and I can verify the SUMMA I got was defective. letterman7 you can prob buy the one I returned cause they restock them. Have fun when it spits out illegible wonky letters and you have 20 jobs backed up cause their customer service can't determine what is wrong.

 

[striper14]

Interesting, the straight lines in the "w" look good with sharp corners yet the curves on other letters look like something my old Creation would cut. I've had a D75 for 4 years & its a superb reliable accurate cutter so i'm disappointed for you that this experience sours you on the Summa brand. Though for $6k i would have thought they'd install it & make sure its working fine.
What did you replace it with ?

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Just out of curiosity, did you ever check to see if optimize curves was turned off?

 

[AF]

It would be helpful if you could upload the file that cut incorrectly so others can test it out and try to replicate the problem. Hardware issues can happen with even the best equipment, but maybe something else is to blame.

 

[letterman7]

It doesn't matter anymore, he returned the machine.

 

[jessica pappalardo]

I did all the suggestions above including: Swapped the plotter head, re-leveled the head, swapped the blade, ran it on drag, ran it on tangential, calibrated the knife, tested the depth on many different levels, tested different materials, ran it through 3 different computers and 2 different softwares. I would never recommend SUMMA to anyone because in the end I have now lost a lot of money in material and time dealing with this lemon. I've been doing the same font, with the same material for 10 years on a cheap QE 60+ with no problems whatsoever. I've been cutting vinyl for 20. I know my plotters and I can verify the SUMMA I got was defective. letterman7 you can prob buy the one I returned cause they restock them. Have fun when it spits out illegible wonky letters and you have 20 jobs backed up cause their customer service can't determine what is wrong.

Please contact me at 909-418-1324, I am gathering a list of complaints on Summas service and product as they sold me a 20k DAMAGED Printer + all materials totaling over 25K

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

I know this doesn't matter for the OP but we just ran in to this issue after upgrading the firmware in our machine.

It is a error in their sorting vectors, it has to be turned off to fix this issue. If it's set to directional or start point it always starts and stops in a different spot on curves.

So if your firmware is 9981.19 or higher and are getting this start with the sorting vectors setting.