Vertical Bands SP-540V

[nucleus]

I took the back plate off and it was very clean, but I cleaned in and around the fans anyway. The holes on top were free of any debris.

I loaded some vinyl, fed it out about 2 ft. and fed it back and the wrinkles we're still there.

I did change the vacuum power from "Auto" to 100% and for some reason it seemed stronger, but not strong enough to handle the wrinkles. The wrinkles seemed to be on one side or the other of each roller. When the fan turns on it pulls down the vinyl to get rid of all but 2 or 3 of them.
My gut is saying the fans aren't strong enough to pull the vinyl flat, but the flip side is I don't think they were designed to work any harder then they are.
With the help of my Signs101 brother/sisters I believe I'm a lot closer to solving this, for that I thank you all.

Keep any ideas coming. I can't feel 100% reliable until I figure this out.
Thank you.

Wow I can't believe it didn't work.

Cause mine looked clean too and there was no debris in the holes either.

I hope you used a really strong air compressor cause it can't be like a can of air.

The 2 fans have a little opening facing the back it's only about 2.5 inches wide by about a 1 inch high you have to blow the air directly in there for about 1 min ea..

At first when i started there wasn't to much dust coming out, but then I noticed if I put the compressor nozzle to the left side of that little opening the fan started to spin the other way and the the dust really started to kick up.

Basically if your compressor is not strong enough to make your fan spin super fast the compressor is not going to blow out the dust, cause you have to remember that those fans are pulling in dust as well as little ink particles so they are going to stick in there really good.

But if you did what I mentioned and that didn't work I'm sorry for getting your hopes.

God Bless,

 

[nucleus]

I took the back plate off and it was very clean, but I cleaned in and around the fans anyway. The holes on top were free of any debris.

I loaded some vinyl, fed it out about 2 ft. and fed it back and the wrinkles we're still there.

I did change the vacuum power from "Auto" to 100% and for some reason it seemed stronger, but not strong enough to handle the wrinkles. The wrinkles seemed to be on one side or the other of each roller. When the fan turns on it pulls down the vinyl to get rid of all but 2 or 3 of them.
My gut is saying the fans aren't strong enough to pull the vinyl flat, but the flip side is I don't think they were designed to work any harder then they are.
With the help of my Signs101 brother/sisters I believe I'm a lot closer to solving this, for that I thank you all.

Keep any ideas coming. I can't feel 100% reliable until I figure this out.
Thank you.

Sorry one more thing, I noticed when I was having the same problem I used only the 2 rollers at the ends none in the middle, this worked really good for a while until the fans got to weak.

 

[Alpha Star]

I can turn my vacuum right off on any one of my Rolands, and it doesn't cause wrinkles. Where did you get your pinch rollers from? It is possible for new ones to fail. They have bearings that can become dislodged. I'd be taking those off and looking at them.

 

[bpatrick3]

Not sure if you know this but the outside pinch rollers need to be installed a certain way. The outside rollers are actually slightly tapered. The taper causes the material being pulled to also be stretched outward, if one or both were installed backward, not only will you NOT get the outward pulling motion but you will push the material inward causing wrinkles. If you take just the roller and lay it on a table and roll it on the table you will see that it will not roll straight, it will go left or right. If it does roll sraight then you have installed inner rollers on the outside.

 

[Alpha Star]

I knew this, but to this day I can't understand how that functions. How does a tapered roller accomplish outward pull?

 

[splizaat]

I knew this, but to this day I can't understand how that functions. How does a tapered roller accomplish outward pull?

Yes...if you roll the vinyl a couple feet through the machien and back, sometimes it'll pull the wrinkle out (because of the taper)

 

[Alpha Star]

No, it does that on my machines too, and I do not install tapered rollers. I only use inner ones, and my wrinkles also go away when you feed back and forth.

 

[Gino]

I skimmed over most of this, but have you taken up slack off the roll itself ??

When those pinchers have to pull on a new or heavy roll, you can get that buckling effect. Try rolling some extra vinyl off and see if the puckers go away.

 

[nucleus]

I skimmed over most of this, but have you taken up slack off the roll itself ??

When those pinchers have to pull on a new or heavy roll, you can get that buckling effect. Try rolling some extra vinyl off and see if the puckers go away.

Yes I agree.

 

[CRoWYoTE]

I skimmed over most of this, but have you taken up slack off the roll itself ??

When those pinchers have to pull on a new or heavy roll, you can get that buckling effect. Try rolling some extra vinyl off and see if the puckers go away.

Rolling out extra material is common practice for me. I started out only using the outer rollers only (Which were changed out by a Roland Tech and visually confirmed by the colored edges) until the wrinkles began then I loaded all of them in, which didn't work.

I've tried 3M, Oracal and Avery.

I DID use canned air Nucleus, but I will try my Air compressor tomorrow.

The only consistent thing is it doesn't happen when beginning a new roll of material. All 4 rolls I've tried have had less than 20 yds. on them.

I'll give it a "Once Over" with the air compressor and see if that helps.
Thanks again for all your help and suggestions.

 

[nucleus]

Rolling out extra material is common practice for me. I started out only using the outer rollers only (Which were changed out by a Roland Tech and visually confirmed by the colored edges) until the wrinkles began then I loaded all of them in, which didn't work.

I've tried 3M, Oracal and Avery.

I DID use canned air Nucleus, but I will try my Air compressor tomorrow.

The only consistent thing is it doesn't happen when beginning a new roll of material. All 4 rolls I've tried have had less than 20 yds. on them.

I'll give it a "Once Over" with the air compressor and see if that helps.
Thanks again for all your help and suggestions.

No Problem.

Man CRoWYoTE this sucks I hope you find a solution soon, cause I know how it feels when your machine isn't giving 100% and you are losing money.

Just out of curiosity which software are you using, cause when I switch back from Flexi to Versaworks sometimes I forget to check the "printer control" menu and make sure that in the sub menu "Other controls" I have it set with custom controls and vacuum set at strong cause even if you have the machine set at 100% vacuum, if you don't have that set in Versaworks it goes back to the weaker "normal" setting when the print starts.

I know it looks like I'm fixated on the vacuum, but its only because I had the exact same problem. I wish I could find the photos.

I really hope you find a solution soon.

 

[CRoWYoTE]

OK,
I think I got this figured out.
I have an exhaust fan in my print room. I shut it off and listened for the fans to kick on (After sending the print) and they never did. I changed profiles and they kicked right on. I determined that some of the profiles I was using was kicking off the vacuums as soon as the print began. Between the Profiles, Rip and panel controls the Vacuum setting got lost. I switched everything to Panel Controls and now it's much easier to determine the proper settings. So far that has seemed to remedy the problem. Keeping fingers crossed.
I can't thank you guys enough for the suggestions.

:U Rock:

 

[splizaat]

Right on....Run the printer on Vacuum: Auto - and it should work for just about anything. Then set your rip to use printer settings (not media settings).

 

[nucleus]

OK,
I think I got this figured out.
I have an exhaust fan in my print room. I shut it off and listened for the fans to kick on (After sending the print) and they never did. I changed profiles and they kicked right on. I determined that some of the profiles I was using was kicking off the vacuums as soon as the print began. Between the Profiles, Rip and panel controls the Vacuum setting got lost. I switched everything to Panel Controls and now it's much easier to determine the proper settings. So far that has seemed to remedy the problem. Keeping fingers crossed.
I can't thank you guys enough for the suggestions.

:U Rock:

Awwwwwwesome!

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

Wow...printing with no heat? I only turn off heat for contour cutting. I turn it down for some materials. As long as your vacuum is up and perhaps tension on back and front, should be no problem unless you're printing on low thread (denier) count vinyl banner material.
It's not your rollers. It's material tension and vacuum.