VS540 Can't find all the crop marks

[Boss Cat]

I have a Roland VS-540 that has been excellent at cutting after laminating. Been struggling all day with it finding all the crop marks. On all of the prints, it will find the front two crop marks but when it looks for the third it has a brain fart. I've looked on as many threads as I could find on here. I've tried frosted tape thinking it may be the laminate but I've always used 3M 8519. Blew off the laser eye with air as well. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[2B]

has the lighting in the room changed?
once we put LED strip lighting under the cover flap, fixed A LOT of our issues
https://signs101.com/threads/70-inc...eds-installed-on-printer-for-under-17.122135/

is the media tracking straight? with it missing the 3rd registration sounds like it is feeding at an angle

 

[Boss Cat]

Thank you so much for your reply. The lighting in the room is the same. It's tracking correctly. I even loaded the print a little crooked to see if there was any result. I've tried shining a flashlight on the mark as it's looking for it but I don't have LED's mounted on the printer. When it gets to the third crop mark it seems to make larger and larger passes looking for the mark, but then says crop mark not found.

 

[BUCKY]

Measure the length between the marks front to rear and see if they are the same. We have had it where
they are not for some reason.

 

[Boss Cat]

Thank you for the reply. Yes sir, the marks are right on.

 

[john-niche]

I have a Roland xc540. I use Onyx Cut-Server where I print on one machine and cut on another. I have the same problem if I give my prints and my cut files different gaps between copies. I also have that problem if I print with crop marks or labels. Also depending on the material you are printing on and the laminate, you may be stretching it when using the laminator which can change the dimensions the cutter is looking for. Also make sure you are not accidentally assigning an offset.

 

[Boss Cat]

I have just bought a new laminator and had it about a month. I have been able to run a few jobs through with the new laminator on the Roland and was successful with the cutting. But the last three jobs have failed. I just found an older print that I had laminated with Frog Juice and the Roland found those marks and cut perfectly. I have never used a laminator before. It is a Chinese brand I bought off ebay 67" FMJ1700 probably from Signs in China. Could I be laminating incorrectly? Having to teach myself, not much information about the processes in the manual and really no one locally to help. I'm not using any heat while laminating, and not familiar with the tension settings. I'm using 3M IJ175Cv3 and 3M8519 laminate.

 

[Mascitti Bro]

I have just bought a new laminator and had it about a month. I have been able to run a few jobs through with the new laminator on the Roland and was successful with the cutting. But the last three jobs have failed. I just found an older print that I had laminated with Frog Juice and the Roland found those marks and cut perfectly. I have never used a laminator before. It is a Chinese brand I bought off ebay 67" FMJ1700 probably from Signs in China. Could I be laminating incorrectly? Having to teach myself, not much information about the processes in the manual and really no one locally to help. I'm not using any heat while laminating, and not familiar with the tension settings. I'm using 3M IJ175Cv3 and 3M8519 laminate.

I'll be following along, hoping for a found solution for you, as i'm having a similar problem with our brand new VG540, but for me it happens on the initial front two marks, not ever getting to the rear two. ( the strange thing is- it works sometimes! (about 1 in every 4-6 diff jobs is a success..(?) Per my Rep's advice, I've tried moving work farther away from edge, but "avoid the center on media" option (rep's words) and he asked to stop using media clips. I feel BOSS CAT'S pain, as i'm stumped too....

 

[Tatonka]

8519 is a Luster right? Could it be that the sheen of the laminate is throwing off the sensor looking for the marks?

One thing you could do is take black material and plot out the same shape and size as the crop marks, then place them over the top of the printed crop marks after you laminate. I occasionally have to do that for my Summa with some texture materials.

 

[Boss Cat]

Hey guys. I really appreciate all the suggestions and interest! 8519 is a luster. I have tried putting a frosted tape over the marks with no success. Called a company I haven't used before (Solvent Inkjet) cause they had free tech support. He seemed pretty sure it's a tool trailing cable. Got it on order and will post if it helps. I thought about cutting black dots outta vinyl and I'll give that a shot as well.

 

[Boss Cat]

Tried the cut dots and had pretty good success! Don't wanna do that every time but it did work. Thanks Marshal!!! Will post with the cable results.

 

[CSOCSO]

Hey Everyone couple things to try:

1) CHECK YOUR PINCHROLLERS!!!! the outside ones tend to come loose. Lift the lever and just push the rubber wheel to the side to see if the glue released from the metal roller. If that's the case get new ones. Fairly easy to change but make sure you get the correct pinch roller. the outside ones shape is tapered. the removable pinch rollers are "squared".

2) try to torch the marks lightly. I had cloudy marks in the lam before which goes away from some heat. Maybe try to apply more heat if you have luster lam. Just watch out not to heat it too much or the vinyl will burn and or bubble up from the liner.

3) make sure when you print the file the right pinch roller is not close to the edge. Unless you are printing something as big as the media try to place your right roller a good inch in to the media. The reason you need this if the media skews and the mark goes behind under your pinch roller or passed the pinch roller the sensor will not see it. What I mean if the mark is outside the wheel the sensor will not go any further to look for it. So if you had your pinch roller an inch into the media now you could move it to the right towards the edge of the paper and have more chance for the sensor tee see it and read it.

 

[FrankW]

Could be the flat cable between the tool carriage and the mainboard. Could be that the sensor is dirty or needs adjustment.

 

[Mascitti Bro]

Update- I had great success with the cut registration marks laid over the existing laminated marks. (First time since we got this new equipment back in late feb. that I've been able to cut numerous jobs in a row!) My guess this means there's an adjustment needed on the sensitivity of the reader??

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Crop mark sensor sensitivity can be adjusted in service mode. Manuals are floating around here somewhere.

 

[iPrintStuff]

I have a mimaki but it sounds like the problems I encountered years ago sound similar. There’s 3/4 things I need to do to make sure it cuts ok.

1, as others have stated, make sure the media is inside the two pinch rollers on the edge of the media. (As per my mimaki, it has 1-6 so the media needs to be between 1 and 6)

2, whenever my sensor found the bottom two marks then sortve hovered over the third and failed, I found that it was because the media was a bit too short on the top edge and the media sensor was seeing a little bit light and thinking the sheet wasn’t long enough to cut - sorted that by putting a little bit masking tape over that sensor before I start cutting jobs.

3, we used to get the “cut data is outside the print width” a lot when we tried to cut. Basically the same problem as #1. We can get around that on the PC by changing the media width - my sheets are only 54” but I just tell it the sheet is 64” on the pc and then it runs no problem.

4, can you alter the registration marks in settings somewhere? I can extend the length of them and the thickness - this may help.

 

[MagnumGraf-X]

I had the same problem with my new VG 540, just had the tech in the other day, the voltage to the sensor dropped a few points, he tuned it back up and worked much better...

 

[Mascitti Bro]

Great insight, leaving me optimistic it can be fixed. If yours was new like ours, can I assume your fix was covered under warranty??

 

[Patentagosse]

I had the same problem with my new VG 540, just had the tech in the other day, the voltage to the sensor dropped a few points, he tuned it back up and worked much better...

On my tech's recommandations, I did correct the voltage level. In Service Mode under Cutting setup - Outlevel - number was 3.8 and tech says it should be around 2.6 so I turned the knob counterclock-wise 'til the sensor hit the 2.6 mark. Retry to cut. Still running over the 1st one w/o reading it. Tech says it will take a new sensor. Damn it.