Discussion Wondering if you do.......................

[Gino]

We have an old SP 540V roland printer/cutter in our arsenal. It's been great to us and continues to be great. Printing is dead balls on and the cutting is pretty much good if we don't exceed our limits for accuracy.

We were talking the other day about a shortcut I use and others said, that's bad to do. I put this in the Roland section, but I imagine it could go under any printer/cutter manufacturer.

When you face the machine from the front, you have a main pinch roller to the right and the far one to the left.... with multiples in between. most of the time we have 54" media loaded and printing or cutting, but there comes an occasion to cut something quick and a much shorter roll of media and what I do is.... rather than take all the in between rollers out and reset the far left, I just load it in and let everything right where it is. The measuring tool will still say 52.5", but in fact the roll might only be 24". As long as the roll is supported by enough in between rollers, I don't see a need to move everything around. I was told, that is hard on the two main end pinchers and can cause harm.

How do others feel or what do you do in a situation like this ??

Gino​

 

[ikarasu]

Not exactly the same, but I do this with the graphtec all the time. Everytime I boot it up... I load the pinch rollers as far away as possible and hit load roll. Then until it errors or I reboot it... I just load whatever material and hit continue, set the home position and that's that... No constant remeasuring / etc.

Not sure how the rollers are on the spv50... But it's an old machine, so I imagine if you haven't had problems now, it shouldnt be an issue.

Out of curiosity I just googled it. Its the same as graphtec rollers... So I don't see the issue? If anything you may be wearing the rubber wheel down a little bit since there's no vinyl between it. But new rollers wheels are like $5 each, and easy to change.

 

[rjssigns]

I have an SP540V and use all the pinch wheels when possible. Only way I can maintain tracking on long runs. YMMV

 

[Gino]

Yeah, I'm using them all, I just don'r always reset the far left. So, while the gauge will say 52.5", I might only be using a 30" or 48" roll, so the far left is not being used in this particular print or cut, but is still there, just not every roller moved over one for an accurate reading.

 

[rjssigns]

Yeah, I'm using them all, I just don'r always reset the far left. So, while the gauge will say 52.5", I might only be using a 30" or 48" roll, so the far left is not being used in this particular print or cut, but is still there, just not every roller moved over one for an accurate reading.

You found a system that works. Keep using it. I have to be careful with mine for long prints. Contour cuts got so bad I bought a Summa.

 

[Solventinkjet]

It's actually a common issue on Mutoh ValueJets. Since all of the pinch rollers are down all the time, if you use smaller material, you only use the right side rollers and the left rollers wear down faster due to touching the grit roller. This causes the media to skew over time if you use smaller media a lot. That being said, if you are only doing it here and there, I don't think it could do enough damage to warrant stopping the practice.

 

[petepaz]

if the rubber pinch roller is rolling on the feed wheel then i could see over time this causing excess wear and tear on the rubber wheel. they do have an angle to them to help feed the sheet properly. i have replaced them on my XC-540 each end once in like 10yrs. they cost about $30 a piece or so from what i remember. little bit of a PITA to replace but nothing major. with all that said sounds like you have been doing this a while with no issue so i wouldn't worry about it too much but i am not a roland tech nor do i play one on tv

 

[myront]

We have a Mimaki and always push two rollers to the left when not needed. Just common practice, Didn't know there was an actual reason for it. As mentioned though, on longer runs we use all or on wider media.
p.s. on the Mimaki the rollers are spring loaded and have two positions (uh... tight and not so tight) Recently I found out that we really should be returning the load back to not so tight position at the end of the day.

 

[equippaint]

I say let it eat. Even if it causes you to change out the rollers once a year, the time saved is well worth it.