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Another cut alignment issue…SP300
Right I’m having a bad start to my week. Last week I printed 25m of motocross type vinyl in approximately 1m lengths as they are to be laminated and contour cut. I laminated them on friday but only got round to cutting a couple of metres of the prints. These cut fine, alignment wasn’t perfect but accurate enough – I’d say about 1mm out over 1m.
This morning I went to continue the job and the cutting is all over the place. Media width is the same, heater settings are the same, I have done an environment match and even checked my scan/feed settings.
At the start of the job the cuts are ok but by half way down (0.5m) I am at least 3mm out and I’m running over the bleed. I stopped the job to try to save the rest of the print. I have tried this three times now and each time the cuts run out in exactly the same place by exactly the same amount. It is consistently innaccurate!
Please help!?
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12 Replies
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After letting a metre or so cut it seems that everything along the right hand side (as you look at the printer) of the job is cutting accurately but everything towards the left side gradually runs out. It starts off about 1mm out then runs out by about 4mm by the end of the job. This skews every cutline towards the bottom of the job.
The odd thing is that the graphics I printed were actually 5 different designs i.e. 5 different files that have been ripped and printed. The cutlines on all five versions of the design run out in exactly the same manner and by the same amount.
What could cause the consistent error? I was thinking it may be due to expansion but I have tried a few different temperatures and even cold. Why would every job be misaligned? I am doing an environment match and I have done this length/type of job before without any issues.
Any suggestions? I have already wasted metres of material and almost an entire day trying to sort this. It times like this I just want to get rid of the versacamm!
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Have you tried cleaning the encoder strip?
John
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Is the media slipping slightly? Are the pinch rollers clean? Have you tried slowing the cut / feed speed? New blade?
Clutching at straws really, but all are issues I have encountered doing MX graphics.
Jase
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Many thanks for the response guys. I followed your advice – cleaned the encoder, platten, grit rollers, slowed the cut and up speed down to 5, and fitted a new blade but to no avail. The cut is still massively out.
Anyway I just tried printing a new sheet, laminating then cutting immediately and guess what – the cuts were absolutely perfect. The good news is that I know the printer is working perfectly. The bad news is that I have wasted 10m trying to find the solution and have another 15m sat on the bench that simply won’t cut properly. At around £20 a meter this has been an expensive learning experience! 👿
Can anyone shed any light on this?
I assume the innacuracy must be down to the time left between printing, laminating, and cutting. I left 48 hours to outgas before laminating, then 48 hours before cutting (weekend). All three procedures were carried out at approx room temperature with the same heater settings on the printer. I honestly can’t see why this has affected the accuraccy to such an extent.
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What RIP are you using? I use Versaworks. Print, laminate then cut. I always leave the job in Versaworks and just change the print only to cut only. I have gone days between printing and cutting with no issues.
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quote :I assume the innacuracy must be down to the time left between printing, laminating, and cutting. I left 48 hours to outgas before laminating, then 48 hours before cutting (weekend). All three procedures were carried out at approx room temperature with the same heater settings on the printer. I honestly can’t see why this has affected the accuraccy to such an extent.you can measure the marks and compare with a known print.
i said it the other day with some laminates the eye can struggle when in strong uneven light, near a window skylight etc.
you have proved it will do it correctly am i right that the good cuts were done latter in the day ?.
if the eye misreads the position of the dot the cutter will stretch the plot to fit the misread position. that is why the plot starts good a goes further off as the plot goes away from the start.
chris
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I am using versaworks for the whole process. Files are eps created in illustrator. If I’m only doing one job then I will leave the file in VW however there were 5 different designs so I had to remove the jobs from the queue.
I have measured between the marks as accurately as possible and the measurements are within a mm of each other. I also measured diagonally to check for any skew and the two measurements are the same.
In the past the only time the laminate has affected the crop marks was if I laminated over half of the crop mark, then the eye would struggle. On these jobs the crop marks at the top are laminated but the bottom marks aren’t. Could this be causing the misalignment? The job I printed and cut yesterday was laminated in this way and it came out perfect – and yes it was yesterday evening.
Chris – what are the optimum light conditions for the eye to read the crop marks? I have a blackout blind here so I could close it and just have the ‘big lamp’ on?
Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated!
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Owen why did you have to remove the jobs from the queue? I have jobs that I can recal from 2 weeks ago, the rip computer stays on all the time and never has to reload all the jobs when vw restarts as its always on, this way I can reprint a job if ness, then after 2 weeks clear the job queues out
Rich -
just a even light should be fine, i used to have trouble years ago with this problem. just one thing to look for.
don’t re rip files for cutting this is more likely the cause, done it in a emergency 50 50 result.
if doing multiples of a job number them in turn as they are printed and use the corresponding cut file to cut them. ( i know they should be the same ).
chrisps you could put a cut box around the whole file placed at the back of the page so it cuts first. this should just touch all 4 corner marks, before it cuts the rest.
gives you a chance to stop it before it mucks the rest up. -
This morning one sheet cut fine then the next sheet was off as before. Please can someone explain how to do a manual alignment. I want to give this a try as I think the expansion of the material is causing an issue. I have the user manual but the procedure isn’t very clear.
Do I set the align points in the order that the printer would normally detect them? If so, they are are numbered in the order base-1-3-2. Is this correct? What settings do I use in VW? Shall I leave crop mark detection ticked or not?
I really wish the manual was more clear on this procedure!
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Well the plot thickens…
After turning the printer off and on again, its now incorrectly reading the media width by a consistent 4mm less. I have tried different roller positions and there are no base points set.
What does this sound like? Am I going to need an engineer?
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Call Richard at Canopy digital.
John
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