Cadet Print and cut going astray

[Chris Wool]

probably media movement as you are well versed with the process.
on my soljet is 4 pinch rollers to minimize this problem.
look at the failed cut and try and see at what point it went wrong, possibly a change of direction of the knife. or cutting CW around one loop AC around the next. causing a 180 deg swivel, so the knife digs in momentarily.
clean and lightly oil the blade holder perhaps a new blade.

chris

[Phill Fenton]

Hi Chris – thank you for your reply.

The drift out was progressive (i.e didn’t suddenly appear part way through) and got gradually worse from start to finish. At the beggining it was spot on but drifted out gradually as the cut progressed. It’s almost like the length of the design is about 5mm less than the contour if you see what I mean?

[Gavin MacMillan]

I know you have being doing it for years with no probs so are you using a different media? We have had problems in the past with materials with a ‘waxy’ feeling backing paper seeming to slip slightly while cutting.

G

[Chris Wool]

if as the cut shapes have been stretched, ?
the printer misread the dots. (happens sometimes if not white vinyl)
or you sent it the wrong cutpath for that print.
after reading the dots the printer now knows a boundary and a new base point.
when the cutfile is sent the boundary is compared with the machines and squashed or stretched to match one another. that’s how it compensates for the new thicker vinyl after laminating.
there you are clear as mud. and possibly nothing to do with your problem

Chris

[Ian Higgins]

We have had a similar problem in the past. one thing that has helped is when we re load the media we press the enviro set up button and this seemed to stop it for some reason!! no idea why

[Stephen Morriss]

As Ian said do an Environmental check and also clean the encoder strip.

Steve

[Phill Fenton]

Thanks for the advice – I did an environmental check and the accuracy was much better this time. Never thought the environmental check thing did anything significant, but now I know different.

[Kev Cringle]

Hi All
Just had a similar problem with my cadet plus and went through all that you have mentioned but on closer inspection i noticed that there was nowhere near as much pressure going on the left pinch roller, So i pulled all the covers of and found an adjuster to the pinch roller bar in behind the left hand blue cover its a 3mm Alan bolt, i adjusted that up and it did put more pressure on to the rollers but still the Left roller was not getting as much pressure on it , so looked again and the carrier that the roller is in was worn and not a snug fit on the square bar it slides on thus it was flexing when the weight was put on the roller and not clamping the media tight enough, it was not showing the problem when i was doing print and cut landscape say 1250x 300 but when things were cut the length way down the roll and it was winding the media in and out on the rollers that’s when it was all going wrong , so just a thought take a look at the condition of the rollers and the roller carriers to see there is not to much free play on them ,

Cheers
kev

[Elena kalispera]

I’m having the same issue tried new pinch rollers, different media, enviro check, not adjusted pressure but my guess is the end pinch rollers are not sitting as equally on the bar, my grit rollers are clean and seem equal. still trying to figure it out. one thing that has sorted it as a temp measure is to set cutting to a real slow speed, my prints tho are getting messed up tho. I’m finding a 5mm shift to left every 500mm!!!!
Hope you sort it. B&P tech guys coming Tuesday lets hope they can sort it, I hope so had too many issues lately..

[Elena kalispera]

Hi Kev, is the procedure simple enough to adjust pressure may give that a go Sunday?
Thanks in advance
ignore sent accidentally sorry

[Robert Lambie]

not much help here sorry mate… but next time your proceeding to cut after a fail. change the blade to a pen. it it track perfect this time your next "blade cut" will fall onto that same line. anything else noticeable a wee wipe with meths and its gone. flip side is, if it fails to track. you still have your laminated print. just wipe the pen line away with meths.

[Phill Fenton]

Good idea Rob – Thanks :thumbsup:

[Elena kalispera]

Good point, I’ll try that as well Rob Cheers mate!!

[Elena kalispera]

UPDATE. Had B&P engineer Bob Nice guy well trained knows his stuff but cant fix it. changed the pinch rollers adjusted pressure a few things here and there and he is lost as am I its moving at the rate of 5mm every 500mm its crazy and print and cut is a joke… He reckons that maybe the bar that hold pinch rollers is bent but how?? its under warranty but B&P are not being helpful at all saying we don’t know what to do?????? I’m mean thats crazy. I know its not a 30k plus machine but come on this is suppose to do its job. I have had 8 problems in exactly 8 months 4 months light use out of it whilst waiting for parts , engineers etc etc HAD ENOUGH!!! TRIED EVERYTHING

[Phill Fenton]

quote Elena kalispera:

one thing that has sorted it as a temp measure is to set cutting to a real slow speed

So running it slowly solves the problem you’re having. This suggests some kind of slippage is occurring. i.e at low speed there is enough friction between the grit rollers and the pinch rollers – but at high speed slippage is occuring allowing the media to overcome the friction grip between the rollers.

I would look again at the pressure the pinch rollers are applying over the grit rollers. Something is bent/weak or miss aligned here surely?

[Elena kalispera]

Yepp that’s what we thought. But pull the media there is definately plenty of grip and pressure.engineer tightened pinch pressure but to no avail: last result is bar being bent but I have checked this and it measures straign right across. Sprints in pinh holders could be an issue but by hand the pressure seems equall???? Hoping b&p will sort out the problem but am awaiting any decision from b&p of what to do next. Won’t be holding my breath.

[Elena kalispera]

Need to add this movement we measures at 5mm every 500mm was whilst scrolling feeding media via forward backward buttons on machine. The engineer as am I are stuck because believe me all logical steps have been seemed except pinch holders and replacing bar that holds pinch rollers and gritt rollers which is warn on far right point but not anywhere else yet the problem cab be replicated anywhere on the pinter??? One of lifes mysteries!!!!

[Phill Fenton]

I woke up this morning thinking "drive belts" – Have you checked it’s not a drive belt slipping?

[Elena kalispera]

Think he checked that but will ask him to confirm thank you for trying to help me it’s very kind of you.

[OwenTaylor]

I had this exact same problem with my versacamm a while back. The cutline would drift out at the left pinch roller by about 5mm over a metre. Here are my investigations thus far:

I let the printer complete the job, even though the cutlines were messed up from about half way down the print. Without unclamping the media I fed it back through the printer (using the arrow on the keypad). I found that the media had moved by about 5mm at the left pinch roller. I came to the conclusion that the media was slipping during the cutting process.

After cleaning the rollers, adjusting pressure, slowing the cut speed and up speed, replacing the blade, trying different temperatures etc I still encountered the exact same amount of misalignment at the left pinch roller only.

To cut a long story short I could only get it to cut accurately if I manually aligned the cropmarks myself using the procedure in the manual. Don’t ask me why this worked as I have no idea but the results were consistent and even more accurate than using the auto registration. Just to test this – after cutting about 15 x 1.5m lengths succesfully using manual registration, I tried one using auto registration and it ran out in the same manner as before by about 5mm at the left roller.

Try manual alignment – you may be surprised!

[Stephen Morriss]

Well I’d say it’s time they gave you a new printer.
Sounds like you’ve given them a reasonable chance to rectify the problems and if they don’t know what’s causing the problem and you can’t use the printer for the purpose it was sold for then it’s their problem to give you a working machine.

Steve

[Elena kalispera]

Exactly what I said and they said they haven’t got a printer in stock at the minute. This has had practically everything changed seriously amazes me what they try and get away with!!! I have documented proof of all the problems and it really has stifled my growing at a company.. If I had the money spare I would fix it independently and bill them but then your asking for more trouble till they pay.

[Elena kalispera]

Hi Owen the problem I have is logic would say that would be true but why does it do it even when there is no cutting process the print is aligned and I’m only scrolling the media forward manually via button? Engineer thinks would be a mixture of problems one being the bar that clamps down the pinch rollers. The holder and the grit roller. Although the grit roller with the pressure used can’t be the problem. Still waiting for answers from b&p in mean time business has been closed 10 days!!!! And this has happened plenty of time during ownership…

[Elena kalispera]

Still not corrected. B&p are refusing to fix even though it’s under warranty I’m thinking to sue but that’s the last thing I need to be doing when my partner is seriously I’ll with suspected liver cancer waiting for scans doctors etc is stressful enough!!! Can’t believe how bad they have been with me I have lost work and still waiting for reply. I have been ringing everyday even threatened with court they don’t care. They say warranty only covers pint head and wear and tear. But this alignment issue has been there from start just progressively go worse!!! I’m at a losses!!!

[Chris Wool]

i guess it was not a new machine when you bought it.

[Elena kalispera]

yes it was sold refurbished as new I was told????