SP540v Contour cut alignment issue

[Andrew Blackett]

Also I know that some of the print only machines have a seperate cutter, are these accurate. Could we couple a cutter up with the SP540 and versaworks? if so how and which one.

Andy

[Jason Bagladi]

I have a similar problem where the cut is about 0.5mm too high, but fine side to side. I have a service manual and access to the service menu so will have a look if there is a crop mark adjustment.

[Andrew Blackett]

Jason, any chance you can email me a copy of that manual mate?

Andy

[Steve McAdie]

Andy you can use a different cutter but it must have a eye sensor thingy to detect the crop marks.

[Gert du Preez]

Andy,

Are you always only slightly out, or is it way off on occasions? Our SP540v will sometimes align perfectly, then out of the blue (while doing multiples of the same job) it would be out by about 50mm in the scan direction, 20mm in the feed direction! I can for the life of me not figure it out – it sets up etc as per usual, then goes totally bonkers!

I also have a problem that it does not complete the cut – on a 90mm circle it would cut, and leave the last 3mm uncut. When cutting text (no matter the quantity) it would do this on only 1 letter. If i nest several jobs, each of the jobs will have 1 uncut section.

Strange…..

[Lee Attewell]

Don’t know if you’ve thought of this but are you having problems contour cutting over a long feed? If so, why not lessen the feed length so the machine doesn’t have to travel so far to cut?

Versaworks gives you an option to set the page length so if I’ve got to do say 64 stickers at 320mm x 260mm, I set it up four wide on the roll and 4 deep allowing for 4mm per decal for spacing I set the page up as a custom cut with a page length of 1060mm. Then just printed four pages.
After each page, the job cut and then contour cut (through the backing paper as well), each page auto cut from the sheet and then did the next page.

It’s easier to set up than I explained (sorry).

[Andrew Blackett]

quote Gert du Preez:

Andy,

Are you always only slightly out, or is it way off on occasions? Our SP540v will sometimes align perfectly, then out of the blue (while doing multiples of the same job) it would be out by about 50mm in the scan direction, 20mm in the feed direction! I can for the life of me not figure it out – it sets up etc as per usual, then goes totally bonkers!

I also have a problem that it does not complete the cut – on a 90mm circle it would cut, and leave the last 3mm uncut. When cutting text (no matter the quantity) it would do this on only 1 letter. If i nest several jobs, each of the jobs will have 1 uncut section.

Strange…..

It can be both Gert!! and yes its very frustrating.

quote Lee Attwell:

Versaworks gives you an option to set the page length so if I’ve got to do say 64 stickers at 320mm x 260mm, I set it up four wide on the roll and 4 deep allowing for 4mm per decal for spacing I set the page up as a custom cut with a page length of 1060mm.

I couldn’t do a page anywhere near that long Lee, we have to stick to 1370mm wide x 600mm max to retain reasonable cut alignment.

Andy

[Peter Dee]

Are you using the printers own registration marks?
Also, I once got messed up with the cuts being anywhere but where I wanted them.
I use SL8 and in the cut screen, after I hit the "reset" button by "decals mode" it rectified the problem.

[Steve McAdie]

My cadet plus started to cut out of alignment recently the cut was only slightly out but as it got further along the media it grew more noticable I printed them again and they were exactly the same, I printed crop marks and scanned them and the cut was bang on, it’s a bit more time consuming and sort of defeats the purpose of having a print cut machine but it works for now.

[Martin Oxenham]

quote Gert du Preez:

Andy,

Are you always only slightly out, or is it way off on occasions? Our SP540v will sometimes align perfectly, then out of the blue (while doing multiples of the same job) it would be out by about 50mm in the scan direction, 20mm in the feed direction! I can for the life of me not figure it out – it sets up etc as per usual, then goes totally bonkers!

I also have a problem that it does not complete the cut – on a 90mm circle it would cut, and leave the last 3mm uncut. When cutting text (no matter the quantity) it would do this on only 1 letter. If i nest several jobs, each of the jobs will have 1 uncut section.

Strange…..

I know someone who had this same problem and it was down to pressing the "Get media width" button again. You don’t need to do this when putting the vinyl back in the machine for cutting or it throws it right out.

[Gert du Preez]

Martin,

If I print today, laminate tomorrow, and then cut, surely I have to "get media width" again?

After getting width etc. some will cut spot on, others will be out. And no, I dont click "get media width" everytime – only for the first one.

The plot thickens…..

[OwenTaylor]

For the people whose machine always cuts too high – I’m assuming you have gone through the regular setup routine. My machine always cut about 0.2mm to the left, even if I had used the manual alignment and entered the correct values. I ended up doing a number of test cuts and altering these values until the cut position was correct.

I have a piece of tape on the right of the heater platen that I always align the media up to and I also try not to alter the position of the right hand pinch roller.

On longer runs I have found that using a little vacuum really improves accuracy. For thinner media add about 60% vacuum power. It also allows you to have a quicker up speed as it sucks the media flat. I can cut accurately up to about 1.6m.

edit – if your machine is missing some cut lines, or not joining up circles etc you should increase the eps margin setting to anything over 0.35mm.

Another way (what I do) is have a file setup in Illustrator that is the correct dimensions to suit my media width (the length varies). Draw a big white rectangle that matches the cuttable width of your media and lock it in the bottom layer. After you have added the artwork on a new layer, adjust the length of the rectangle so that it is just longer than your artwork. If you use the same layout file for every print/laminate/cut job, the cropmarks will always be exactly the same width apart and you don’t have to worry about the cut being off because of the various widths of different artwork. It illiminates the variable that causes the problem.

[Paul Hodges]

quote Andy Blackett:

quote Gert du Preez:

Andy,

Are you always only slightly out, or is it way off on occasions? Our SP540v will sometimes align perfectly, then out of the blue (while doing multiples of the same job) it would be out by about 50mm in the scan direction, 20mm in the feed direction! I can for the life of me not figure it out – it sets up etc as per usual, then goes totally bonkers!

I also have a problem that it does not complete the cut – on a 90mm circle it would cut, and leave the last 3mm uncut. When cutting text (no matter the quantity) it would do this on only 1 letter. If i nest several jobs, each of the jobs will have 1 uncut section.

Strange…..

It can be both Gert!! and yes its very frustrating.

quote Lee Attwell:

Versaworks gives you an option to set the page length so if I’ve got to do say 64 stickers at 320mm x 260mm, I set it up four wide on the roll and 4 deep allowing for 4mm per decal for spacing I set the page up as a custom cut with a page length of 1060mm.

I couldn’t do a page anywhere near that long Lee, we have to stick to 1370mm wide x 600mm max to retain reasonable cut alignment.

Andy

I’ve had this alignment problem on our printer also, it’s a constant irritation especially when you have to do multiples. As previously mentioned, it will do some spot on but some will be off.

It’s not a calibration problem. Things to check to make it more reliable:
encoder strip must be clean, rubber grip rollers are not worn, metal grit rollers are not dirty.

It’s an intermittent tracking problem, the prints quite often twist as they are being cut. When it’s way out it’s usually encoder strip.

[Martin Oxenham]

quote Gert du Preez:

Martin,

If I print today, laminate tomorrow, and then cut, surely I have to “get media width” again?

After getting width etc. some will cut spot on, others will be out. And no, I dont click “get media width” everytime – only for the first one.

The plot thickens…..

I never use "get media width" for anything unless Iam not sure if it will fit.
If you press it when you reload the machine then the grip rollers may be in a slightly different place than when you printed it so it will be off.
You don’t need to set this again after laminating. You already know it will fit.

[Chris Wool]

as a by the way it would not surprise me if all the machines that give trouble with cut alignment have had heads changed by non roland engineers.

its all in the setting up and use.

chris

[Gert du Preez]

Chris,

My printer is only 12 months old, and still on the original heads. They have never been repmoved / replaced. If that had an influence, the mis alignment wold be a fraction of a millimetre, not 5cm!

The agents come by every 3 months or so to check over the printers. They are as puzzled as I am, claiming mine is the only one they know of with this problem….

BTW, according to the print out I got last week when the printers were serviced, my SP has 1061hrs print time logged (the scan motor has 1231 hrs – the difference is for cutting time) ALL the colours still print a PERFECT pattern. No deflection, dead nozzles, nothing! After more than 3000 square metres, that is good going!

[Chris Wool]

sorry Gert but why do you let the service engineer leave it the cut is 50mm out.
chain him to the printer till its fixed. its what you are paying for.

chris

[Paul Hodges]

quote Gert du Preez:

They are as puzzled as I am, claiming mine is the only one they know of with this problem….

There’s a familiar story – i’ve been getting that line ever since we bought our versacamm.

I think the problem is that there are certain inherent problems that come about with printers like these which they don’t really tell you the limitations of. Some people’s machines suffer more than others but at the end of the day they can’t really solve all the problems.

I’ve been told on at least one occassion by a roland tech guy that roland japan knows of some printing and operating faults on the machines that can’t be totally fixed.

From my own personal experience i think the effectiveness of the print/cut feature is limited. We’ve had good results and we’ve had bad results without ever being able to isolate it out to any particular reason, but generally speaking the more you ask of it the more it screws up.

[Gert du Preez]

Problem is, this is an intermittent flaw. When the technitian is here, all works perfectly. If I have to do 10 cuts, maybe one or so will be off – the rest is spot on.

It never happens when I print & cut in one operation – only when printing reg marks, remove, and then insert again to contour cut after lamination.

To me it seems to be a problem with (a) Sensor or (b) Versaworks or (c) Operator stupidity…..

[Dan Osterbery]

hi guys,
in the four years we have had our machine, i have never really had any problems with print and cut even if we take the print out and laminate and replace (and i always press get media width). But recently it has started going out on the horizontal cuts, at the start (right hand side of the machine if standing at front,) all the cuts are fine but over 125cm to the other side of the roll and the cuts are10mm or more out? can anyone shed any light on this? it is also reasonable intermittent!

cheers

Dan

[Chris Wool]

lots of things because its intermittent .
is it as if the cut has been stretched, starts in the correct place but cuts further over than it should.

is the printer next to a window or have sun shining on it from time to time.
test.
do not know how you do it in VW. but print a long oblong with marks and cut lightly in one operation.
then cut again after its found the marks.
should be on top of one another.

chris

[Andrew Blackett]

Listen to Chris – he’s good with these things, the bugger stopped me from getting a new toy by persuading me that the faults we had with our versacamm could be rectified – and they have been, thanks Chris 😉

A few things that we did;

Get a new blade in and set it just right
Get as many pinch wheels in as possible (not as few as possible as you may have been told on your installation)
Try and laminate as nicely as possible, no wrinkles anywhere etc (these are a guarantee on ours that the job will run out)

We used to always have a problem with the cut being out on the left side of our machine (as you look at it) but now its perfect.

Andy

[Simon.James]

it could be loads of things, first thing to check is that your encoder strip isnt dirty, you can give it a gentle wipe over with a lint free cloth.

it worked for us some time ago.

simon – cardiff

[Martin Oxenham]

Don’t press "Get media width" again when you put it back in to cut.
It’s not needed and it can throw things out !.