VersaCamm tracking problems

[Robert Lambie]

have you checked all the obvious?

roll wound tight and square?
sitting parrallel to the pinches and not off to one side at back?
its easy to get loaded, but can run off if the roll at the backs sitting off or wound wrong…
is your pinch wheels clean from dirty/residue? try wiping with meths or the like…

im just guessing here mate.. maybe a prob with machie or that individual machine..
there are many folk on this site with a versacamm so im sure some will help you out better 😉

[Mark Shipley]

Hi,

I’ve had similar problems, sometimes it runs true and other times like a dogs hind leg, not fun when printing 3m banners.

One suggestion – I’ll do my best to explain 😕

The two rollers at the back that hold the media, giv’em a wiggle from side to side! Do they move laterally in the framework say 2,3 or 4mm?

If so get a set of allen keys, loosen the grub screws holding the outermost collars on the shafts, move the collars in and tighten the grub screws, just enough to to stop the rollers wiggling but not too much to reduce the function of the rollers.

Any ‘play’ in the rollers translates to a huge tracking difference after a 1000mm or so. I have started feeding sufficient media through then running it back whilst wiping it with a ‘modern synthetic duster’ that way you can see if it going to track true and almost guarantee that the media will be free of those annoying little bits of ink soaking dust.

Whilst feeding media through the versacamm I sometimes get an error 0007 or 0015(can’t remeber how many zeros 😮 ) – anybody else get these error messages?

Hope this helps.

Mark

[Rodney Gold]

There is an option to prefeed the media bfore printing , IE it prefeeds , rewinds and starts printing. Enable the prefeed option in your mAchine menu
Do that as a last resort. (picks up dust)
Initially , cut the media square in the front , which is easy to do , wind it on the roll , tape the front edge up , draw a line across the top of the roll and cut on the line , easier to do as well if the liner has a grid on the back
Line that squared off edge up to someing near the front of the machine , that will almost guarantee square loading.
When putting the core on the back rollers , try align it hard left and dont secure the rught stopper too tight against the right flange , it needs some play, use the media clamps as well, this tends to guid the media and the little play in the stopper makes sure the roll wont cock when moving around. We always roll out media equal to the job behind the mahine to release tension and to see that we indeed have enough left on the roll , been caught out a few times by a roll ending up hard agianst the back of the machine. The eye at the back wont detact this as the vinyl is often taped to the rol and the machine merrily churns on making a mess. (I dont have a Versacam , but a soljet , same machine but bigger , most stuff applys to both. If you do roll out media , make sure your environment is dust free , it should be anyway 😉

[Kevin Flowers]

Hi guys
not got the versa camm but had problem recently with bad tracking on a summa, i had tried a new vinyl supplier and the problem was that the backing paper was glossier than the original vinyl i had been using. Put some of the old vinyl in not a problem luckily found this out before ordering to much from the new supplier, however this can be over come from all accounts by adjusting pressure on rollers, i didn’t because my original suppliers vinyl run perfectly from day one when the machine came out the box.

Kev

[mgs]

Hi Kev
What type of Summa do you have ..
What media do you find best for thermal transfer.??

[Kevin Flowers]

Hi
unfortunately its just a summa cutter, however just ordered new printer cutter and laminator today will post details once its up and running

Kev