[NeilFox]

Simon,

Thanks for the response. I was actually inquiring for the guy that purchased my SP4540V back in 2010. Its been running almost 7 years with him without issue. Only recently it started on the odd occasion to display the same symptoms you described. In checking things out, many people have had similar issues but no definitive resolution, with the exception of one, which was a replacement main board.

A tech has a spare main board that he is willing to swap in to see if that resolves it. If it does, I will post it on here.

Thanks again for the help.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Simon,

Did you ever get to the bottom the issue?

Neil

[NeilFox]

David,

It is very much looking like that will be the best option for me.

I have enough printers generally, desktop and wide format. Adding another printer for a single task is looking less smart.

I will check around for trade printers.

Thanks,

Neil

Thanks all for the comments and views. I think it may be time to call a day to this thread as I have my mind made up on this subject.

[NeilFox]

David,

Thanks for the comments. I had a press which I purchased in 2009. It was the going rate at the time, but as time went on, the click rate wa high by comparison the new contracts. The company would not renegotiate.

So I ended up out of the contract and just about giving the equipment away.

I don’t chase up or do any cut paper based digital print any longer, however I kept the card cutter and I have a laminator so I was thinking of printing my own business cards. However it is only a thought. That’s why I was looking at the C610.

I don’t want to get into another contract as I don’t have the work for a press.

Thanks for the comments.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Hugh,

Thanks for the post. Your printer looks like the predecessor to the C610 / C710 series or similar.

OKI seem to be the only company now that does the straight through paper path.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Thanks guys for the comments.

I think I may have found something from Oki, the C610. I am going to check one out shortly to see if it fits the bill.

Thanks again.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Kevin,

Thanks for that. I had the previous version but I did not use it enough to warrant the costs uncured.

I was looking to find a standalone colour A4. But they don’t seem to make one. HP made tones of them about 10 years ago but nothing like that now.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Neil

[NeilFox]

SOLVED ++++++

I checked the preferences and on the machine that works the preferences / tools has a tick in Cut / Plot use TCP/IP

The machine where it fails was exactly the same, however I decided to un-check the box and just try it.

It worked, launched production manager and cut as normal.

I have never changed this in the past, so I assume it is something that has been updated on Windows Vista that does not seem to notified in the Update History.

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read the post – hope this is of help to others in the same boat.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Just an update.

I installed Flexi 10 Starter onto the machine and it works fine. Opens files, cut / plot opens up production manager and works fine.

This makes me feel then there is some corruption in Flexi 8. I thought that I had cleared out all registry entries for Flexi.

Does anyone have a manual crib sheet for the manual removal for Flexi from a machine?

Thanks,

Neil

[NeilFox]

Kev,

Thanks, I know a few updates were done at the beginning of the week, but it has worked since.

It does seem to be something is blocking flexi. It is when I press the Cut / Plot icon, which should initiate the load of Production Manager if it is not already running. Normally it would not ask if it was on the machine / network. It is at this point it fails, so I think it is something with the firewall or something like that, but I cannot see any updates since I last used it.

Do you know (or anyone else) what actually happens when the cut / plot icon is used. Does it require specific ports to be open on the firewall?

Thanks for the comments.

[NeilFox]

Chris,
I personally use Avery 500 for 3 lease vehicles and for other vehicle signage that may be on in excess of 5 years, I use Avery 700.

I have tries Oracal and 3M. The Oracal is okay, just prefer the feel of Avery. Regarding the 3M 30 and 50 series, I personally feel the tac is to aggressive when applying it initially.

I have also used the 3M 100 series for specific jobs and swear by it.

At the end of the day, is is a personal decision of what feels right to you. Take into account, cutting, weeding, applying and the longevity of the material.

Hope this is of help.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Sorted.

I reprinted it and it worked fine this time. No matter what I did with the first print, it would not work.

Thanks for the comments and looking.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Gil and Shawn,

Thanks for the feedback. Shawn no dice with that, just tried it and in still goes across the dot side to side but before in then goes forward and backwards across it, it come us Cropmark Error.

I am going to put the design into VersaWorks again and see if I can get it to work there.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Gil,

Thanks. Sorry I should have said I am running a Roland VS540.

I have been running and cutting perfectly all day. As usual, it is the last minute rush job. I have used a blower brush to clean the sensor.

It just seems to be this print. I can cut other jobs, it is just this one.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Steve,

I don’t have it ticked. That was how I was told it was to be used.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Steve,

As a VersaWorks user I always use the ‘Color Management’ preset to Sign&Display. This does [b]not use[/b] the Embedded Color Profile.

I have found that I get good all round image quality.

I was told that this preset will be lacking in flesh tone definition, but as I don’t print many faces etc, it is not a big issue for me.

Hope this helps.

Neil

[NeilFox]

No problem. Just wondering where you are based.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Blade angles tend to be related to the materials used. the 45 degree blade is the standard one for most materials, cast, calendared etc.

The 60 degree blade would be used if you have a lot of reflective and thick materials.

Having said that, I use a 45 degree for everything including the relatively small amount of reflective I use.

Regarding the time to change the blade, I change it when I start to get a cutting issue. If I need to increase the pressure, then it is time to change the blade.

It all really depends how much material and what type of material you use. Most of mine is calendared, so the blade lasts for 6 months. If I run a load of reflective through it, it can last a month.

So it really depends on what the cutter is being used for.

Hope this helps.

[NeilFox]

Clive,

Are they different colours?

You only sent part of the cut/plot window (bethan3.gif) at the top right of the of the cutting window are the more than one colour box.

Attached is an item selected with a different green. In the second image, you can see toward the top right of the Cut Plot box that the light green and dark green are separate.

If that is the case, select everything and cnage to black or something and then cut it with your cutter.

Neil

---

Attachments:

[NeilFox]

There was an issue with one of the releases of VersaWorks, during the version 3, where it became very slow if you had multiple copies of the print. It got better with a later release. Currently I am on 5.1.1 and it still suffers from, in my view, excessive delay when making changes while multiple copies are specified. I suppose to a large extent it is applying the changes to each iteration of the print.

I tend to set all my settings while I have 1 copy, including getting the media width and then finally select the number of copies.

If I have to change settings for any reason, I drop the copies to 1, make the changes and then bump it up to the number I need.

[NeilFox]

Glad things got sorted John, but is seems a lot of hard work and aggro to get paid what is owed to you.

I agree that someone in the same business should know better. In my view, after all reasonable steps have been taken, but before taking them to court, Name & Shame them. They will have more trouble if you go down the court route, which may eventually be needed in some cases.

Naming and Shaming not only gets their attention, but it also flags them for other sign companies. These type of people will only learn when they are forced out of this business because they cannot get the support and services needed to do business.

[NeilFox]

Innova Solutions do a good Photoluminescence film.

http://innovasolutions.co.uk/products/p … brite-7555

Neil

[NeilFox]

We always laminate everything.

Many people think at first they need to get a printer, I then subbed out the lamination with varying results. (matched laminates, and some not)

I soon realised that to have consistant results, I needed to get a laminator. I invested in a Royal Sovereign in 2006. It tended to need a little care when using it and I found that it needed 2 of us to ‘guide’ the material through.

Last year I bit the bullet and paid €8,500 for a Seal Base 62. Best €8,500 I have ever spent. Other than initially webbing a roll of laminate, it is a 1 person job to laminate.

As I found, it was better to do my lamination in house as I was in control of the results. I started off with a cheaper machine because that was all I could afford. When I could shell out the extra cash, I upgraded.

If you have a printer, you need some form of mechanical laminator and it does not have to break the bank. At the end of the day, my customers keep coming back, so they are happy with the results and that is the key factor that matters at the end of the week when you count the cheques that have come in.

All the best with it Hayley.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Thanks Andy. It will be interesting to see if the how much better if any the vertical cartridge setup is over the horizontal. Yours should be similar to mine I would expect.

I checked before I actually did the change of cartridge because it gets reset with the next one.

[NeilFox]

I have had Roland printers since 2003 (SP540V 2003 – 2010) and a VS540 (2010 to date) and have never had a problem with them.

Quality of the VS even in bilboard mode for banners is very good. All other profile seem are excellent. I have always used OEM inks.

As I have had a good experience with Roland products over the years, I personally will be looking to get a SOLJET PRO4 XR-640 as my next machine.

As I have had experience only of Roland machines, I cannot give a comparitve view, however I would tend to go with something I have experience with unless there is compelling reasons not to.

[NeilFox]

I have had the same issue when the artwork from Illustrator was RGB. Need to have a CMYK workspace / artboard.

Good to hear its sorted.

[NeilFox]

Do you have another design package, Illustrator or Corel? If so, create a new file with the colour colour mode set to CMYK. Create a blend, then save as an eps and add it to the VersaWorks queue and print it.

See if the result change at all.

I had a lot of trouble getting good reds particularly in both Flexi and Signlab, so for anything printed I now use Illustrator and make sure the colour mode is CMYK and it seems to work pretty well for me.

[NeilFox]

Jamie,

Thanks for that. It seem that Avery are doing this as a cost saving. Either it is a start of all of them doing it or if enough Avery users revold, they may rethink.

If I move from Avery, then colours on the fleets I do may well be a shade out. Not something I really want to do and I think Avery are aware of the colour loyalty and exploit it as brand loyaly.

Neil

[NeilFox]

I have had this problem in Illustrator in the past and it has been caused by the transparancy layers in the image. I have had to rasterise them and then it picks up the contour cut line just fine.

I have not done anything with Corel so I don’t know if it is the same issue, but it may be something to consider.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Have you tried to go in and see if you can set the heater temp at all?

Neil

[NeilFox]

I may be way off with this, but a number of years ago I had a roll of material that I kept getting static shocks from. It was on my old SP540V. When I was printing it I got a ‘ghosting’ over spray on the edge of the defined lines.

Another thing that I noticed was that the material had difficulty being advanced through the printer, kept giving me feed motor errors.

I dumped the roll and never had a problem again. Never used the material again either. JAC.

[NeilFox]

Cheryl,

I have this problem when I send a job from Flexi to VersaWorks. (Does not happen with Illustrator)

The solution I have found is to have a white panel slightly larger than the cut line, select it all and then send / print to VersaWorks or however you get your jobs into VersaWorks. When there is a larger white image than the cut lines, it always works fine for me.

Neil

[NeilFox]

One thing I find with the monomeric vinyls is that the cheaper ones tend to shrink a fair amount. I have use the Ritrama and JAC and found that they shrunk most of all. I use MPI 3000 (Avery) as my cheap stuff for short term cori signs. I use MD5 and MPI 2800, with the MD5 with a slightly better quality / finish.

But as with anything that is my take on the applications I tend to do.

Neil

[NeilFox]

It’s always been that way. Generally not normally a problem until doing small labels and as you say, when trying to tile something to make fitting easier. Having used it since version 1.0 (2003) it has served me well enough.

[NeilFox]

Andy,

I have had the same problem. It appears to be with one of the transparency layers within the file. It also seems to be specific to pdf files created with InDesign.

I tried flattening them, resterizing the elements I thought were at fault and the list goes on.

The only way I found round it was to open the file in Flexi Sign and then created a clipping Mask for all the elements to be printed and group them together (or merge if they overlap). I then masked it off and printed fine.

Previous versions of InDesign generated file seemed to have worked fine, But files created within the last 3 to 6 months as pdf’s within InDesign all seem to have this problem.

This may be something Roland need to have a look at to see if their is any way it can be dealt with within VersaWorks.

I do know that some Illustrator files have funny results when transparencies are involved.

[NeilFox]

Has the artwork been done in Illustrator?

If so, it could be the transparency layers.

My work round is to select the layers with the transparency layer that is causing the problem (or select everything except the contour cut line) and rasterize it at 150bpi.

Then send to VersaWorks again and should work fine.

Neil

[NeilFox]

I actually have Flexi 10 Starter.

Open up production manager.

Click on Setup / Add Setup and a dialogue box will appear (see below)

Select the Manufacturer, Graphtec and the Model, CE5000-60

Then it will ask you to select how it is connected. USB normally and that should be it.

Neil

---

Attachments:

[NeilFox]

Noel,

Thank you so much for that. Thanks too for the eps file.

I have looked through the fonts I have and I have a Jazz but it’s not the same. I found on one of my CD’s a Jazz LET 10 which appears almost identical.

Thanks again. Neil

[NeilFox]

It is possible. If you lower the roller and let it rest on the other roller, no forced pressure. The look at the mahine, level with the lead in tray and check the gap on the right side of the rollers. (control panel end)

If the bar ihas a twist on it due to excessive pressure, the gap on the left will be slightly larger. It could be around 1mm but that wll do it when the rollers are pressed together.

Hope this helps

[NeilFox]

Paul,

The tension knobs for the rolls of laminate / print generall dont need to be too tight. If they are, it streches the likes of the laminate onto the material and can cause problems with the print down the line.

The springs are the thing that adjust the the pressure of the rollers. However there is a bar too that runs from the control panel side to the other side of the machine. On the other side, there is a cam that is used to lower down the roller. If the handle has been too tight over a prolonged period of time, it seems to twist this bar so that one side comes down slightly sooner than the other. In this way the roller is off centre and will then skew the material between the roller and cause rippling.

If you have a local service engineer for the laminator I would get him to have a look at it. It would be better if he is familier with the workings of the Royal Sovereign, GMP and GDC type lamiantors.

[NeilFox]

I had a similar problem with my Royal Sovereign laminator. If I remember rightly yours has the notches at the side where you set the thickness. I found that if the rollers were too tight together, then I would get buckling. Normally a slight adjustment would work, better still, get the machine services and all should be well.

[NeilFox]

Mike, That is the Grub Screw I have used to alter the pressure. It has got me into deep trouble but we seem to be getting things together again. I am going to spend the weekend adgisuting it as Martin suggested with some thin foamex to try and get the pressures correct.

It is a real pain to try and tweek but it is the only way to sort it out.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Do you think the pressure is greater then on the end that is wrinkling?

[NeilFox]

Both Martins and Jamie, thanks for the comments.

I have eased back on the pressure of the roller and it is better. The only problem I started to find was that there were (not bubles) but air patches between the print and lamiante ( a mottled effect) on the left and right 9 inches of the print. That led me to think that that the pressure of the top roller was now to light. I increased the pressure using the grub screws in the roller mechanism by 1/2 a turn on each side. Pressure now seems to be pretty good.

One thing I have noticed is that the waste backing sheet seems to be ‘walking’ to te left by about 1mm per revolution. This is causing the print / laminate to drift sightly and thefore creating a wrickle effect on the right side of the roller. Any ideas?

This is back to my original problem. which I tried to fix and ended up messing up the pressure.

Just as a matter of interest, how much tension should be on the top roll (laminate) and bottom fed roll (print). I have a slight amount of tension on both. If I put too much, the print curls after laminating. I use that as a measure of the tension I should use, but is their another way of guaging it?

Thanks again to all of you for your helpful comments, I really appreciate it.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Lynn,

Open the settings for your job in Versaworks and go the the Printer Controls button. Under ‘General’ (top Left) you will see ‘Cut sheet after output’ Check the box and you should be good to go.

Neil

[NeilFox]

No worries, I gathered that. I have finger trouble every so often as well. Thanks for the help.

I have been in contact with William Smith and couple of others, they dont seem to have the Kuga, so I will call a few more.

Thanks again.
Neil

[NeilFox]

Thanks Phil.

[NeilFox]

Chris, this may not be the same issue, but I have had issues with VersaWorks not recognising the contour Cut when I send files directly from Illustrator. In my case, I get the following message when sending the Illustrator File [i]’When spot colours are used with transparency, changing them to process colors outside of illustrator can generate unexpected results.'[/i]
Sure enough, VW does not recognise any of the Cut-Contour commands etc.

What I end up doing is selecting the complete image, with the exception of the Roland Commands and Rasterising it. Then bring the Roland command stuff to the front (Cut_Contour) and then print it to VW and all works fine.

As I say, it may have nothing to do with your issue, but thought I would mention it just in case.

Neil

[NeilFox]

I would agree with Gary and David, the cost is a lot lower than the sales reps tell you. They are covering themselves.

I have just been printing the attached which is 1.43 sqm in total. It cost €1.22 which is about £1. I used the Static cling profile which uses more ink than the normal generic profiles.

The ink usage does depend on the profile used, but as has been said, it is the purchase and maintenance of the machine that costs the money. I have a VS540 and in my view, it has been worth every penny, not only do I have a quality that I can reproduce time and again, but I am also in control of my own turnround times.

In my view, having your own printer is probably the best thing you can do. It will save you money in the long term as long as you look after the machine and maintain it well.

---

Attachments:

[NeilFox]

Russell,

I also make use of a Pantone Bridge, because often a Pantone / RAL colour appears one way and the CMYK equivalent is a slightly different colour.

Also, the lamination is something that changes slightly the colour, even though it is ‘clear’, held up to the light it has a slightly yellow appearance.

As Chris said, the best fit ad that is all it will be is to print the colour swatch and laminate it with the laminate you plan to use. In that way, they can pick the best colour in natural light.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Lynn,

I would get the from genuine supplier in your area / UK. I am in Ireland and use Robert Horne.

I have been using Roland printers and OEM inks since 2003 and I have always used a known source for my ink.

If the deal is to good to be true, give it a miss. It is not worth having problems with your machine and then paying to get it fixed. Generally it turns out more expensive that way.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Now don’t do this for a production job, but by way of a test. If you have any Avery Surface Cleaner, clean the surface of the media with the surface cleaner and let it dry. Then print onto to it and see what results you get.

I have found that using surface cleaner does reduce significantly static on Cori, Di Bond etc. If it is a static issue, it could improve the situation.

If it does turn out to be static, I am not sure the best way to approach reducing it. If it is just a particular roll, then it may cost you less just to ditch the roll rather than waste ink on it.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Neil,

Have you got this sorted out yet?

I had a similar problem with a roll of JAC material I purchased. It seem to have a HUGE amount of static electricity within the roll. Virtually everything I printed with it had ‘shadows’ all over it. Having seem the image earlier, it just reminded me of some of the over spray I had.

I never did get to the bottom of it, I ended chucking the roll and have never bought a roll of JAC since. Some people swear by it and up to that point, I had used it as my cheapie cheapie vinyl. I now use another brand. I have never had the problem since on any other roll. Maybe you have a bad roll of material. Have you tried other materials on the machine.

It may be worth trying to earth the machine, especially if it is on a surface that can cause static build up.

Sorry for the rambling, but thinking as I type.

Neil

[NeilFox]

The maximum printing width is 53".

The maximum media width is 54".

have not know any of the Roland machines, not even the UV printers print edge to edge. In fact why would you want to print edge to edge as the media invariably gets dings on the edges. Also, you would need your laminate to be perfect along the edge. I have never had the need to pall 54" on may machine. For wide drops, I normally run between 48" and 52" max.

Full spec of machine can be found here:
http://www.rolanddg.co.uk/products/prin … ries?tab=2

Neil

[NeilFox]

If you do a test print, do you find that all the black lines are parallel or are they irregular?

If they are irregular, then some of the nozzles are clogged and misdirecting the ink. You may be able to bath the head in the capping station with some cleaning fluid in them and that may dislodge the clogged bits. Other wise it is likely to get worse over time until the head is replaced, which is what I ended up doing with my SP540 at the time.

[NeilFox]

Sorry about that.

[NeilFox]

I print reverse onto clear no problem. I run it through the printer with the liner and everything. The if I need to have a white background, I then laminate with white.

If I need to print and cut, I print with the crop marks as normal on the clear vinyl, making sure the image printed is in reverse. Then I put some liner paper over the crop marks and tape it into place. Then I laminate with white. Once done, I then carefully cut the white around where the lining paper has been put over the crop marks and remove that, so that the crop marks are now clearly visible and then run it through the machine and line up on the crop marks and cut. The only thing I have found is that the cut weight needs to be about 15 grams more than the normal cut weight for laminated vinyl.

I don’t see why you are trying to print with no liner on, which ever way you try it, the ‘sticky’ side is going to stick to something.

Neil

[NeilFox]

That seems a lot of ink. I have had the odd spot / drop but never that amount.

I see you are printing on banner, can the head be raised higher because I see there are strike marks on the banner. Even with the head striking the banner, it would not dump that much ink.

I would say that it is the wipers. Have they been changed them recently. Also, have you cleaned round the print head recently?

[NeilFox]

Colin,

The advice above is good. If you are requiring small amounts of digital print, sub it out. The thing to remember is that many companies charge a premium for less than 3 sq meters, at least here in Ireland.

I have a digital printer myself and enough work through it each day. Another local sign company gets me to print the small amounts of digital work they need. I don’t charge them the earth and we have a good working relationship.

If you can find a reliable local company that does not charge the earth, see if you can build a good working relationship with them.

Especially in the current economic climate, it is not worth purchasing a printer on what might be.

[NeilFox]

By the way, I did the mounting manually and it worked out perfect.

Thanks for for the comments.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Ian, thanks. I was thinking along the same lines. The only thing is the using the laminator to mount it. My laminator is ever so slightly. I have had it set up a Number of times but it always slightly off. As a result, I think I will mount it manually. I just
Don’t trust the laminator.

Thanks again for the help,
Neil

[NeilFox]

1 GBP = 12.11 South African Rand

5m about £1234
10m about £2469

[NeilFox]

Edward, I have one of those welders. They use a Teflon covered heated element to weld. I have found that the heat needs to be set correctly, too cool and it makes an impression but does not weld. Too hot and the colour is burned off the banner.

The other thing that I have found s to ditch the tray and plates as they get in the way and snag to banner as you try and pull it through as you weld. Without the plates and trays you can feed the banner through without snagging.

It is the best money I have spent when doing banners.

It takes about the same amount of time as taping the banners, but the finish is excellent when the heat is set correctly.

Neil

[NeilFox]

I use the DTEC White economy vinyl, 100 micron from Robert Horne.

[NeilFox]

Fantastic work, it has such depth.

[NeilFox]

Thanks guys for the info.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Shane, thanks for the input. It seems that optic is overly sensitive. Glad to hear everything is OK now.

[NeilFox]

Mark,

Thanks for the suggestion.

I wanted to let everyone know that the engineer spend 4+ hours here today and it seems that the machine is identifying the crop marks and cutting correctly.

I tried the suggestion made by someone either in conversation of from the board to apply matt laminate over the crop marks. (thanks for the comment) This worked, the crop marks were found and the job cut correctly. I then repeated the exercise and again the job was cut correctly.

I left the final job as when printed and waited for the engineer to arrive and we tried to cut the job. It kept failing.

The engineer, then replaced the crop mark sensor and calibrated it. It still would not work. He then put a filter from an SP540V machine with some on the bench mods below the sensor. This helped matters.

The sensor was then calibrated (all this process took about 4 hours) and the machine is now working. I have been in this situation before but I am hoping that this could resolve the issue. All this leads me to the conclusion that this is light (reflection) related.

I have also had a call from the Service Manager in the UK to see how things are going. I appreciated the call, thanks Andrew.

We will now watch to see if the problem is rectified, which I hope. I will update the thread with any news as it happens.

Neil

[NeilFox]

John,
Thanks for the suggestion, I tried to clean the optical eye again today to no avail The problem seems to be getting worse as time goes on. This is the same as before, the crop mark registration becomes worse as time goes on.

I have spoken directly to an engineer who is coming out tomorrow, for which I am grateful.

I spoke to the Roland Support desk in the UK and was told that someone from there would get back to me about it. They did not. It took me to call and engineer direct.

I am wonder how extensive this problem is. I have spoken to a couple of people today are very dissatisfied because of this continuing problem. My issue dates back to March this year, still unresolved.

I am wondering if this machine is in fact of "merchantable quality" because it does not live up to the description in the advertising literature.

I will update the thread tomorrow after the engineer has been here.

By the way, the following is the text I have put on the Roland Forum. We shall see if they remove the thread.

ON ROLAND FORUM
I was told by the lady on the Roland Support Desk to use the Roland Form and see if anyone has any suggestions on helping me fix this problem, so here I am.

I have a VS540 that will not detect crop marks properly. It works for a while and then start for fail more and more until it fails to detect the crop marks ALL THE TIME.

This problem has been evident since March 2011, even before but I did not contact the support desk until about that time.

I print registration marks on a job, then take it out, laminate it and put it back in the machine. It detects the circle and rectangle then as it starts to go across t find the crop mark on the other side, it starts to advance the material forwards. so that the sensor misses the circle by about 1 1/2 inches. The material is in correctly because I put a ruler over the middle of the crop marks and pit a detects line at each edge on the material so that I can precisely line it up. I know the material is in perfectly. After many attempts at finding the crop marks, the sensor just passes over the makes without stopping or registering them at all. Then the next stage is that it finds the dot and goes to find the rectangle and then on finding the edge of the rectangle it immediately comes up ‘Cropmark Error’ ‘Not Found’. Last Thursday I tried 27 times to find the crop marks with a 100% failure rate. I have printed other jobs Friday and today, still 100% failure rate. It has not detected a crop mark at all since last Thursday. I have wasted meters & meters of material. As a small company I cannot afford to waste material. Although this machine is great re print speed and quality, it is breaking my heart because it cannot be used for Print / Laminate and Cut which is the work flow that forms part of the advertising.

Can someone please please please help me because this machine is ruining my business.

Neil Fox

[NeilFox]

Steve,
I have done that in the past when doing reverse print on clear and I can see the benefits.

Part of the issue is that its worked, then got progressively worse. My old SP540V worked all the time. The new machine, which I would have expected to progress in 6 years seem to have taken a retrograde step in relation to crop mark detection.

[NeilFox]

Jason,

How do you mean? I have put lines at the end of the print using a ruler across its width to make sure the crop marks are correctly lined up. (see photo) A trick the engineer taught me.

Using this method, the print cannot be miss aligned.

Neil

---

Attachments:

[NeilFox]

Chris, thanks.

Roland have pulled their office out of here, today is their last day in Ireland. The engineer that they had over here will be working for one of their partners from Monday. He is taking everything, including the internal errors (every so often) that pop up during the search for crop marks etc and handing it all on to Roland UK.

I assume he will still do the work, but Roland need to sort this. I have been told by a couple of engineers that this appears to be an issue with many VS machines. I wanted to see if any other users have this issue and if so, maybe we can collectively put pressure on Roland to do something about it. My machine is almost a year old and has had this problem for the past 9 months that I know of. In my view that is too long for a machine that is the production workhorse of mine and other sign shops.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Kev,

I I have just tried it without laminate. Print / remove / cut. Failed first in the same way as before. I held the print, Lifted the pinch rollers, acknowledged the crop mark fail message and then put the pinch rollers down. I then used the up arrows to line it up. So basically the print was in the same position as before. Sent the job again and worked this time. I don’t know what difference there was, one failed, the other worked.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Roy,

Thanks for that.

[NeilFox]

Jason,

The Roland engineers, one form the UK and one from Ireland set up the boards. There is a little screw device that is used in conjunction with a display on the lcd panel to set up that sensitivity of the crop mark eye. The engineers did this when the boards were installed.

It seems funny, but the crop marks are detected fine after the service engineers visit but as time does on, the problem becomes more acute to the point like now, the machine cannot find the crop mark setup at all.

[NeilFox]

Roy, Thanks for that. I would appreciate what your mate has to say.

I have tried it again this morning with the media clamps in again to no avail.

I have been told that Roland in Japan are aware of the problem and I recently had a redesigned crop mark controller board (so I was told) because this seems to be a problem across the board with the VS range.

I managed to get a print & cut yesterday morning fine. The one I did later in the day was out on the cut line but acceptable. Then yesterday evening, it stopped working and has got progressively worse in the now it basically advances the material 1 step ever 1/2 inch movement of the cutting head.

Kevin,

Thanks for the suggestion I will try the print / remove / cut. However my client wants these stickers with a gloss laminate. If a machine is unable to do a print and cut using matt / gloss laminates, I think it will come under the heading of ‘not merchantable quality’. If that is the case, Roland needs to withdraw the machine from sale because at present it does not do what it is advertised to do.

[NeilFox]

I have tried with 2 end pinch rollers, and all 7, same problem. This problem occurs with Sihl and Metamark (MD3 & MD5).

This problem happens more under artificial light.

[NeilFox]

OK, I have removed the labels on the front perspex cover and still no joy, in fact I started stepping forward even more and part way across the print managed to pick up some black writing and identified that as a crop mark and went away looking for the rear crop marks. Weird!!!

ADDED
OK, I have now had 27 (yes two seven) attempts at this one job. The print is only 48" x 6", how difficult can this be. I am going to stop trying now before I throw the machine out the door.

IF THERE IS ANYONE FROM ROLAND THAT MONITORS THIS FORUM, PLEASE ADD YOUR COMMENTS.

Neil

[NeilFox]

David,

I like most people have had the same situation. When I use the specific profile, I find that it never dries in time.

One thing I have found though is to use the Generic Vinyl 1 profile printing in ‘standard’. I also use a desktop fan on the print as it goes to the take-up.

I have found that to work.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Hi guys. I purchased the machine yesterday.

Finally set it up this evening. Attached a photo.

I have been trying it out on both laminated and coated banner. laminated banner tends to rip the material apart. The coated banner seems to weld much better.

The heat settings are very tight, turn to 4 and it is not hot enough to weld, 5 tends to melt the banner.

I will be playing with it to try and get things sorted as I have to print 6 x 6 meter banners over the weekend and need to get them finished Monday.

Neil

---

Attachments:

[NeilFox]

Mark,

Let us know how it goes.

Robert,

The shoe is the rail at the bottom and top that heat up to melt the banner as they come together. This uses heat and a press rather than hot air and a press.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Thanks for that. The Leister is a hot air machine, about €2000 over here.

This machine has an upper and lower hot shoe and is mounted on its own table. A few of the views are not to complimentary others are glowing. I am trying to find objective comment.

I know that it still comes in 110v so a transformer is needed.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Moderator – Sorry I don’t know what I put in there that had any links to any external site or advertising any product. The text appears to be the same in the body, just the subject line has been altered slightly, by you adding more words to it.

What was in my post that offended the rules?

Neil

[NeilFox]

Thanks for the comments.

Robert, they are brand new. The box body is a totally different colour to the cab. They are more cream than white.

My thoughts exactly. The customer will be keeping the vehicles for 5 – 7 years which is my big worry.

There are stainless steel edges to the box body, which are sealed with silicone, so there are areas of lift before we start.

Then there is the area I mentioned in the first place, potential shrinkage over time of the materials.

I am trying to steer them toward painting the box bodies. I know that the cost will be larger for painting in this instance.

I have a feeling that if I do the vinyl overlay, it will cost me dearly in the future.

Thanks again for the reassurance.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Just to let everyone know, the Roland Engineer called today and re setup the voltage on the optic for the print / cut alignment.

The voltage has been changed to 3.7 volts, above the recommended voltage

All is now fine. I am a happy bunny again and my hair is now growing!

Thanks everyone for reading. I didn’t realize how such a minor thing can cause so much heartache.

Neil

[NeilFox]

I get mine from Robert Horne but they have nothing over here. I know Roland UK do have a program and I was told I could take them to their offices here, but when speaking to one of their engineers, they did not know anything about it.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Lorraine,

One of things that I have found very use and it has been mentioned in an earlier post is the Pantone Bridge.

Using CMYK to create a colour, can be off from the actual pantone colour. I always carry the bridge with me when meeting clients so that we can go through the colours needed. In this way I can also show the client tif there is any difference in the pantone colour they expect and the colour we can produce on the VS540.

I purchased my pantone swatches from Ebay. Make sure they are current or last years. As has been mentioned, some of them on Ebay are very old. (generally cheap).

Neil

[NeilFox]

Clive,

have the VS 540 with a CMYK setup. I do a lot of general signage, logos and vehicle branding. I do some prints for a local photographer and the CMYK setup is fine for me.

If you do a lot of photo printing work, or images with facial tones, then you may want to have the 6 colour option, if you do more general type signage then it may be better to get the spped from the CMYK setup.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Hi guys, I see there is a the facility to recycle the cartridges in the UK.

Does anyone know if there is any similar facility in Ireland?

I must have about 50 cartridges at the moment to get rid of.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Chris,

Thanks for that. The think the engineer should get it fixed, now that we seem to have it narrowed down.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Thanks for info.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Nick,

I will give that a try.

[NeilFox]

Thanks for the info.

Just as a tip, I have a small Black & Decker Laser level that runs along the cutting strip so that you get a near perfect line up every time. That’s why this incident such a real pain in the behind.

[NeilFox]

I have had that happen before, generally after I close VersaWorks and realise I still needed it open. I try and reopen it says that VersaWorks is already open.

I have checked in task manager and it is there running. After about 15 – 20 seconds (max) it disappears.

Waiting 30 seconds should do it unless there is a problem in the registry settings for VersaWorks. That being the case you may want to remove VersaWorks (delete the associated files) and then do a complete clean install and update. This is the last resort though.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Chris,

No there was no silvering or anything like that. It is a gloss laminate, but I have used rolls of the vinyl and laminate since I got the machine last November. I was having a problem with the change back from TU2 back to ROLL. Allied to that problem, I was then getting a crop mark recognition problem. The only way to resolve was to power down and start the setup again. A few example of this type of problem had occurred in the UK too. That’s why the tech came to replace the motherboard and alter the optical sensor voltage as this had rectified the problems in the UK.

The only thing that had changed since it work 99.9% of the time was a new motherboard and the voltage change from 3.9 volts to 2.7 on the optical sensor.

Since speaking to the tech again, both himself and colleagues at Roland came to same conclusion as myself, the voltage on the optic. The optic uses the change in voltage as it passes over the black from white surround to identify the crop marks. 3.9 volts was outside tolerances and so was reduced to the correct voltage, 2.7v +-.2v

I have a tech coming out Tuesday as it is a bank holiday here on Monday.

Thanks for the comments.

Neil

[NeilFox]

I would try the PWV Premium Wrap Vinyl profile within VersaWorks. I have a VS machine, the there may be different profiles / names but I would expect that Roland have included a generic wrap vinyl profile for use with the VP machine.

Neil

[NeilFox]

I think the problem may be sorted?????

The engineer changed the voltage on the optic used to pick up the crop marks as it was way above spec.

The machine will find the crop marks on a print – remove then cut unlaminated vinyl.

I then tried the laminated print I was having the trouble with, still no joy.

I decided to turn off the lights in the office and use only window light and guess what.

It picked up the crop marks first time and cut perfectly.

I have spoken to the engineer and he will get someone out to sort it Tuesday as I have an urgent job requiring large print and cut images to be delivered Thursday.

I will update after the engineer visit.

Thanks for looking anyway.

Neil

[NeilFox]

I use Illustrator. Instead of saving as an eps or ai CS5, get the designer to save as Illustrator 8. Every version of Flexi from 7, 8 & 10 should open / import that version of Illustrator file fine.

The file size will be large, but most designers / agencies use Rapidshare or U Send It, so you can pick it up via a file sharing site.

Neil

[NeilFox]

Martin,

Not sure, Windows XP uses the same Microsoft driver on both computers. So it should work the same as both machines are XP SP3.

All I know is that it works on one and not the other. So it will get me out of a hole.

Neil

[NeilFox]

No I connected it up with the USB to Parallel cable.

Both machines are running Windows XP Pro.

Both machines have USB Printer Support in the Device Manager, so they recognise the cable.

The only difference is that the USB port is available in the Production Manager of the old machine running Flexi 10 while in my newer machine does not.

Neil