That annoying motor roll while reading cropmarks

[WCSign]

My VS did it, my VG does too.. slight forward roll of the sheet between crop marks 1 and 2. Its never an issue until it IS an issue LOL. The particular art im cutting has a nice curve near crop mark #2, so when the sheet rolls forward that 3/4 inch or so, it starts reading the artwork as the cropmark.

anyone else have this issue? fixes?

 

[WCSign]

I had to place a little piece of white vinyl over the art so it would force roll back to read the cropmarks

 

[BVG]

Are you sure your media is loaded dead square? Our VS only does the feed steps between reading crop marks 1 & 2 when it thinks the media is skewed.

 

[ProPDF]

Try putting just the first half of the crop mark on the strip. Also use .5 inch marks if possible. This is usually caused from improper loading of material.

 

[WCSign]

yes material is loaded correctly. It reads the first mark and as its traveling to read mark two, theres the slightest roll forward.

 

[crny1]

Mine did this for quite some time until I finally figured it out thanks to someone on here.
The material is not loaded straight enough. The machine reads the first crop mark and senses that its not straight. It is rolling the material out slightly to predict where it thinks the crop mark will be. If the material is loaded more square it shouldnt roll any out. It has to get the first crop mark close to perfect or REALLY close.

 

[Sign Works]

11 years on my SP-300V and not once have I encountered this issue. Simply do a sheet cut prior to printing, this provides a straight leading edge for alignment when reloading vinyl for cutting.

 

[ProPDF]

The rolling is prediction of next crop mark alignment due to loading the material at the wrong angle as crny1 has said. The only other time we have seen this is in a copy and paste situation where the cut file being used is not the correct cut file (but extremely close).....usually in a duplicate print and cut job where operator tries to cut all print jobs from one cut file but something was slightly off in the dimension of the print job.

However it's probably not the case in your situation if your results are the same on 2 Roland machines. It maybe best to try and figure out some point of reference on that second crop mark visually. Usually where people go wrong is they stand right there at the first crop mark and get it lined up, they look to the left crop mark....it also from that angle looks correctly lined up but it's actually too far back....drop the lever, hit setup and send and then you rolling problem occurs.

If you can't figure out a good visual reference on the print....try getting a guillotine or some paper trimmer that will allow you to trim the front edge of the substrate that can correlate with something on the printer to line up.

 

[euronymous]

line up the rectangular mark on the right hand side with the cutting strip

 

[CanuckSigns]

I've made a suggestion to Roland that they should build in a laser line that shoots across the cutting strip to help line up the crop marks perfectly, they think it's a great idea but 6 years later no sign of it.

 

[Roland Product Support]

Hey WCSign,

Many of the above contributors are correct in confirming the issue of media feed is directly related to skewing of the material when loaded. They've all provided great suggestions and explanations, so what we have to mention now is if the cutting is offset of the print (after detecting the crop marks), then you should call your authorized Roland dealer to have the printer/cut alignment adjusted. However, if the cutting is spot on (albeit the media feeds slightly), then no worries, the printer is behaving how it was designed.

If you have additional questions or need extra support directly from Roland corporate support, please submit an "official" support request form online here: Product Support Form | Roland

If you do write us, we look forward to helping you and take care,

Roland Technical Support
Roland DGA Corp.
rn

 

[WCSign]

So why does it roll forwards and never backwards?

 

[ProPDF]

Because it never needs to roll backwards when it needs to roll forwards. If you stand behind the machine then it will still always roll forward. If your back is facing the machine it will still roll forward unless you are not looking over your shoulder. Has to be the right shoulder though. If you stand in front of the machine with your head between both crop marks and your arms extended to the lever you can get it to never ever have this problem. The wind can't blow both directions at the same time for no reason at all. Line up your material correctly.

 

[advision]

Using my VG 540 I sheet cut my material after printing and use the straight edge to line up the media on one of the seams in the heat plate all the way across and I still get the feed. I can't imagine a way to get it any straighter than that without using fine detail measuring tools.

Also it always feeds forward about what looks like 0.25"-0.5" but the crop mark is never there. The crop mark is directly straight across. This would indicate it's deciding the media is skewed when it really isn't. It is making an inaccurate prediction. It always feeds back when it gets there and finds the mark so it's not a problem but it does it even though the media is essentially dead nuts.

This by the way was a problem before we had the crop mark sensor lens cover installed. I guess it couldn't see the tippy edge of the crop mark then.

Is there something else that could be the root of this issue? Calibration or hardware related?

Also I've always wondered since it knows how far over the crop mark should be, why doesn't it scan without feeding and then feed once it gets there? In what situation would it be advantageous to catch the skewed crop mark early? Just seems like a better method to me. But I dunno.

 

[68Bonnie]

Thank you all for the input, I may have found the solution. Since the sensor is reading the material as out of square in the CCW direction as viewed from above, I purposely skewed the print slightly in the CW direction. Works like it should now. Please share your results! Pull the right crop mark towards you a hair, and push the left crop mark away from you a hair.