Cut is off

[tonywhittier]

I have a roland sp540-v using versaworks and designing in illustrator. When i make a run of lets say 50 6"x6" decals whenever i load the media back into the machine after lamination and cut it most of the time the first few cut fine but as it goes on the cut gets off by a lot. Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

[fixtureman]

I cut preprinted sintra and find the same to be true. I think it is a heat cooling issue

 

[amw]

Some times the heat settings can afect the cut on the roland.
Do you have a standalone cutter you could cut them on?

Ours we can do about 10 feet or so perfect and then it will start being off. But when we use our fc8000 they are dead on no matter how long the run is.

Marsha

 

[DizzyMarkus]

SP-300V here -- usually happens to me when I leave the heaters on by mistake :0) Not enough to blow the batch but enough where I see it off

Markus

 

[tonywhittier]

So i should have the heaters off when cutting?

 

[john1]

I always turn the heaters off during contour cutting. Your pinch rollers could need replaced if it's a older machine. Same thing will happen with a vinyl plotter, The vinyl will go off track if they are worn down.

Does the off cutting happen with a print/cut job vs print/laminate/cut or is it either one?

 

[tonywhittier]

I always turn the heaters off during contour cutting. Your pinch rollers could need replaced if it's a older machine. Same thing will happen with a vinyl plotter, The vinyl will go off track if they are worn down.

Does the off cutting happen with a print/cut job vs print/laminate/cut or is it either one?

happens to both of them

 

[rjssigns]

I have the exact same machine and you are doing what I used to do. Trusting that when you do a sheet cut it is dead-nuts square to the rest of the roll. Then lining that "square" edge up to the separation lines in the platen. Wrong wrong wrong! And heat has nothing to do with it.
I have a new loading procedure that goes by feel instead of visible cues.
Works a treat. We just printed a 79" double sided banner using this method. It was out only 3/32".

When you load you media you need to reach under the machine and put one hand on the roll of vinyl, banner, whatever. Then grab the middle of the media with your other hand and pull taut. Then slowly move the media side to side. You will feel the "center point". Once you are on center drop the wheels.

I learned this after a huge batch of decals got wrecked. I noticed the cuts were progressively worse so I started with the basics. Got out my precision T-square and found the roll was nearly 5/8" out of square. Holy smokes!!! I asked the wife how she was loading, cutting etc... She said she would run a batch of a hundred, sheet cut, repeat. It was a matter of stacking tolerances and trusting the machine to be accurate when feeding. they are not. Look at the tracking specs for any of the printers. not that great.
The only way you are going to get truly perfect tracking is on a roll to roll set-up with a nip point and most importantly a web-guide. I know this because I built and qualified such equipment for over two decades.

Best advice is to re-zero every 6 to 10 feet of material. You will have smooth sailing.