FB700 Roll to Roll - Way to Much Skew

[rdm01]

Hello,
Any time we try to use our roll-to-roll attachment on the FB700 to run banner we seem to run into issues. 90% of the time the media will skew up to 1" through the run of banners. This makes double sided banners problematic if not impossible.

Does anyone have any tips/tricks that they've found help the media stay put while printing?

 

[Dionysus]

get a fabric tape measure, and ensure the input and take up are square on both sides. make adjustments if needed. 1st off ensure the printer is level and not on wheels. =)

use fabric of a sort to have the ink on backsides not stich so much.

 

[Jacob]

Which set of roll holders you have. the old style where you have to hammer in the end caps or the new style where the take up roll is larger and has the "click in ends"

 

[Hotspur]

R2R accuracy

Hello,
Any time we try to use our roll-to-roll attachment on the FB700 to run banner we seem to run into issues. 90% of the time the media will skew up to 1" through the run of banners. This makes double sided banners problematic if not impossible.

Does anyone have any tips/tricks that they've found help the media stay put while printing?

Only one reason for this and only one answer & it's very straight forward - a properly-installed R2R kit will move in & out by a max of 1cm - any more than this and it either was installed poorly or your machine has been bumped / moved / settled after install.

Either way the R2R kit needs re-adjusting. There is a steel plate that came with the machine (although most engineers carry one) that is needed. This is used to align the R2R kit with the belt.

It can take half a day to do this properly (you need to run 10m of print to be sure you have it right)

Once done well you should see a small amount of telescoping that goes in & out by a max of 1cm throughout the roll - if it keeps telescoping in one direction beyond this then your alignment is out.

there is no way of sorting this apart from realigning the R2R kit - the adjustment is done on the left hand side of the R2R take-up (the bolts have a slot in the steel to allow the engineer to move it around until it is aligned properly.

If you are out of warranty then you will need to pay for a half day to get an experienced engineer in with the right tool to align it properly - it is one of those things where experience counts.

 

[Jacob]

we had the same problem the "experts" came out and aligned it three times. Still had the same problem. Finally they gave us the new rollers and it solved the problem.

 

[rdm01]

Which set of roll holders you have. the old style where you have to hammer in the end caps or the new style where the take up roll is larger and has the "click in ends"

It's the click in style ends. It seems to typically skew in one direction. Sounds like our machine may need to be adjusted. It is still in warranty, we may need a tech to come out.

 

[Hotspur]

we had the same problem the "experts" came out and aligned it three times. Still had the same problem. Finally they gave us the new rollers and it solved the problem.

Yes this is one of those fixes where an experienced engineer counts - there a few cowboys around who don't take the time.

If a roller is blamed it should be an easy one to check - turn the foam roller around and see if the telescoping goes the other way?

Also some forego the first roller completely and run the media directly onto the bed in case this is an issue - again should be easy to check before paying out if you are out of warranty

 

[Dionysus]

Skew fix

If you think the roll is moving, get some hose the size of the shaft, with a hose clamp and a thumb screw and it will never move again. as stated above... make sure everything is square. You can have bad rollers all day but with proper adjustment, you can do it!