Mimaki cg-160fxii Finds registration Mark 3/4 of the time

[Odumike]

Hello,

Just want to add im very New in the printing world and as eager as i am to learn realize i have much more to learn at the same time.

So i have a Mimaki CG-160 and Everything for a couple weeks has been fine with it took some time getting use to but now I Feel fairly Efficient at working it. so the issue comes Ive been learning both my printer and my cutter its been alot of trial and error. Well now today i would go through the process of putting my sheet into the cutter and it would not find the registration mark go through the process a couple times and it will eventually find the mark and go through the start up just fine from that point im good to go.

My theory i have not been using my laminator since i was only learning how to use the machines for the past few weeks, so now that im becoming more efficent at flexi then to printer then to cutter i feel like im getting faster at the process so could i not be giving the ink time to dry? and it too wet or glossy to pick the mark up? should i give a drying time i was only going from one machine to another for trial and error purposes. it just seems this way because after 3-5 mins of trying to find it it just picks it up no problem and works perfectly from that point on.


Thank you for any responses and i understand this is probably elementary knowledge but I don't really have guidance I'm learning this from signs101 and YouTube. which I've faired pretty well with only those resources lol

 

[mySign]

Hi, Excellent cutter, I have been using one for about 13 years. The only time I have had a problem is when the sheet is not straight in the machine (look across the printed sheet, rego mark to rego mark and line it up to cutting rail on the machine) and also I always go in about 5mm inside the rego mark with the red light beam and I always use a 25mm printed rego marks on the print. One more thing the only time I have every had a crash on the cutter is if the printed sheet is not cut straight and when It goes thru the set up it can crash so always cut the sheet pretty straight if you are hand sheeting of a roll that you have printed. Hope that helps? Cheers

 

[Ronny Axelsson]

Agree with mySign, make sure the cut marks are correctly lined up (one millimeter or so shouldn't be any problem though).
I've never used marks as big as 25 mm and I doubt it is necessary unless we are talking huge sheets.
Normally, 7 - 10 mm should be enough, just be thorough when positioning the sheet/roll in the cutter.

Other things that may play a part:

Lint/dust on the laser?
Bad contrast between cut mark and material color?
Reflective or shiny materials cause reflections that confuse the reader?
Transparent material?
Too much surrounding light directed towards the reading zone?
Material doesn't lay flat and tight against the platen under the laser, which may bring the beam/reader out of focus?

Sometimes, when nothing else seems to help; restart the cutter and try again from start.

Here's how to position the laser beam when reading the first mark (I always read all four, by the way):

 

[Solventinkjet]

Good ideas above. If none of that works, you might need to adjust the sensor sensitivity. It's not something that is in the user manual though. It requires a voltmeter as well.

 

[Odumike]

i really appreciate all the ideas and will be running through them tonight

 

[Odumike]

Solved, it was an alignment issue. That and i moved it away from these extremly bright lights i have in my shop that were causing a glare on the vinyl. But it finds the mark everytime now. thank you for all of your input.