Need Help Mimaki CJV-30-60 Noobie problems, lot's of sheet jamming etc

[Myster Enigma]

Hello, I recently purchased the Mimaki CJV-30-60 primarily for T Shirt Vinyls and small stickers. I bought this exactly one month after buying the Roland SP540v which was my first ever printer/cutter. It was the first time I ever had any experience with a printer cutter combo.

Now being very familiar with how the Roland functions as well as Versaworks I find the Mimaki to be a much more complex machine. With the Mimaki I can see that it is technologically superior with the print head and also the parts seem a lot more higher quality whereas the Roland looks a lot older and simplistic.

My first problem with the Mimaki starts with the pinch rollers. As this is the CJV30-60 it only has 3 pinch rollers. Each time I set the roll of media in the head scans the sheet and sometimes it will automatically move the pinch roller. Not all the time but more times than not. The photos I uploaded shows what happens. For my setting it is perfectly in the middle between the marked grid roller points. If you look at the second photo you will see that pinch roller 1 and 3 have been moved automatically slightly to the left.

Once the printer starts printing it will eventually skew and at this point only pinch roller 2 and 1 will contact the sheet whereas the third pinch roller will be rolling directly onto the grid roller. This then causes the media to jam.

Can anyone explain to me why the pinch rollers are moved automatically to the left as it's doing this for no good reason. Ideally I'd like to set it myself and keep it that way just like with the Roland.

The next question is more to do with productivity and speed. Is it normal for the Mimaki to take such a long time to begin printing? I am using Flexisign for this and once I hit the rip and print button it takes a good 2 minutes (even after the temperature is met) to begin.

I am using a CMYK set up right now, I will eventually want to go dual CMYK. At the moment is there anyway to enable Bi Directional printing? It is only printing on the left printhead pass right now.

Also does anyone recommend using a different software or is Flexisign okay.

Thank you

 

[Solventinkjet]

The pinch rollers should not move during the initialization. I have only seen pinch rollers move like that two times. In one case there is a bright blue rubber piece that sits between the pinch roller mechanism and the Y bar. This rubber piece provided friction so that the pinch roller doesn't move when the index head comes out to set the pressure. If the rubber falls of, there is no more friction and it slides when it shouldn't. You can't see it just looking at the pinch roller you have to look inside from the back of the machine. The other time I have seen this is when the print feed lock mechanism is broken. Do you know when you load the machine with material and pull from the front the machine will provide tension on the roll so you can load nice and straight? That mechanism is poorly designed and a lot of people end up using it wrong. The lever will pop over the mechanism and then when you go to lower the pinch rollers the lever can't go all the way down anymore. It goes down far enough to tell the machine that the pinch rollers are down but not far enough that they actually are down all the way. This allows the index head to push the rollers freely which is not good. It's hard to explain so I hope you understood what I am getting at there.

The time it takes for a print to start depends on the file size and the computer specs. If you have a slower computer it will take longer. The machine should start right up once the RIP processes the whole file. It's the processing that is probably taking the most time. Bi-directional printing is setup in the profile. Some profiles are made for uni-directional and some for bi-directional. You just have to pick the right one. Some profiles will allow you to print with both and you can find that setting in the printer settings tab next to the profile tab. Flexi is fine to use but it is notoriously bad with Mimakis. I would recommend Rasterlink which comes with new machines or one of the other big names like Caldera or Onyx. Rasterlink is based on Wasatch so that RIP should work well although I have never used it.

 

[Myster Enigma]

op over the mechanism and then when you go to lower the pinch rollers the lever can't go all the way down anymore. It goes down far enough to tell the machine that the pinch rollers are down but not far enough that they actually are down all the way. This allows the index head to push the rollers freely which is not good. It's hard to explain so I hope you understood what I am getting at there.

The pinch rollers should not move during the initialization. I have only seen pinch rollers move like that two times. In one case there is a bright blue rubber piece that sits between the pinch roller mechanism and the Y bar. This rubber piece provided friction so that the pinch roller doesn't move when the index head comes out to set the pressure. If the rubber falls of, there is no more friction and it slides when it shouldn't. You can't see it just looking at the pinch roller you have to look inside from the back of the machine. The other time I have seen this is when the print feed lock mechanism is broken. Do you know when you load the machine with material and pull from the front the machine will provide tension on the roll so you can load nice and straight? That mechanism is poorly designed and a lot of people end up using it wrong. The lever will pop over the mechanism and then when you go to lower the pinch rollers the lever can't go all the way down anymore. It goes down far enough to tell the machine that the pinch rollers are down but not far enough that they actually are down all the way. This allows the index head to push the rollers freely which is not good. It's hard to explain so I hope you understood what I am getting at there.

The time it takes for a print to start depends on the file size and the computer specs. If you have a slower computer it will take longer. The machine should start right up once the RIP processes the whole file. It's the processing that is probably taking the most time. Bi-directional printing is setup in the profile. Some profiles are made for uni-directional and some for bi-directional. You just have to pick the right one. Some profiles will allow you to print with both and you can find that setting in the printer settings tab next to the profile tab. Flexi is fine to use but it is notoriously bad with Mimakis. I would recommend Rasterlink which comes with new machines or one of the other big names like Caldera or Onyx. Rasterlink is based on Wasatch so that RIP should work well although I have never used it.

The pinch rollers should not move during the initialization. I have only seen pinch rollers move like that two times. In one case there is a bright blue rubber piece that sits between the pinch roller mechanism and the Y bar. This rubber piece provided friction so that the pinch roller doesn't move when the index head comes out to set the pressure. If the rubber falls of, there is no more friction and it slides when it shouldn't. You can't see it just looking at the pinch roller you have to look inside from the back of the machine. The other time I have seen this is when the print feed lock mechanism is broken. Do you know when you load the machine with material and pull from the front the machine will provide tension on the roll so you can load nice and straight? That mechanism is poorly designed and a lot of people end up using it wrong. The lever will pop over the mechanism and then when you go to lower the pinch rollers the lever can't go all the way down anymore. It goes down far enough to tell the machine that the pinch rollers are down but not far enough that they actually are down all the way. This allows the index head to push the rollers freely which is not good. It's hard to explain so I hope you understood what I am getting at there.

The time it takes for a print to start depends on the file size and the computer specs. If you have a slower computer it will take longer. The machine should start right up once the RIP processes the whole file. It's the processing that is probably taking the most time. Bi-directional printing is setup in the profile. Some profiles are made for uni-directional and some for bi-directional. You just have to pick the right one. Some profiles will allow you to print with both and you can find that setting in the printer settings tab next to the profile tab. Flexi is fine to use but it is notoriously bad with Mimakis. I would recommend Rasterlink which comes with new machines or one of the other big names like Caldera or Onyx. Rasterlink is based on Wasatch so that RIP should work well although I have never used it.

The pinch rollers should not move during the initialization. I have only seen pinch rollers move like that two times. In one case there is a bright blue rubber piece that sits between the pinch roller mechanism and the Y bar. This rubber piece provided friction so that the pinch roller doesn't move when the index head comes out to set the pressure. If the rubber falls of, there is no more friction and it slides when it shouldn't. You can't see it just looking at the pinch roller you have to look inside from the back of the machine. The other time I have seen this is when the print feed lock mechanism is broken. Do you know when you load the machine with material and pull from the front the machine will provide tension on the roll so you can load nice and straight? That mechanism is poorly designed and a lot of people end up using it wrong. The lever will pop over the mechanism and then when you go to lower the pinch rollers the lever can't go all the way down anymore. It goes down far enough to tell the machine that the pinch rollers are down but not far enough that they actually are down all the way. This allows the index head to push the rollers freely which is not good. It's hard to explain so I hope you understood what I am getting at there.

The time it takes for a print to start depends on the file size and the computer specs. If you have a slower computer it will take longer. The machine should start right up once the RIP processes the whole file. It's the processing that is probably taking the most time. Bi-directional printing is setup in the profile. Some profiles are made for uni-directional and some for bi-directional. You just have to pick the right one. Some profiles will allow you to print with both and you can find that setting in the printer settings tab next to the profile tab. Flexi is fine to use but it is notoriously bad with Mimakis. I would recommend Rasterlink which comes with new machines or one of the other big names like Caldera or Onyx. Rasterlink is based on Wasatch so that RIP should work well although I have never used it.

The pinch rollers should not move during the initialization. I have only seen pinch rollers move like that two times. In one case there is a bright blue rubber piece that sits between the pinch roller mechanism and the Y bar. This rubber piece provided friction so that the pinch roller doesn't move when the index head comes out to set the pressure. If the rubber falls of, there is no more friction and it slides when it shouldn't. You can't see it just looking at the pinch roller you have to look inside from the back of the machine. The other time I have seen this is when the print feed lock mechanism is broken. Do you know when you load the machine with material and pull from the front the machine will provide tension on the roll so you can load nice and straight? That mechanism is poorly designed and a lot of people end up using it wrong. The lever will pop over the mechanism and then when you go to lower the pinch rollers the lever can't go all the way down anymore. It goes down far enough to tell the machine that the pinch rollers are down but not far enough that they actually are down all the way. This allows the index head to push the rollers freely which is not good. It's hard to explain so I hope you understood what I am getting at there.

The time it takes for a print to start depends on the file size and the computer specs. If you have a slower computer it will take longer. The machine should start right up once the RIP processes the whole file. It's the processing that is probably taking the most time. Bi-directional printing is setup in the profile. Some profiles are made for uni-directional and some for bi-directional. You just have to pick the right one. Some profiles will allow you to print with both and you can find that setting in the printer settings tab next to the profile tab. Flexi is fine to use but it is notoriously bad with Mimakis. I would recommend Rasterlink which comes with new machines or one of the other big names like Caldera or Onyx. Rasterlink is based on Wasatch so that RIP should work well although I have never used it.

Hi VanderJ, Once again thank you for replying. You've been amazing help so far

I've read what you've written a few times over and I'm still not overly clear. If anything it sounds like maybe the first description you've written may be correct as I don't think that the print feed lock mechanism is broken. After reading what you wrote I went back to the machine to watch what happens. Here are the steps I take. I turn on the Mimaki, load the media into the machine and feed the media through whilst the pinch rollers are up. Then I slide each pinch roller to the centre of the grid rollers. Lock down the pinch rollers. (At the point the pinch rollers are secure. Locked down tightly as I test moving them with my hands. Doesn't move)

I press enter on the Mimaki selecting Roll, MMM pinch roller pressure. Initialisation of the media then begins. At this point the index head comes out to set the pressure on the pinch rollers. While it comes out it seems to deliberately press onto the purple tabs (second photo) of the pinch roller which enables the roller to easier slide over. I didn't know this before as I wasn't paying attention. So once the initialisation is over I manually pressed onto the purple tab with my hands and then move the pinch rollers back to where I want them. So clearly the index head is pushing the purple tabs for some reason. If the grey tab is pinch pressure what is the purpose of the purple one?

I'm not sure if me manually over the pinch rollers after the machine has set it is a good idea or not. I've yet to want to print anything till I understand what the machine is trying to do.

Thanks for the suggestion with RasterLink, Caldera and Onyx. I might just look into those. Thing I hate about using Versaworks with my Roland is that I mainly work with bitmap images. Whenever I want to set cut lines I have to use Illustrator to do this. With Flexi on the Mimaki I can just make the image transparent. Choose where I want to cut out then contour cut it. Seems so much quicker rather than using 2 seperate softwares. Is this the norm for Versaworks or is there a quicker way that I missed out.

Sorry for the different topics, I guess buying two different branded machines in such a short amount of time means that I have more problems than before haha

 

[Solventinkjet]

I attached a picture of the blue rubber I am talking about. If it is missing that is the problem for sure. Also see the pictures of a good lock mechanism and a bad one. Basically, the index head should never move the roller. It's not a function that it's meant to do. Moving them after the fact won't hurt anything.

As far as I know Versaworks doesn't have a way to add cut lines in software.

 

[Myster Enigma]

I attached a picture of the blue rubber I am talking about. If it is missing that is the problem for sure. Also see the pictures of a good lock mechanism and a bad one. Basically, the index head should never move the roller. It's not a function that it's meant to do. Moving them after the fact won't hurt anything.

As far as I know Versaworks doesn't have a way to add cut lines in software.
View attachment 131944 View attachment 131945 View attachment 131946

Hi Vander,

Yes just had a look at the back of the pinch rollers and there isn't a blue piece of rubber on any of the pinch rollers at all like you've got in the photos. Not sure how they've all come off but if I can manually move them over and that sorts it then I'll be fine with that. The lock mechanism looks good so hopefully it's just a small problem with the rollers. I can live with that Once again I'd like to thank you for your swift responses and taking your time to help me. I'll look into other Rasterlink tomorrow and hopefully things will go well.

Have a good day

 

[Solventinkjet]

Surprisingly they aren't held in by anything other than friction. I have seen them fall out on new machines even. They probably fell off some time in transit.

 

[Myster Enigma]

Surprisingly they aren't held in by anything other than friction. I have seen them fall out on new machines even. They probably fell off some time in transit.

Yeah it's a bit of a shame. The build quality seems to be amazing otherwise. Do you know if these are sold anywhere or if there's a homemade way of putting something on there? Thing is once a print job is ripped the index head still needs to readjust the pinch rollers so I basically have to stay near the printer for every job

Thanks

 

[Solventinkjet]

The mechanical drawing doesn't show it as a separate item but it looks like it comes with the CL cam assembly which is $11. I would have to ask Mimaki to confirm. You probably could rig something as well but I don't know where to start with that.

Edit: PS. You can only see the blue piece when the pinch roller is up. Just in case you only looked at it down.

 

[Myster Enigma]

The mechanical drawing doesn't show it as a separate item but it looks like it comes with the CL cam assembly which is $11. I would have to ask Mimaki to confirm. You probably could rig something as well but I don't know where to start with that.

Edit: PS. You can only see the blue piece when the pinch roller is up. Just in case you only looked at it down.

Ahhh so I just put the pinch rollers up and you're right the blue pieces are all intact. Seems like it could be another problem causing these rollers to be moved. It is really down to the index head. If there was some way I can stop it from setting the pinch roller pressure I think that will be an alternative fix.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Unfortunately it's an integral part of the system. The machine measures the material by looking at where the pinch rollers are. I would take a very good look at the pinch roller lever mechanism. Something has to be preventing it from engaging all the way. That is the only way those pinch rollers could slide like that.

 

[ProPDF]

Unfortunately it's an integral part of the system. The machine measures the material by looking at where the pinch rollers are. I would take a very good look at the pinch roller lever mechanism. Something has to be preventing it from engaging all the way. That is the only way those pinch rollers could slide like that.

You guys open today? We tried to call several times with no answer.

 

[Solventinkjet]

You guys open today? We tried to call several times with no answer.

We are half open. I am the only one in the office and I have some printers coming in for repair so I am not able to get to the phone. I'll call you in a bit!

 

[Myster Enigma]

Unfortunately it's an integral part of the system. The machine measures the material by looking at where the pinch rollers are. I would take a very good look at the pinch roller lever mechanism. Something has to be preventing it from engaging all the way. That is the only way those pinch rollers could slide like that.

Hi VanderJ,

If I take a video of the initialisation stage and upload it to youtube will this help much? I can record it from several angles to show what happens.

Thanks again

 

[Solventinkjet]

Yeah that could help. Might notice something is off.

 

[ewded]

Hi Myster Enigma, now that you have experience with both Mimaki and Roland, can you tell me if you experienced slower ink drying while printing on Mimaki?

 

[Myster Enigma]

Yeah that could help. Might notice something is off.

Hi VanderJ,

Thank you hope you all have had a good New Year. I will be uploading a video later this week as I have just gotten back. Hopefully it may be something that I simply overlooked as I don't think the machine is damaged at all but I could be wrong.

 

[Myster Enigma]

Hi Myster Enigma, now that you have experience with both Mimaki and Roland, can you tell me if you experienced slower ink drying while printing on Mimaki?

Hi Ewded. I have had zero problems with ink drying with the Mimaki. In fact I had to turn down the default heat temperature. At the moment I have set all 3 heaters to 30, 30, 30 degrees Celsius. It was above 40 on each before. I even did a test to rub on the vinyl sheet 2 minutes after it printed to see if the ink smudged. No problems at all.

However please keep in mind that I have only tested this machine with PU T Shirt Vinyl and also a generic Matt Sticker Adhesive Vinyl. Both had no problems.

 

[Myster Enigma]

Yeah that could help. Might notice something is off.

Apologies that it has taken me more than a whole year to get back to you with this problem I haven't been using the Mimaki at all and just used the Roland but I now have time to sort it out. As before the problem with the pinch rollers still stands. I have taken a video:

Have you any idea why this is happening Is there anything else I can test for. Thanks

 

[TA04]

Hello! You have solved this problem? THX