Prints are Skewed

[SignGuyNate]

So I've been having issues with my VP-540, and I think I've narrowed it down. The symptom has been my cut being way, way out of calibration, progressively more so as I run more material through the machine. Up to a quarter of an inch over six feet. I had been blaming the media, looking at my pinch rollers thinking it was walking. Today I just sat and stared at it while it ran and noticed my media is fine, the print itself is stair-stepping itself leftward. (Is "leftward" a word?) Last week I cleaned my encoder strip and it solved the issue somewhat, but it's coming back, so I'm thinking it's time to replace the strip. But I'm only a few years old as an operator, so my experience is limited. Am I on the right track here?

 

[Solventinkjet]

Yes I would think about replacing the encoder strip in this case. First I would run all of the encoder calibrations/setups and environmental match to make sure the encoder is being read correctly in the first place. PM me your email and I an send a tech manual to help you run those calibrations. They are easy to do as it is an automatic calibration.

 

[rparsons]

We had a similar issue with our JV3, and a new encoder strip fixed the issue.

 

[SignGuyNate]

Good to know. Boss will be happy if I can fix it myself. We had a tech down a few weeks ago, which is expensive enough as it is, who jumped straight to replacing two of our print heads when it turned out to be a fuse. We were... unhappy with him.

 

[inkmed]

Good to know. Boss will be happy if I can fix it myself. We had a tech down a few weeks ago, which is expensive enough as it is, who jumped straight to replacing two of our print heads when it turned out to be a fuse. We were... unhappy with him.

Yes, printer parts like encoder strip is not expensive.
But service cost is very high.
You can try study the technology from easy problem, printer technician is good job.

Adam Yang from Inkmed

 

[WrapCity]

"Leftward" or "Rightward"

Hi,

Did you ever discover the source of your problem? We have been experiencing the same thing with our 5 year old XC540 except in the opposite direction. I just cleaned the encoder strip but as I was looking at it, I noticed that the left most pinch roller was tapered very slightly from left to right. We had the right most pinch roller come off its seat earlier this year which caused a major feed issue and replaced it with one of the secondary rollers. I just did the same for the left and will see if that solves the issue. I'll post again if it does, it's an easy fix that anyone with a little patience and mechanical ability can do, might save someone the cost of a part and technician.


The Wrap City Amateur Roland Tech