Need Help Registration marks process (What am I overlooking?)

[Mascitti Bro]

Getting the same message, no matter my approach in my first attempt to cut after laminating. ("CROPMARK ERROR -NOT FOUND") (Roland VG540) Hope to solve thus, as the jobs are starting to come in and don't want them to pile-up! Lol! Thanks in advance, all

 

[TimToad]

Either your material isn't loaded square, you don't have the dots lined up with your cutting strip and basepoint set.

Did you print the "print/alignment" crop marks onto your prints?

 

[Mascitti Bro]

Here they are....

 

[TimToad]

Here they are....

Ok, so you want to load the media back into the printer making sure you've loaded it nice and square to the front edge so that once you move your registration marks into alignment over the center of the grey colored cutting strip the sensor will pick them up. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get those front dots to be lined up.

Is it at least catching the first one and moving the cutting head around that first dot with the rectangular bar and then erroring as it travels down the width of the media?

I'm not trying to condescend to you so if some of my questions seem like no brainers, pardon me for not being able to be there and see what you are doing.

 

[Mascitti Bro]

Ok, so you want to load the media back into the printer making sure you've loaded it nice and square to the front edge so that once you move your registration marks into alignment over the center of the grey colored cutting strip the sensor will pick them up. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get those front dots to be lined up.

Is it at least catching the first one and moving the cutting head around that first dot with the rectangular bar and then erroring as it travels down the width of the media?

I'm not trying to condescend to you so if some of my questions seem like no brainers, pardon me for not being able to be there and see what you are doing.

No, I get you. It's doing exactly as you just just described. It for certain reads the first one, and usually halts half way across to the second, fidgets around there for a few seconds-that's when the message will appear....

 

[TimToad]

No, I get you. It's doing exactly as you just just described. It for certain reads the first one, and usually halts half way across to the second, fidgets around there for a few seconds-that's when the message will appear....

Hmmm..... it should at least go all across and try to find the second one. Our VP540 has a 5 degree error buffer. Anything under 5 degrees off, will give us an error, but it at least goes all the way across to try and adjust and find the second mark.

I'm stumped. Sorry.

 

[woolly]

what are the faint marks by the first reg mark. it looks like you have printed over a calibration print, if so the eye will fail because its not clean vinyl around the mark.
as a note don't place the rollers that close to the edge come in half inch more you will loose a single sticker but the print and the cut will be more stable.

 

[Mascitti Bro]

what are the faint marks by the first reg mark. it looks like you have printed over a calibration print, if so the eye will fail because its not clean vinyl around the mark.
as a note don't place the rollers that close to the edge come in half inch more you will loose a single sticker but the print and the cut will be more stable.

They are indeed an accidental test print that occurred ,numerous attempts into this dilemma. And thank you for the pinch roller tip!

 

[Mascitti Bro]

I read a section in the manual about "manually setting the registration marks", so I also tried that. It proceeded to go, starting with recognizing marks #3&4 first, then it started its "shimmy dance", half way across the material before stopping and alerting me once again of the problem. (Think I'm gonna try printing a comepletly diff print to see if it happens again.)

 

[TimToad]

what are the faint marks by the first reg mark. it looks like you have printed over a calibration print, if so the eye will fail because its not clean vinyl around the mark.
as a note don't place the rollers that close to the edge come in half inch more you will loose a single sticker but the print and the cut will be more stable.

I didn't even notice those.

Yeah, you have to clean open area around your alignment dots. Do you have other prints that don't have the calibration test print on them? If so, use those as your test. Or rerun that print on some clean material.

 

[Mascitti Bro]

I'm a couple days from my laminator arriving, so for this print, I just cut off a piece of laminate and laid it right over the print, squeegee-ing it into place. It appears "less than perfect", w/several small bubbles-could this be the root of the problem???

 

[TimToad]

I'm a couple days from my laminator arriving, so for this print, I just cut off a piece of laminate and laid it right over the print, squeegee-ing it into place. It appears "less than perfect", w/several small bubbles-could this be the root of the problem???

Probably not.

Until you get it figured out, bring your wheels in a little, run a few short jobs, don't mess with hand applying laminate and work through the process. Keep it simple until you've had a couple successful goes of it. Just remember to decrease your cutting pressure for the unlaminated material. Its not hard to cut through the liner if you're not careful.

You'll get it. I'll be at the shop a little tomorrow and will check in with you.

 

[Mascitti Bro]

Probably not.

Until you get it figured out, bring your wheels in a little, run a few short jobs, don't mess with hand applying laminate and work through the process. Keep it simple until you've had a couple successful goes of it. Just remember to decrease your cutting pressure for the unlaminated material. Its not hard to cut through the liner if you're not careful.

You'll get it. I'll be at the shop a little tomorrow and will check in with you.

Traveling to Boston Sunday to pick up our Laminator, but will try another one hopefully in the am before we leave. (Super-grateful for the helpfulness & compassion you've shown.)

 

[MelloImagingTechnologies]

Buy a Summa cutter.
New model has cam to read marks because when you’re doing work on reflective, you will have problems with old school sensor

 

[GVP]

One thing to check that occasionally catches me out - make sure the right-most pinch wheel is not over the crop mark area. If the machine can't find the first mark, it won't find the rest either.

 

[SlikGRFX]

I read a section in the manual about "manually setting the registration marks", so I also tried that. It proceeded to go, starting with recognizing marks #3&4 first, then it started its "shimmy dance", half way across the material before stopping and alerting me once again of the problem. (Think I'm gonna try printing a comepletly diff print to see if it happens again.)

When you run a manual alignment it shouldn't try to read any crop marks itself. Once you have B123 set you just send the cutting data and it cuts. It sounds like you left Crop Marks 'on' in Versaworks which will override your manual alignment. You need turn them off then just send the cutting data, it seems like it shouldn't work but it does.

Tip: When you do the manual alignment, take the blade out and put it in the holder upside down, then reinstall it. You can use the opposite end as a center point to align with the small arrows. Press the blade holder down and the point will leave a dent in the vinyl. Just don't forget to turn the blade back around before you cut the job

Looking at your print it looks like you have the pinch rollers right on the edge of the vinyl. Roll the vinyl out and check the the crop mark isn't under the pinch roller. The media width when you reload the vinyl has to be equal to or greater than the original job width or it does funny things.

If it reads the first mark then misses the second, it's usually because the vinyl isn't straight or it thinks it isn't straight. Maybe the test print in the background is throwing the sensor off. Stick some strips of white vinyl around the black rectangle. If the front edge of the vinyl isn't square, line up a ruler with the cropmarks then draw two small lines at each edge of the vinyl. Use these to align the job.

 

[Jay Grooms]

I've actually had to move a VS-540 once because the shop lights were too bright and it would never find the marks. (I do like the shop as bright as the sun, so that's probably my fault) and if you scratch the crop mark or smudge it, I've colored it in with sharpie in a pinch. Worked fine.

 

[stxrmxn]

Reg marks are way too close to the edge of the media, lose a row of stickers print again and centre the print.
You say it scoots about halfway across when trying to read the second mark and looks for it in the middle of the sheet. It seems like that would be the distance between crop marks if the job was rotated 90 degrees. Double check everything on the software side.
The test print shouldnt make any difference but just to eliminate that possibility do what slikgrfx said and place some vinyl over the marks so you have a nice white point around your first crop mark.
Also try loading the job again, sometimes my graphtec does the same thing, maybe 1 out of every 500 jobs and i just re rip the job to fix it.

 

[PITBULL DESIGN]

This is an issue with VG's if you have the media guides in place, are using gloss laminate, or there is too much glare from lighting.

They fixed this by putting a little piece of diffuser type material on the crop mark reader in latter models. I have it but still can't cut with the media guides in place as they create too much glare for the eye to pick up the crop mark.

I also set the base point manually at the first crop mark,

 

[TimToad]

This is an issue with VG's if you have the media guides in place, are using gloss laminate, or there is too much glare from lighting.

They fixed this by putting a little piece of diffuser type material on the crop mark reader in latter models. I have it but still can't cut with the media guides in place as they create too much glare for the eye to pick up the crop mark.

I also set the base point manually at the first crop mark,

We cut with the media guides in place frequently and used to have an employee who was convinced of the glare issue so he would lightly sand the gloss off the lam with a piece of emery cloth. I have stood in front of the printer and cast a shadow, blocked the light with my hand, not stood there, not blocked the light, same result. We always double check to make sure our media width matches that of when the piece was printed and set the base point after moving the media to center the first registration marks on the grey cutting strip.