Summa D60 Calibration

[ChiknNutz]

I have been doing some pens plots on Mylar (drafting film) that required a very high level of detail (within +/-.01 or so). In doing so, I found that the cutter wasn't exactly running true to full accuracy. I found that there is a calibration sequence that allows you to fine tune the accuracy. After doing so, the plots came out fine. Here's the BUT...seems like the machine would not consistently hold the calibration information or something. I did these plots over several weeks, and also noticed that some cut vinyl with reg marks was not lining up right (on the order of like 1/8" or better off). This only occurs in the Y or running direction, not the X or side-to-side direction. I of course called Tech Support and they said that once calibrated, that the settings should stay. Now, has anyone else came across this and if so, is there some other setting either on the cutter on in the Cutter Control software that controls this? Any help is certainly appreciated.

 

[Fred Weiss]

I'm no expert here but I had a similar situation when I was doing Edge printed rulers for my KeenCut table. I was getting uneven spacing with the repeat command in Omega followed by inaccurate printing to the Edge once I corrected positioning. This was then corrected by a global shift of everything.

When I discussed it with my contact at Gerber, he made references to pixels and monitor resolution having an effect. This left me totally confused as I had assumed that all mathematical calculations and routines were totally internal in the software .... but the implication was that there is some interactivity with your system and video display in things like this.

That makes no sense to me but that was the understanding I came away with. If true, any change you make to your system could have an effect.

 

[ChiknNutz]

I just spoke with Tech Support again and they said that the difference in material thicknesses has an impact on the accuracy. Although exaggerated, think of the difference between a small racing tire and a big truck tire. Since the grit roller is a wheel, a difference in thickness of materials would have an impact with every revolution. Anyway, he sent me some instructions on setting up different calibration instructions for different materials. Although I can't imagine it making much of a difference, he suggested setting up these files for each material thickness (i.e. calendered, cast and the mylar in my case). I've never seen anything published about this, so it seems that this shouldn't have much of an impact. From my experience, though, it does unless there is just something wrong with the machine. Another thing he suggested was to see if the material was slipping somehow (but I have it set to plot pretty slow). Anyway, just wanted to pass along my findings so far.

 

[TerryStolmeier]

Can you post the instructions he sent?

I've noticed this when I change from vinyl to thermal transfer material. I always use Gorilla Grip (thermal) and have noticed from time to time that the there are small gaps even though everything is lined up where it should be. I always wrote it off to me stretching the material in some way.

 

[ChiknNutz]

The instructions are in a hard to read fax with screen shots from Belgium. I can distill the text and post when I get a chance.

 

[ChiknNutz]

Calibration instructions

Here are the instructions I got from Summa. The resolution is crappy I know, but that is as good as I could get it with the 1MB file upload restriction. Contact me if you want a higher DPI file.