Vertical Bands SP-540V

[CRoWYoTE]

Hello All,
Has anyone seen this before (see photos).
I'm using a Roland SP-540v.
I've adjusted the heat, did every kind of alignment, changed material,
replaced the encoder strip, replaced the rollers, adjusted the vacuum,
tried different profiles, Rolled out excess material ahead of printing.
I'm out of ideas.
Artwork out of Illustrator CS5 v15.1
Rip out of Versaworks 4.4.3
The signs in the photos are printed bottom first, so the
streaks are vertical, which I think rules out banding.
The vertical streaks are random and sometimes even run at a
10-15 degree angle.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[CRoWYoTE]

The Vertical Bands correspond with type of wrinkles in Photo 1.
Heat set at 116 Print 116 Dry as I've tried every setting up to that point.
Material: 3M IJ-35-10.
Room Temp: 73 F
Humidity: 25%

 

[Alpha Star]

Let's rule out heating issues. Turn your heater and dryer heat down to zero and try some test prints. I'd want to know if that pattern completely goes away.

 

[Alpha Star]

Isn't it safe to say the vertical pattern is being caused by printing on those wrinkles? Just want to clarify... you're just trying to solve the issue of the wrinkles forming, yes? Or am I missing something?

 

[CRoWYoTE]

Thank you Alpha,
that's it exactly.
I usually run with NO heat and it runs fine. I only added heat
to get it to lay down. I'm getting wrinkles in between the rollers
and I'm not sure why.

 

[Alpha Star]

Ah, okay. Happens to me all the time. It's a mechanical issue, though. Either you need to replace your pinch rollers, or you need to clean your grit rollers.

Firstly, stop printing. You can diagnose this by simply using your arrow keys to feed the media back and forth. You should see the ripples form as you do this.

Sometimes, the ripples will only form the first time you feed it... meaning if you feed it, you see ripples, but then when you reverse it and feed again, no ripples... is that the case? Just try to feed 2 feet, back up, and feed it again 2 feet and tell me what you see

 

[splizaat]

Those patches are because of the vinyl wrinkling.

Mechanical issues? How could it not be heat?

That heat seems a bit high, it happens to us when the heat is up too high and we usually run around 104/112. Try those settings just to see if the vinyl still buckles. If it doesn't, your heat needs to be turned down - the vinyl is shrinking on the liner because of the heat...if it's not buckling with the heat off, then the heat is your issue - plain and simple.

Also what's the temperature in your shop? If it's cold in your shop and you toss it on the printer with the heaters at 116, it's going to shock the vinyl and shrink it on the liner like you're seeing.

 

[nucleus]

Hello All,
Has anyone seen this before (see photos).
I'm using a Roland SP-540v.
I've adjusted the heat, did every kind of alignment, changed material,
replaced the encoder strip, replaced the rollers, adjusted the vacuum,
tried different profiles, Rolled out excess material ahead of printing.
I'm out of ideas.
Artwork out of Illustrator CS5 v15.1
Rip out of Versaworks 4.4.3
The signs in the photos are printed bottom first, so the
streaks are vertical, which I think rules out banding.
The vertical streaks are random and sometimes even run at a
10-15 degree angle.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I had the exact same problem. You have to go in the back and remove the plate where the media enters through the back six screws altogether 4 along the bottom 2 on the sides up near the top.
Take an air compressor and blow out the fans, its going to get dusty you could probably hold a vacuum just off to the side of the compressor nozzle, but blow it out real good.

Trust me this worked, it might sound like the fans are going good now, but once you blow it out you will see and hear the difference.

Make sure you go from the back cause that's were the fans little intake holes are and because like an idiot I tried doing it from the front were the heaters are first and forgot to turn off the main power and blow my fuses.

Roland techs actually told me to do it from the back and I thought I could save time by doing it from the front, cause the area behind my sp540v is tight.

 

[CRoWYoTE]

Those patches are because of the vinyl wrinkling.

Mechanical issues? How could it not be heat?

That heat seems a bit high, it happens to us when the heat is up too high and we usually run around 104/112. Try those settings just to see if the vinyl still buckles. If it doesn't, your heat needs to be turned down - the vinyl is shrinking on the liner because of the heat...if it's not buckling with the heat off, then the heat is your issue - plain and simple.

Also what's the temperature in your shop? If it's cold in your shop and you toss it on the printer with the heaters at 116, it's going to shock the vinyl and shrink it on the liner like you're seeing.

splizaat, I usually do not run heat at all and it runs just fine.
I only turned on the heat testing in intervals of 6 degrees at a time once the problem began.
Room Temp: 72f
Humidity: 20%

Thanks for the input.

 

[nucleus]

Here are a couple pics. The first one was a couple weeks ago when I was having the same problem, it was happening for a while but gradually got worse I just kept on lowering the heat until about 38 degrees C. then the prints wasn't come out good any more so I called All Graphic Supplies our local Roland dealer, so they told me about blowing out the fans.

The second one was taken right now at 50 degrees C. fan on full just to show you the difference. Hope this helps.

The material is oracal 3651 glossy vinyl.

 

[CRoWYoTE]

Ah, okay. Happens to me all the time. It's a mechanical issue, though. Either you need to replace your pinch rollers, or you need to clean your grit rollers.

Firstly, stop printing. You can diagnose this by simply using your arrow keys to feed the media back and forth. You should see the ripples form as you do this.

Sometimes, the ripples will only form the first time you feed it... meaning if you feed it, you see ripples, but then when you reverse it and feed again, no ripples... is that the case? Just try to feed 2 feet, back up, and feed it again 2 feet and tell me what you see

Alpha, I've replaced all pinch rollers in the last months and I've cleaned the grit rollers. It almost seems like the grit rollers are sitting a little high, not allowing the vinyl to lay flat. I'll try your suggestions tomorrow and report.
Thank you

 

[CRoWYoTE]

Here are a couple pics. The first one was a couple weeks ago when I was having the same problem, it was happening for a while but gradually got worse I just kept on lowering the heat until about 38 degrees C. then the prints wasn't come out good any more so I called All Graphic Supplies our local Roland dealer, so they told me about blowing out the fans.

The second one was taken right now at 50 degrees C. fan on full just to show you the difference. Hope this helps.

The material is oracal 3651 glossy vinyl.

nucleus, Thanks for the reply. I've often felt it was a vacuum problem but was a little leery opening that part of the machine up. I'll check it out.
thank you for your time and the pics.

 

[nucleus]

CRoWYoTE

Trust me man I had the exact same problem the images are coming out funny cause the material is wrinkling and the heads don't have room to spray the ink down, cause the vacuum fans aren't working at true capacity right now even if you have it at full power it is only working at 50 or 60% capacity.

I've had my Versa Camm for 9 years I bought it a month after Roland came out with it.

I wish I could find my pics where the ink was, this issue have nothing to do with profiles or any encoder problems.

 

[nucleus]

nucleus, Thanks for the reply. I've often felt it was a vacuum problem but was a little leery opening that part of the machine up. I'll check it out.
thank you for your time and the pics.

No Problem .

As long as you on plug the printer you won't have ant probs. there are no wires connected to that panel but you will need a 90 degree phillips screw driver to get out the top screws they are a ***** to get out.

 

[Alpha Star]

I agree it could also be a vacuum issue. I forgot this has happened to me as well. All I did was unclog several of the tiny vacuum holes on the platen and it fixed the problem.

Can't comment on heating issues... never had a problem like that.

 

[splizaat]

Am I misunderstanding something??

If it prints FINE with heat off...then you turn the heat on and the vinyl buckles....the heat is up too high, or you're using crap vinyl (which it doesn't sound like you are). 116F is HIGH, try 104print/112after.

Why would the vacuum be a problem if it works fine with the heat off? Unless I'm not reading something right (and I will very willingly admit I could be wrong).

 

[CRoWYoTE]

Am I misunderstanding something??

If it prints FINE with heat off...then you turn the heat on and the vinyl buckles....the heat is up too high, or you're using crap vinyl (which it doesn't sound like you are). 116F is HIGH, try 104print/112after.

Why would the vacuum be a problem if it works fine with the heat off? Unless I'm not reading something right (and I will very willingly admit I could be wrong).

I'm sorry if I didn't explain well enough. I usually print with NO heat at all and it prints fine, but in the event that the vinyl wrinkles when I load it in the machine my first fix is to try a little heat. I turn on the heat and adjust it by 6 degrees until the wrinkles go away (Which they never do).

 

[Alpha Star]

Okay, so it should not do that with NO heat... my original thought was correct. There is something mechanically wrong. Either pinch rollers, grit rollers or possibly clogged vacuum holes of fan.

 

[CRoWYoTE]

I took the back plate off and it was very clean, but I cleaned in and around the fans anyway. The holes on top were free of any debris.

I loaded some vinyl, fed it out about 2 ft. and fed it back and the wrinkles we're still there.

I did change the vacuum power from "Auto" to 100% and for some reason it seemed stronger, but not strong enough to handle the wrinkles. The wrinkles seemed to be on one side or the other of each roller. When the fan turns on it pulls down the vinyl to get rid of all but 2 or 3 of them.
My gut is saying the fans aren't strong enough to pull the vinyl flat, but the flip side is I don't think they were designed to work any harder then they are.
With the help of my Signs101 brother/sisters I believe I'm a lot closer to solving this, for that I thank you all.

Keep any ideas coming. I can't feel 100% reliable until I figure this out.
Thank you.

 

[splizaat]

I took the back plate off and it was very clean, but I cleaned in and around the fans anyway. The holes on top were free of any debris.

I loaded some vinyl, fed it out about 2 ft. and fed it back and the wrinkles we're still there.

I did change the vacuum power from "Auto" to 100% and for some reason it seemed stronger, but not strong enough to handle the wrinkles. The wrinkles seemed to be on one side or the other of each roller. When the fan turns on it pulls down the vinyl to get rid of all but 2 or 3 of them.
My gut is saying the fans aren't strong enough to pull the vinyl flat, but the flip side is I don't think they were designed to work any harder then they are.
With the help of my Signs101 brother/sisters I believe I'm a lot closer to solving this, for that I thank you all.

Keep any ideas coming. I can't feel 100% reliable until I figure this out.
Thank you.

In that case sounds like pinch rollers...does it do this with EVERY brand of vinyl that you put in the printer?