The FX1200 is cutting unevenly/inconsistently or cutting through the liner only on certain sides.

Article ID: 63195  

Question
The FX1200 is cutting unevenly/inconsistently or cutting through the liner only on certain sides.

Answer

Follow these guidelines:

Front Side or Back Side Inconsistent Cuts. When dealing with issues where you are cutting through only on the operator (front) side or towards the back of the cutter there are a few things to check.

1. Cut Pressure. Increase or decrease your overall cut pressure.  Sometimes you can find a pressure point where you are cutting through the material on one side and just cutting into the liner on the other side.

2. Bubbles in Material. Make sure that the material is lying flat.  Sometimes the pinch roller position can bunch the material creating an uneven cutting surface.  To avoid this, disengage all pinch rollers and both nip points then rock the material forwards and backwards to allow the material to settle.  Engage the pinch rollers again, try to avoid having the pinch roller travel over any cut line.

3. Front/Back Edge Force and Speed Compensation (For Rectangular Cuts). First adjust your cut pressure so the cuts that are going across the web (Left Side/Right Side) are perfect.  Don't worry about front side or back side cuts yet.  Once you have the across the web cuts cutting at the proper depth you need to determine if adjustments need to be made to the front side cuts or the back side cuts.  Now you can adjust front or back edge force.

In PTFinish go to your advanced tab - advanced knife settings.  Change front edge force and back edge force to 0.  Change speed compensation to 32.  These settings will give you a good default starting position.  Try running at these settings. Note, adjustments still may need to be made.

Front Edge Force.  Controls how much pressure is applied to the front edge of a cut.  Front edge of cut is relative to the front of the FX1200.  A negative value will increase the amount of pressure that is applied to the front edge of the label.  A positive value will decrease the amount of pressure on the front edge.  Example: If knives are cutting through the liner, you would want to increase the Front Edge Force to decrease the amount of pressure that is applied to the knives. 

Back Edge Force.  Controls how much pressure is applied to the back edge of a cut.  Back edge of cut is relative to the back of the FX1200. 

4. Uneven cuts on Circles, Ellipses or Contours (Speed Compensation). Speed compensation can be used to slow down the cuts if you are getting uneven cuts when changing general directions in a contour/circle/ellipse cut.  In PTFinish go to your advanced tab - advanced knife settings.  Speed Compensation can be set from 0-64.  0 = no speed compensation or no slow down.  64 is the maximum compensation or the maximum slow down.  Start with 32 and make adjustments from there. 

For jobs with multiple blades check the following:

Make sure you are using a matched set of knives.  Red knives are not matched and should only be used for 1 knife jobs.

If issues are only occurring in 1 knife position, try swapping knife positions to see if the problems follow the knife.  If they do you will need to replace the knife.  If a new knife still does not fix the issue, verify each knife housing assembly allows free rotation of the knife.  Use your finger tip on the knife tip to rotate the knife.  If the knife does not rotate freely, remove it, tap the top of housing on table and blow through housing in both directions to remove any debris.  Reassemble and verify free knife rotation.  If it is still sticky, replace knife housing assembly.

Replace the wear strip. The wear strip is replaceable piece of soft plastic directly under the cutting surface that protects the knife from damage if the knife cuts through the liner.  A worn wear strip can cause the knife to bounce which will result in a bad cut and a chattering noise.

Pinch Rollers. Lock down all of the pinch rollers.  Make sure all pinch rollers are engaged and evenly spaced across the web. 


Article Details
Views: 3555 Created on: Mar 13, 2015