Roland decoupled Print & Cut

Roland decoupled Print & Cut

This document is written to clarify the working of Roland Registration Markers and to give some hints what could be wrong in some cases.

Introduction

First of all we will show you a snap of the Output Inspector so it will be clear what to expect when you print with the Roland Registration Markers. For the sample we used a rectangle of 20×20 cm. 2 mm printed outline of a square. And on the same position a cutting rectangle in a cutting layer. The Output Inspector shows in this case only the print job.

The Roland Registration markers contain 4 black circles, some hairline arrows (not visible in the Output Inspector) a rectangle and the name of the job as a label on the bottom. The arrows are pointing to the corners of the original job.
  1. There should be some white space around the black circles on all sides. As you see this white space, on the left and the right side, is not provided by the job. The reason for this is that you need to setup the media in the printer putting the pressure rolls on the media. The Printer detects the inside of the most left and most right pressure roll, using these positions to calculate the origin and width of the media. The position of those outside pressure rolls adds enough white to the job.
  2. On the bottom of the job 6 cm extra media is needed to make sure the Jobs get in the grip of the pressure rolls while cutting. This is the reason the label is place almost 5 cm below the bottom markers.

Creating a Roland Registration Marker job

To create a Print & Cut job we use Editor.

  • Create at least two layers; one to print and one containing all cutting information.
  • Select the Roland Printer as the printing device and also as the cutting device. It’s also possible to use any non-Roland printer in combination with a Roland Print & Cut device or Roland Cutter:

  • Press the Arrow to start Layout.

  • Check the Decoupled Cutting checkbox in the Cutting tab. Do not center the job. This can result in some problems when pressure roll positions are changed. Just align the job to the left side as shown in the picture above.
  • Submit the Job.

Two jobs will be created; one print job that automatically will start printing and one cutting job that is placed on hold.

When the print is ready, it can be cut off the media. Be sure not to cut off the 6 cm extra space at the end of the job.

Now you can laminate the print if needed. It could be a good idea not to laminate the part of the markers. Some products will have negative influence on the marker detection.

The media now needs to be fed back into the Roland device.

To align the laminated media using the crop marks set the laminated media so that the crop marks are at the center of the blade protection:

When the cutter is ready for a job, start the cutting job in the RIP.

The cutter will start looking for marker #1, if this is found it will detect the rectangle to be able to calculate the jobs skew. Then the other markers are detected and the cutting job should automatically cut all contours.

Troubleshooting

  • Markers are not detected:
    • Set the media so that the crop marks are at the center of the blade protection
    • Do a “nozzle check” to check if all nozzles are available. Not enough contrast can lead to problems
    • Do not laminate on top of the markers ( or cut out the laminate from the print ).
    • In layout is a possibility to change the density of the markers: for more density select Rich, for less density use Weak.
  • Bottom markers cannot be detected:
    • Check if there is 6 cm or more trailing space after the markers.
    • Usually its better to load this media as roll and not as sheet.

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