Optical positioning and alignment system GX24

[duffbeerdaddy]

Hi,
I have a GX24 plotter that I'm trying to upgrade with an OPAS "bolt-on". Wanted ideally to upgrade properly to the CX24 which has the OPAS system integrated into the machine, but my school bursar can't fund.
I managed to get hold of V2 of Techsoft 2D and wanted the OPAS to make full use of the program - Spoke to Techsoft and Roland, but the product has been discontinued.....
I was hoping that someone might be able to point me in the right direction and tell me where I could pick one of these "bolt-on's/add-on's" from.
Thanks in anticipation!

[Tom King]

Hi duffbeerdaddy,

I think you have the two machine mixed up. CX-24 is the older machine and GX-24 is the newer machine, which comes with the crop mark sensor built in.

To my knowledge there are no OPAS kits for CX-24 they were used up and no more were manufactured. If Techsoft don't have any left then I don't think there are any.

I would reccomend upgrading to the GX-24 which comes with the Cut Studio software.

[duffbeerdaddy]

Many thank for the reply. Yes I realise my mistake - I would love to upgrade, but don't think it's top on the list of my school's development plan. Oh well, I will have to think of a way to convince them it's a good idea.... Maybe father Christmas will bring me one! ; )

[Andrew Dudley]

Hi duffbeerdaddy,

Have you thought about putting in an acquisition request for a BN-20? Then you could print and cut in one machine reducing the need for the optical eye!
You never know if Santa thought you were a good boy you may be in luck!

[DTTech]

Hi All,
Hope this is ok place to post this query!! We have a CX-24 which I guess has the above mentioned OPAS, it has Crop Mark menus. About a year ago we got access to a large printer, HP DesignJet, and proved that we could print graphics onto card
and then cut them out using the CX-24 with good accuracy if we used the crop marks to register the print out before cutting/scoring. At the time we found the CX-24 could be a little tempermental finding the third crop mark but normally with a little careful loading of the card and laminating work after cutting we thought system worked ok.

Recently we have started trying to use the CX-24 to do the above again, i.e. using crop marks to register the printed graphics before cutting, however the CX-24 seems even more tempermental now only rarely finding the second or third crop marks. We have a work around where by we ensure material is running as true as possible by eye in material feed direction and then use offsets in 2D design, package from which we cut/score material, to register printout. To be honest this works fairly well and unless we can find a way to get CX-24 to automatically find crop marks realiably this will be approach we will use.

Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated as would be good to use automatic function if possible.

Thanks in anticipation

[Tom King]

Hi DTTech,

This may be occuring becasue the sensor which seaches for the marks may not be getting a clear distinction between the black of the mark an the white of the media. To fix this you could try and cut out some circles from black vinyl which you can lay over the top of the printed marks. If this works then it means that the printed marks are not printed densly enough or that the media is too reflective.

Another possible cause could be that the media is lifting up slightly at the front (perhaps the machine has been moved to a desk where the media no longer hangs down at the front). If this the media is not flat, the reflection of the sensor beam will come back at an angle and the crop mark sensor will not see this reflection.