Graphtec CE8000 Vinyl CuttersWe are pleased to assist you in operating your Graphtec CE8000 vinyl cutter. 

You've made a great choice!

As a reminder, LXI 22 doesn't have drivers for the Graphtec CE8000 yet. 

For the time being, customers using Graphtec CE8000 vinyl cutters with LXI must cut vinyl using the CE7000 driver.

Accessing the Quick Menu on Graphtec CE8000 Vinyl Cutters

If you don’t already know, when your cutter is ready to cut, the Q on the bottom of your screen is a QUICK MENU. You get to this menu by touching the Q on the screen.

Yes, that’s right – the new CE8000 cutters have a touch screen! The touch screen allows for quicker access to some of the features we use. Let’s look into the QUICK MENU to see how to use it to your advantage.

After pressing the Q for the QUICK MENU, you will see a few options.

COPY

The COPY button option will make copies of the job you just finished along with the number of copies you want.

We handle this inside of the cutting software by telling the machine how many copies we want and have it print that way from the start so we really won’t use this setting.

Origin

Press the ORIGIN button to tell the cutter the new origin point for the cutter to start from. 

Use this setting when we doing a print and cut job when you need to align the cutting head with your registration marks. 

Home and View Buttons

You will not use the VIEW and HOME buttons very often. 

VIEW displays where the cutter head is at that moment.

HOME takes the cutting head back to its origin point.

COND No.

Press the COND No. button to choose the different conditions you have set up. 

If you have a certain blade, blade force, and speed that you need for a specific material  and you have set that condition up, this is a quick way to get to that condition.

This is your blade conditions. When you press that symbol, it will take you to this page.

From this page, if you touch the CONDITION No., you can change between the different conditions that can be set for different jobs.

EDIT CUT CONDITION

This setting will allow you to change the:

  • Blade Type (Tool)
  • The Offset
  • Speed
  • Force

You will not use the other settings in that menu unless it is truly needed. You will not need the other settings for cutting the majority of vinyl and window tint.

BLADE ADJUST 

BLADE ADJUST is a fantastic feature.

When you touch this feature, it will run a test and tell you which direction to adjust the blade length so it can take the guesswork out of making the blade the correct length. 

NOTE: It is always helpful to perform a test cut to ensure that you are not cutting through the backing and that the material is correctly releasing from the liner. 

CUT TEST

CUT TEST will perform a test cut on the machine.

When you choose that setting, it will take you to this screen.

Always perform a cut test before starting a large cut job. It only takes a minute, but can save you lots of time and money. 

From there, only choose the first option, which will fix the force and offset with the Conditions.

GO READY

Choosing this option takes you to a very important screen.

INFO

From this screen, you will go through the screens that you will be using for different issues that pop up.

This is what Product Support technicians notice that customers need the most help with when they contact SignWarehouse. 

ARMS SETTING

If you touch the ARMS icon you will be taken to this screen.

Typically, SignWarehouse Product Support technicians will ask you to do a SENSOR ADJUSTMENT or SENSOR OFFSET ADJ. if you have issues with the cutter reading the Registration Marks on your print and cut jobs. 

Sensor Adjust

To automatically SENSOR ADJUST, follow these steps

Confirm the position of the tool and press the Enter button

NOTE: If the cross cannot be scanned, an error message will be displayed.

Depending on the condition of the media, it may not be possible to scan it properly, even after adjustment.

If you are looking to manually adjust the Registration Mark Level, follow these steps:

NOTE: The machine detects registration marks by comparing their color to the background. You need to adjust its sensitivity to this contrast

There are separate sensitivity settings for detecting marks when the media moves forward (X direction) and when the tool carriage moves side to side (Y direction).

If the machine is having trouble detecting marks, try increasing the sensitivity if:

  • The mark and the background are too similar in color.
  • The machine misses the mark as it moves past.
     

Try decreasing the sensitivity if:

  • The machine detects marks where there aren’t any.
  • It picks up folds or dirt on the media instead of the mark.

NOTE: You can set the range between 30 and 90

Confirm the settings and press OK

NOTE: You can set the range between 30 and 90

Confirm the settings and press OK.

To get back to the HOME screen.

Testing the Registration Mark Sensor

If there still is a difference in the cutting/plotting even after performing an adjustment using the registration mark, it is possible to check if there is a problem with the registration mark or the application by checking the position of the registration mark plotted. Follow these steps to try and straighten that out.

For this test, use the Mark Type 2 design.

NOTE:  Use the Type 2 registration Mark

NOTE: With the caution note above, you can also use your large format printer with the appropriately-sized white media to print the Mark Type 2 design on and use that for the test if you do not have a Graphtec Felt Tipped Pen to perform the test.

The following error is displayed when the registration mark was not scanned properly.

Press the RETRY to scan again, or the CANCEL to exit.

NOTE: If you get this error, you need to run through the Automatic Sensor Adjust process and try again.


What To Check

Is your machine not reading the Registration Marks? If your machine is having trouble reading the Registration Marks, there are a few things you need to check before changing your settings.

The sensitivity of the registration mark sensor is automatically set by measuring the reflective level of the marks of the actual media. The mark can be detected when the color of the mark has a reasonable contrast against the background.

For example, a white mark can be detected on a colored background. 

NOTE: The registration marks can also be hard to read due to poor printing quality or media surface.