Pinch Roller Placement on Graphtec and Q-Series Cutters
Placement of the rollers to the outside edges of the material is important, not only because it improves tracking, but because the machine locates the pinch rollers during the initialization process. The machine uses the pinch roller location as a boundary for the area it will cut.
The cutter will not cut outside of the area between the left and right pinch roller. This means that if 24" material is loaded into the cutter and the pinch are then set 14" apart, only the 14" area between them will be used for cutting. Because of this you want to put your pinch rollers toward the outside edges of the material. However, you don't want them so close to the edge as to run the chance of the material coming out from under the roller.
Keeping that in mind, also be aware of the designated areas across the machine that the pinch rollers must be in. The areas are marked with blue or grey stripes along the rail the carriage uses to travel across the machine. They correspond to the grit rollers under the material. If the rollers are not well enough within these areas the machine may display Realign Rollers.
Realign Rollers means that one or more pinch rollers are not where they should be and will need to be relocated before you can use the machine. You'll notice that on the back of each of the pinch rollers is a lever. The position of that lever determines the amount of pressure that is put down onto the material. The levers of the two pinch rollers used on the outside edges of the material should always be in the same position.
