Magnetic Blade holders
Info. & Technical
Customers who experience cutting problems often assume that the blade is at fault but on Roland and some other machines that use magnetism to hold the blade in place the blade holder can often be the cause of the problem.
Even the highest quality blades are useless if the blade holder does not allow them to rotate freely.
Drag knife blades need to rotate with minimal resistance and the blade offset must be sufficient to create enough torque to cause the blade to rotate to trail and follow the correct cut path.
On Roland and some other machines the default offset is only 0.25mm which gives very little torque to rotate the blade so it is important that where they are supplied with magnetic blade holders the holder allows the blade to castor with minimal resistance.
Magnetism can attract dust and fine metal particles into the angular contact bearing (sometimes called pivot bearings) inside the holder and cause it to clog.
When the bearing clogs it creates resistance to the rotation of the blade which may then try to cut sideways or backwards causing turned up corners and vinyl rips.
The bearing you can see by removing the nose cap of the blade holder is not the problem.
The “problem” bearing is inside the holder and cannot be accessed without damaging the holder.
To replace such blade holders is relatively expensive and in time the bearing problem can recur.
The Smart Knife was designed to cure these problems.
ROLAND PRINTER PLOTTERS
Vinyl Guides/Clamps can lift and damage the blade [or Smart Knife] as it passes over the guide.
Always remember to remove the guides/clamps when cutting.