High Speed Batch Label Printing – Cascading Misalignment of Gaps for Die Cut Labels with CW-C6x00 series

Relates to:

  • ColorWorks CW-C6x00 series

Explanation:

The driver version 1.4.0.1 and higher, introduces a new feature High Speed Batch Label Printing (HSBLP) enabled in Driver Preferences in Figure 1. This is further explained in the Technical Reference Guide (from rev F) shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1: Driver Preferences includes the HSBLP checkbox

Figure 2: Technical Reference Guide (Rev. F) explains how HSBLP merges pages.

When the Media Form is set to Die-cut Label in Figure 3, if the Gap between labels parameter is incorrect, the start position of each image becomes misaligned with the actual label.

Figure 3: Driver - General tab shows the Gap between labels field of a Media Definition

This misalignment occurs because gap/edge detection is performed at the beginning of each merged-page. The start position of each label/image within the merged-page is shown in Figure 2.

Method:

To prevent cascading misalignment of labels:

  1. Measure the gap between labels to ensure the correct gap size.
  2. Ensure the above-mentioned gap size value is set to 'Gap between labels' field in the driver.
Note:

If the value is smaller or bigger than the actual physical gap between the die cut labels then the image will move up or down resulting in printing on the liner.

Examples:

Die Cut Labels of length 120mm; 3mm gap allows four labels of length 492mm printed per merged page.

Note:

A fifth label cannot fit onto a merged-page as it would exceed the label length limit of 600mm.

Case: The gap size is set incorrectly to 2.5mm, instead of 3mm. Notice the start position of each successive image starts at a higher position relative to the actual label, until the next merged-page begins.

Case: The gap size is set incorrectly to 3.5mm, instead of 3mm. Notice the start position of each successive image starts at a lower position relative to the actual label, until the next merged-page begins. This will cause an additional page to be lost.