Loading The DLF

 Loading printed labels and laminate into the DLF220S looks easy; right?

DLF Media Path

For me, however, it’s not so easy.  That’s why I asked Tony Molina, our graphic artist to help me load the DLF220S.

In my post about Sierra Stickers; I asked our customer Derrick, “how long did it take to get comfortable using this label finisher?”  Derrick said “two weeks to really learn how to use this finisher”.  And Derrick is a professional printer.  You should add to this time if you don’t use it every day.

Frankly, I’ve avoided learning how to use the DLF as I’ll never use it every day.  This post is designed to share some insight into threading the DLF220S media path; and not to make you an expert.

Load Printed Labels/Laminate

First load the printed labels and laminate onto the spindles and tighten the label core holder.

Load Into Coupling Roller

Lock Coupling Roller

Second, insert the labels into the coupling rollers and lock the knob. Afinia suggests using the 2^nd hole from the left (which we didn’t do as shown by the picture above).

Attach the Laminate

Third, pull down the laminate with both hands, centering it onto the label media. And then tighten the laminate core holder. Make sure to adhere the laminate to enough of the paper area so as to not have it come apart when you first advance it through the coupling rollers.

Attach Laminate

Tony prefers to place the laminate onto the guide roller to help smooth and center the laminate, then supporting the paper from below against the guide roller to ensure easy alignment of the laminate to the roll of paper.

Advance Labels/Laminate

Fourth, use the manual button to advance the label and laminate. Be prepared for the noise of the laminate coming off the roll.

Under Damper/Into Rollers

Fifth, run the labels under the damper arm and up through the aluminum rollers. Adjust the edge guides to maintain the media straight.

Into Cutter

Align Edge

Sixth, lift the handle or latch on the rear of the plotter and push the media through the two pinch rollers. Align the media by having the edge of the media touch the edge of the silver sticker alignment points.

Push Thru Cutter

Seventh, move the pinch rollers to the media edges on both sides. You can move them manually as long as the handle or latch is up in the unlock position.

The entire surface of the pinch rollers needs to make contact with the media surface edge on both sides.

Close Lever

Eighth, close/lock the plotter by pressing down on the handle or latch securing the media.

Select #2

Ninth, select #2 on the plotter display. 

Tenth, I had to start the Graphtec cutter software.  Get the DLF latest software here: 

Open the DLF software, and then from within the DLF software open the PDF CUT FILE.  Measure the distance from the leading edge of a black mark to the leading edge of the next black mark on the printed media. You need to be as accurate as possible.

Enter Blackmark Distance

In the “DISTANCE BETWEEN BLACK-MARKS”, enter the distance in mm.

Advance Blackmark

Use the forward media single arrow button to slowly advance the blackmark into the camera square shown in the software. The double arrow button advances the media much faster but is harder to control.  You want to align the black mark in the center of the blue box as much as possible.

Prior to running a CUT TEST, check the plotter knife using the loop that came with the DLF unit.

Check Plotter Knife

The blade should be set to hit the 3^rd mark from the bottom seen in the loop.

If the blade cuts the liner, change the CUTTING FORCE on the DLF software. (You may need to remove the die-cut label to confirm the cut depth. In this training session, we had to change the cut force from 11 to 9. You can continue to do the cut test until the correct depth is found.)

Cut Too Deep

NOTE: At this point, it is very important to remember that before you run a CUT TEST, the Media Tension Control needs to be activated and set to AUTO.   Then select CUT TEST.

Activate Media Tension

Eleventh, something that we didn’t do in my training was to correct the offset in the software to make sure the label is aligned with the die-cut.  You can move the cut in all directions; and then complete cut tests until aligned correctly.  My guess is we got lucky. We didn’t have to correct the offset in our training session because the label aligned with the die-cut line perfectly after our first cut test.

Adjust Media Offset

Once completed, select “COPY MODE ON” to preselect the number of copies you want.  At this stage, we still wanted only a few to ensure the cut is correct.

Now we get into the hard part of the media path (at least I found this part difficult).

Place Thru Rollers

Twelfth, run the media down through the aluminum rollers.  Adjust the edge guides to maintain the media straight.

Thread Under Damper

Thirteenth, run the labels under the second damper arm and up and over the thick aluminum roller, down and under the thin roller as shown on the photo below.

Place Over Roller Into Slitter

Fourteenth, place a core onto the waste rewinder; then the pull off the waste matrix once the labels are fed under the roller and connect it to the core.

Connect Waste Matrix To Core

Then you can push down the waste press.  And then close the sponge roller.  I’ve seen users run the waste from the outside edges into a garbage can; or can be connected to the waste roller.

Attach To Core

Fifteenth, connect the die-cut labels to the core(s) on the rewinder making sure the label media rewinds evenly.

Sixteenth, position the slitters in the correct positions on the sides, and in cases where you are die-cutting multiples labels across the media, you would position the slitters in between the labels as well.For this, you may need to purchase more slitters.

At this point you need to TURN ON the Waste Remover.

Seventeenth, If needed, you can set the backslitters which also cut the outside edges of the finished label media correctly.  Frankly, this step seemed the most difficult to me as you have to work behind the media path.  Knob “A” moves the backslitter; knob “B” sets the cut depth.

Set Backslitter

Eighteenth, Lock the backslitter lever in place by placing the pull-pin on the left side hole. (the backslitter lock pin-hole on our DLF needs some work).

After all of these steps, you can run the job.

And here is a video of the DLF220S cutting Circle Label.

To see Afinia’s official directions, download the DLF-220S User Manual here:

In this simple stepwise recommendation, I attempted to make a relatively complicated process easy.  It doesn’t include possible adjustments required to get the die cut exactly correct; or how to set up the art/cut file.  But I hope it helps you speed up the process of becoming comfortable running the DLF220S.  And help you reduce the waste produced in training to use this machine.

Tony says, "No doubt, the DLF2220S is a great tool to have at your disposal when laminating custom-size die-cut labels.   Once you get past that learning curve that every new user has to experience, the DLF220S will produce beautiful custom die-cut labels.  Compare to other large format printers, this puppy is relatively fast, compact, and easy to use. Again, once you figure out how everything works and you get the machine dialed in, the sky is the limit for creating any shaped-size label"

I’m lucky to have Tony work with me/us on the DLF220S.  He was very patient with me; and a lot of help.

Together with the L801, the DLF220S can help you make the labels you need, when you need them; and at some of the lowest costs available.  If you need to make a lot of different labels, contact us to learn more about the DLF220S.

Guy Mikel

855-962-7670

info@colorlabelsolutions.com