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Banding issue on old SP-540 – advice needed, please?
It is weird, but when printing some lighter blues I am getting banding, where there is pink laid down underneath, but very little blue over, so I have blue prints with pink streaks!Test prints are fine. I have done the directional tests and adjusted accordingly, to no avail.
It seems to happen when printing grey also, (but no pink).
I’m beginning to wonder whether there is air getting in or something, but I don’t have a clue where to start, any advice welcome.I don’t know if you can see from the image.
Lorraine
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13 Replies
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Hi Lorraine,
Are you able to run it unidirectional to see if it’s any better?
That would be my first suggestion…
Simon. -
What’s the test print like?
I’d be thinking minor ink starvation issues as you’re getting ‘pink’ (lack of Magenta) / missing nozzles and about time for a damper change.
dave
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Hi Simon
Unidirectional made no difference at all.
David, the test print (nozzle check) is from yesterday, after running a couple of metres of print.
Ink starvation would make sense, but would it not be on the cyan/light cyan, as this is the missing colour? I did a print yesterday with a dark blue, and although it wasn’t a solid block of colour I couldn’t see a problem with it. Confused…
I will have to read up on the dampers, no idea what they are!
Thanks both of you for your input.
Lorraine
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we had a very similar issue on a XC 540, issue always appeared on blues and greys.
i think we ended up changing the media we were using at the time, switched from avery to metamark. -
H Bob, i’m already using Metamark!
It is a recent issue, which has increased in severity. It has happened on roll-up media too (also Metamark), in fact that was the photo I took.
Printing multiple colours such as a photograph doesn’t have this issue, it is only solid colours. I still wonder if there is air ingress somewhere.Lorraine
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its a strange one. very frustrating, especially when the print test is pretty spot on.
Bob
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It is, very frustrating, and I agree, I’m pleased with the nozzle check, it has improved since doing the vertical/horizontal checks, whatever it is called. Worth noting for anyone with slight nozzle deflection!)
Lorraine
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Hi,
Do you get this banding on vinyl and/or banner material ?
I have had the same issues with the sp540 using banner material when there was a full solid colour.
The problem was down to not usung the banner profile and also not unwinding the roll of banner material.
Can I ask what profile (generic or other) you were using and also the head speed ?
Were you using standard mode or high quality ?
Hope you managed to get the job done and dusted !! -
We have had issues recently with MD5 very similar to yours although ours was more in patches than lines. We tried both printers (XR 640s) and they were both the same. We then had a trial with Graphityp S22 and this printed much better. We now carry a stock of this as a fall back for solid colours.
I wouldn’t ignore the possibility of this being a media problem. We found MD5 to vary from batch to batch in print quality recently.
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Hi Lorraine.
I’ve seen this a few times on Mimaki JV3’s an it’s often to do with the slant adjustment. On a Roland it’s called a BIAS test. Are you able to post a picture of that? Also, have you tried feeding plenty of slack off the roll so the feed motor doesn’t have to snag the media do much? And finally, is the head assembly moving consistently? I.e, not pausing after every few passes?
Stafford
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Hi Lorraine, often get this on our sp540, with solid colour blues and greys. Has it been very humid recently? We get banding when its very humid. we have changes all sorts of bits and then we found it it was humidity in the media, canvas can be really bad. I would try the same file and profile with a different material. Also has anyone asked you to check the left and right pinch rollers? We were told if they give a little it can cause banding.
Goodluck
Dan
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Hi
This type of banding is mechanical and is dependent upon a lot of factors such as temperature, humidity, media and a host of others. A normal fix is to simply put in 1 or 2 extra pinch rollers on the SP-540 instead of just using the left and right hand rollers and this should stop it happening.
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Interesting because I’m having just this issue with banner material on my SP540V (Lightbar conversion), seems to print solid colours ok on vinyl though.
Steve
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