black ink leaving pok marks??

[John McNickle]

i have pics but cant attach them

[Derek Heron]

hi john sounds like a profile issue too much ink going down and pooling
what substrate are you printing on speed head passes etc

derek

[John Hughes]

get your swabs out and give the heads etc a good clean.

john

[David Rogers]

Those little pok marks are caused by dust attracted to the surface and the ink pooling round it.

Black makes it very noticeable as if running a solid ‘colour’ black and not just ‘mono’ then it puts down a LOT of extra ink.

you can help the situation by printing slower (more passes) as it gives it longer to dry and reduces the pooling…or by earthing the printer and keeping dust / static to a minimum.

[Will Plane]

I get this on my Cadet, it’s usually if I’m starting a new roll of media and the first few meters are contaminated or the heaters aren’t set correctly, don’t know what vinyl you use but on average I print at 40 ish deg front and back with good results on 3-5 yr, check profile?

Another option would be to soak a swab and rest it with firm pressure (using the resistance within in the plastic handle) against the head for a few secs and then soaking up the excess fluid with a fresh swab so essentially your briefly soaking the heads, but use a different swab for each head! 🙂 B & P advised this when I was on my learning curve, my heads are still perfect after 3 years with average use.

Will

[John McNickle]

cheers for the help guys, ive had the printer for five yrs and never had this problem once, i thought the black/blue head might be on its way out but the print is good just poky.. i havent changed profiles but did turn the heater down as the vinyl was warping lately..

i give it a swab cleaning at least once a week and a good full clean every friday

John

[John McNickle]

Derek i have it running the profiles it came with for Citrosol – 720V CS CMYK RS743 Uniform UD5 Gloss White Vinyl 5YR

Print – Bi directional
Dots – Variable
Overprint – 1
Pass count – 16
Head speed – 700
time between pass – 0.1

im a bit of a technophobe when it comes to changing the settings etc 🙁

[John McNickle]

ok, heres the latest, i gave every part i could a good clean, swabbed the heads, cleaned the track and the vinyl, flushed the tubes etc and still it is doing the same thing, it has me a broken man 🙁

[Glenn Sharp]

have you tried a different roll of vinyl John….just incase you’ve got a faulty batch?

[Richard Urquhart]

Sounds like silicon contamination to me

[John McNickle]

Yeah ric thats what it is like but the printer is nowhere near any silicone, polish or oils???

it is doing it on vinyl, banner material and paper 🙁

[David Rogers]

Can you photograph it?

Still sounds a lot like dust / static contamination & ink pooling round the specks.

I used to get it a fair bit on heavy ink loads – not it happens but very rarely. Maybe the printer location / vinyl combination suits it better.

[Glorianne Ellul Bonici]

Hi, it happened to me once… try changing Dot size to VARIABLE DRY it helps.

Glor

[Gavin MacMillan]

I guess to have already but our machine does this when the wipers need cleaned. If the wipers need replacing it wont stop doing it, just excess ink not being removed by the wipers dripping on the print.

I know this is a basic answer and you’ve probably already tried but though it was worth a mention.

G

[John McNickle]

cheers again guys, can i get a profile that uses a bit less ink but not like a draft print?