Feint lines in print

[Justin Williams]

Hi Warren, what setting are you printing on?

Jus

[Warren Beard]

Printing on to Metamark roll up banner media and using satin photo profile on standard settings.

I reprinted it exactly the same and it printed fine, has happened a few times now on different jobs so not sure if it’s something to do with static or temp changes or something that can fluctuate, otherwise should happen constantly I would imagine 😕

[Steve McAdie]

Is it happening on different materials or just the roll-up stuff?

[Warren Beard]

different materials, satin roll up and gloss vinyl so far 😕

I have noticed more static lately but don’t know how it would effect the print

[Dan Osterbery]

hi warren, i have an sp540 and have found i get similiar lines on banner and canvas material very occasionally, never found out what it was though. sorry thats not much help!

Dan

[Peter Dee]

Just done some banners with full colour graduated backgrounds on an SP-300.
Got a similar effect but noticeably stronger around the point where a cartridge ran out and the printer stopped whilst I changed it.
Could it be where a full colour background uses lots of ink the machine struggles to keep up a continuous flow to the heads?

[Gavin MacMillan]

same here and with no idea to the cause. I remember threads about it before, it seems to be an issue with the machine but seldom noticeable. We normally fix it by upping the print quality and/or slowing the machine down.

It tends to happen on certain colours or weights of ink, sky in photographs sometimes and light yellow – always seems to be pale images / feint colours

Not much help I know.

G

[Paul Hughes]

Hi Warren

I have had this on my cadet, normally when running at higher speeds, i have found that it is a sign that one of the dampers is not working properly, the band is normally caused where one colour has run out of or not getting enough ink, work out what colour is missing and change that damper, they are on a few quid and about 10mins to change. just as easy to change all four out well you are at it.

solved the problem every time on my machine.

Paul

[Warren Beard]

I asked Signmaster techs who I bought the machine from, they left a message while I was out and said it was the heater setting and I was running them too hot, will chat with them tomorrow to dig deeper and will turn them down to test.

Will report back any findings.

The machine is only 4 months old, will the dampers need replacing already? (what ever those are 😳 )

cheers

warren

[David Rowland]

is it vertical or horizontal lines? e.g. lines are with the print carriage

my guess is heat

[Warren Beard]

quote Dave Rowland:

is it vertical or horizontal lines? e.g. lines are with the print carriage

Horizontal, with the carriage

quote Dave Rowland:

my guess is heat

Oh yes it’s easy to say that now that I told you already, smart @@rse :lol1:

[Chris Wool]

think you said it earlier static.

do you notice it appears when you unroll a bit of slack. thats when i notice it on banner stuff

[Warren Beard]

maybe Chris, are you saying I could get the line when I roll off some more? I did think it might be so tried to unroll some of it and obviously half way through had to unroll some more (done in stages to keep it off the floor) you saying the line might come when I unroll more of it?

I will have to try take notice next time if I get the same problems.

cheers

Warren

[Chris Wool]

quote :

you saying the line might come when I unroll more of it?

yes

[Warren Beard]

I just printed off another 3 roll up banners with a lot of solid areas, I made sure it always had some pre-fed and all printed perfectly 😕

I also had another thought that maybe I had my take up too hard so I slackened that off as well.

Chris, I unrolled media during the print as well and no problems so not sure if that was it.

Problem sorted for now but will monitor it and hopefully find the cause.

cheers

warren

[Warren Beard]

This problem is still happening and is getting more and more frustrating the more and more waste I have from it. Does anybody who know to speak to at Roland to try find out if they have any other bright ideas?

Cheers

Warren

[Gary Birch]

We have had this on our versacamms too. I have shown several engineers this and all have identified it as cyan migration and shrugged there shoulders saying it is one of the quirks of the machine.

Always seems to be worse on certain colours(light blues being one of the worst) and strangely always on a similar print area(where the print comes off the bed)

I always thought it could be some kind of heat issue but never actually found a total solution to it. That said my printers are out of warranty but with yours being a newer machine Roland should try and resolve the issue.

I know others have had similar issues as I remember the threads.

Gary

[Warren Beard]

Mines just over a year already 😕 but when I spoke to them before they said the same thing about it being a "quirk" of the machine and that is was because the head resevoiur didn’t refill quick enough so would print a band with not enough ink, I can often get around it by pausing the printer and it will refill the heads and then I un-pause it and it is fine but sometimes the printer does it’s own thing and I miss the pause opportunity and it spoils a whole print.

Yes blues and greens and worse for it but it’s such a waste of time and money. 👿

Warren

[Dan Osterbery]

We have similar problems and cyan does seem to be the worst effected. We also have been told it is one of the quirks. Sorry Warren. I must say though i did ring roland uk and speak to someone and they were very helpful with suggestions but none of them seemed to cure it! it might be worth a phone call.

good luck

Dan

[Gary Birch]

Warren
Have you tried slowing the head down to give it more time? This can be done in versaworks. Never slowed it down but regularly speed it up.

Its a long shot but worth a try maybe?

Cheers

Gary

[Elena kalispera]

Head alignment ok?? Maybe this

[Warren Beard]

yes tried it, tried a dozen things they told me to and none worked, they basically admitted it’s a design fault so don’t think there’s much you can do about it 😕

Hind sight’s a wonderful thing 🙁

[Elena kalispera]

I remember when I used versaworks I had this problem but when I brought WAsatch 6.7 rip the lines disappeared never had a problem
Since maybe it’s something to do with the way the rip tells the layout of dots and pattern in print??? Worth trying it with a different rip if you have access to one??

Elena x

[Jason Davies]

calibration for different materials??

[Warren Beard]

might be worth a try to resolve but the issue will still remain with the printer itself as it only happens when you hear the pump pumping ink so must be because of this.

I’ll stumble on 😉

cheers

Warren

[Chris Wool]

what i don’t understand is you say the pump works while its printing ?

[Elena kalispera]

That is weird?? Maybe try firmware update??

[Kevin Flowers]

quote Chris Wool:

what i don’t understand is you say the pump works while its printing ?

Chris
its weird but the VS640 i have does it as well

Kev

[Chris Wool]

does it have a spit pad like the older machines or does the head go back over the capping station to have a little wee.

[Elena kalispera]

After long-ish print the pump d work to merely replenish the dampers full of ink for the next session of printing. But for lines to appear is odd??

Regards elena

[Warren Beard]

yeah it pumps during printing, as mentioned on another post I usually get around it by pausing the printer during the print, usually this will activate the pump and top the heads up but not always, if it pumps while printing a solid colour you get a band. Basically the pump does not get ink in to the head quick enough so one or 2 passes don’t have enough ink in the head to you get a feint line.

As I said Roland told me this is the cause and it’s a design flaw, no permanent solution as yet as far as I know. 😕

Warren

[Elena kalispera]

I mentioned it to a friend and he suggested getting the double capacity dampers they fit snugly and should allow for enough ink so there is always enough ink in the head system even during a pump up? They only cost £10 each I think. Mine has them fitted but they are not standard.

I check to see if I have some and can send free of charge

Regards elena

[Justin Atkinson]

Elena is bang on – get the large capacity dampers and this should fix the issue, and its the cheapest option! (apart from upgrading FW – you can download this from http://www.rolanddg.co.uk)

Option 2 would be to look at using a different rip…IE Wasatch.

Most new Roland printers use the large damper and also a 3mm ink line (instead of 2mm) to resolve this problem.

Although, you normally only get this issue when your printer is reaching middle age….

Hope this helps.

Justin

[Elena kalispera]

Yay!!! I was right for once. 🙂 shame lottery number never work out ;(

[Warren Beard]

Thanks guys, I’ll look in to that.

cheers

Warren

[Gary Birch]

Did you ever get any joy with this Warren, had problems recently with this when printing at full width with blues(or only notices it with blues any way). If I just print a half width panel down the centre of the vinyl then it prints fine.

Let me know how you got on.

Cheers

Gary

[Warren Beard]

Hi Gary

Seems to be sorted now, I had to buy a new PC to run the Rip and when I uploaded new Metamark profiles it seems to have disappeared so we (Roland and I) seem to think it was a profile issue.

The only other time it happens is when you hook it to the take up unit, the tension it creates as you attach it also can give you a line but this you would only get once if the tension remains constant.

So far it seems to be solved and actually printing much better than before so happy days (sad I canceled my order for the VS540i but oh well)

oh, there is another issue ALL inkjet printers have which is light banding issues which usually happen in lighter solid shaded areas of print, apparently this is a problem with ALL inkjet printers so nothing much you can do about it, this is a totally random problem as well (this is what Roland told me as they though that was my issue but alas it was not)

good luck

cheers

Warren