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Lines in the print
I’ve had our versacamm 540v ecosol max, for one year now…superb machine etc but still have one major gripe.
From the word go, we had a re-curring flaw in some of our prints, and i know some of you will know about this. If you can imagine printing a solid block of colour, it’s all perfect apart from a feint stripe or two down one side or randomly somewhere in the print. Usually this is a light coloured parallel stripe effect, like the printer is running out of ink except the colour comes back and carries on, so you’re left with this feint line.My understanding of it is that this effect happens when the printer doesn’t quite put enough ink down on part of the print, like a minor ‘blip’ so to speak, and it is supposedly down to a possible problem using particular profiles with certain medias.
Problem is, i’ve had this happen on every type of print media, using almost every profile! I’ve not yet managed to find a profile that is 100% reliable in this regard.
I’ve also been told this problem is not just on the versacamm, but across the board on other printers also, so i would be very interested to hear from some of you guys with versacamms and JV3’s to find out if you’re seeing this at all?
Thanks
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16 Replies
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Paul
is the line upright vertical (|) or horizontal (-) if it is the vertical then try cleaning the encoder strip. On my Mutoh a dirty encoder causes it to fire the head but i was told by an engineer last week that Rolands are opposite an it causes it not to fire the head. Thus causing a white stripe showing through the print. If the stripe is horizontal then it is going to be profile or clogged nozzleKev
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cant speak of knowing your machine or eco inks, but heat and warm materials is a good starting point to printing well.. all our materials are kept about 18degrees at all time until print time… not had any quality problems since we built a small print room.
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quote Kevin Flowers:Paul
is the line upright vertical (|) or horizontal (-) if it is the vertical then try cleaning the encoder strip. On my Mutoh a dirty encoder causes it to fire the head but i was told by an engineer last week that Rolands are opposite an it causes it not to fire the head. Thus causing a white stripe showing through the print. If the stripe is horizontal then it is going to be profile or clogged nozzleKev
Kev, the lines are always produced in the direction of the print head travel, not down the linear length of the material etc, and it’s random, you just can’t predict when it will do this.
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quote Dave Rowland:cant speak of knowing your machine or eco inks, but heat and warm materials is a good starting point to printing well.. all our materials are kept about 18degrees at all time until print time… not had any quality problems since we built a small print room.
Cheers Dave, hadn’t really thought about temperature. I haven’t seen anything consistent to make me think the material should be warmer, some of the material stays on the machine for a while and you can still get the error. I might try heating up our store area and see if that makes a difference.
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Paul,
Have you tried unrolling the media prior to printing? I sometimes have this problem with banner material, as it’s quite heavy for the printer to pull direct from the roll, so I unroll some of it whilst the machine prints.
Also check that the brake on the rear rollers is not engaged.Regards,
GeoZ
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quote geoz:Paul,
Have you tried unrolling the media prior to printing? I sometimes have this problem with banner material, as it’s quite heavy for the printer to pull direct from the roll, so I unroll some of it whilst the machine prints.
Also check that the brake on the rear rollers is not engaged.Regards,
GeoZ
Thanks mate,
I know exactly what you mean there, but no, we always roll off slack material so i know it’s not to do with pulling on the media or the brake etc.
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Does it happen when you print slowly, i.e. best quality, as well? If there is a partial blockade in 1 of your ink lines, it could let through enough ink mostly, but when printing fast , and the requirement for that colour is high, it may not let through enough ink. Just my shot in the dark…
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quote GERT DU PREEZ:Does it happen when you print slowly, i.e. best quality, as well? If there is a partial blockade in 1 of your ink lines, it could let through enough ink mostly, but when printing fast , and the requirement for that colour is high, it may not let through enough ink. Just my shot in the dark…
Sounds feasible…can’t say that i’ve tested any of these settings in direct relation to this problem (although i am doing that as of now), but from memory i would say it’s less likely to happen when using a slow high quality setting. I am currently doing a big banner job and am using strictly hi-speed settings and i haven’t seen this problem yet, but i have changed profile and banner media on purpose just to test the profile/media mis match theory, as opposed to a mechanical solution.
My understanding was that other printers were suffering with this, but so far no one has really confirmed that, so it’s starting to look like it may be specific to this printer (or specific to my printer, at least).
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Hiya…
Have you tried upping the print head temperature and the preheat temp yet?
What about slowing the print head down a bit…Even going to uni direction to allow the ink to dry between passes.
Also have you done a recent calibration with the particular vinyl you’re using?
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quote Lee Attewell:Hiya…
Have you tried upping the print head temperature and the preheat temp yet?
What about slowing the print head down a bit…Even going to uni direction to allow the ink to dry between passes.
Also have you done a recent calibration with the particular vinyl you’re using?
Hi Lee,
I have changed all print temperatues back and forth, not really seen anything there that is consistent with this problem.
Running the print head slower has given better results but not 100%, having said that, the banner job we are doing at the moment is all at hi-speed and so far, no problems.
Have tried Uni-directional with no better results but haven’t done any calibration of the vinyl, we use a few different vinyls.As you can tell, this is a very difficult problem to pin down because you can’t replicate the fault at will, it just happens randomly, although there is obviously a common denominator in there somewhere.
I’m leaning more towards the profile side of things, obviously some profiles work better with some medias and some head speeds etc.
What i find really interesting is that none of you guys have said you have the same problem… -
Do you have any photos you could upload?
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I don’t have any photos at the moment but i will put one on here the minute i see it happen again.
Thanks
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I confirm I don’t have this problem. It sounds like an intermittent head firing problem. When I’ve had lines in the past its permanent and head related.
Peter
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quote Peter Shaw:I confirm I don’t have this problem. It sounds like an intermittent head firing problem. When I’ve had lines in the past its permanent and head related.
Peter
Hi Pete,
I have wondered about this. If it is a head problem what can i do except wait for it to get worse and then eventually change the heads?
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It is probably worth having a word with your supplier and/or Roland and see what they say.
Peter
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quote Peter Shaw:It is probably worth having a word with your supplier and/or Roland and see what they say.
Peter
Cheers Pete, i’m going to do that now.
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