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Odd behaviour of Roland Versaworks RIP Software
Hi
A couple of days ago I printed a large mural for an exhibition, 4m x 2.5m. I put it in versaworks, and tiled it into four drops of a meter each. The whole thing was printed as a single print, so the rip was all done at once.
Anyhow. Installed it yesterday. Stepped back to have a look.
The second two drops of the print are lighter than the first half.
I mean really noticeably lighter. The picture is half sky, and so it really stands out. And the vegetation at the bottom is much lighter also.
Why could this happen? It was all printed off the same roll of vinyl (digitac promo vinyl, which usually prints really well)
The first two drops are exactly matching, and the second two drops are exactly matching. But there is a very definite lighter tone from one side to the other.
And there is no gradation between one half and the other. Just the second two tiles are all over lighter than the first two.
And it is not as if there is anything wrong with either side. I would have been happy with either setting, both look good – on their own.
But obviously one next to the other looks terrible.
There is really no way I could have inadvertently changed anything half way through, as it was all in the same rip. I dont think its possible to change the settings half way through the same rip, even if I wanted to.
The printer didnt stop, I didnt change the ink cartridges. Really, Nothing changed.
Has anyone encountered anything like this before?
Makes no sense.
And now I have to do it again.
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4 Replies
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Sounds like one of the colours has stopped firing correctly halfway through the printing process and as you said, everything looks fine until you hang the drops and are face on with them.
That said, I remember a few years back HP latex printers had a “random” issue very much the same as you have described. Multiple drops, tiled job outputs a dodgy panel and messes the whole thing up. I have never had anything since, so I think they must have fixed the issue with one of their firmware updates, but it was an issue that HP knew because their problem was “replicating the problem” to allow them to fix it. because it was so random, it had them baffled. This was a while back, and as I say, fixed now.
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What printer/inks are you using?
I printed a trailer wrap a few weeks back, printed the whole thing laminated it, with nothing noticably wrong with the print quality, and the colours didn’t look out of place.
It only became evident there was a problem when I reprinted a panel, and it was bright red, not the maroon colour that had been printed and laminated.
No explination from Roland other than ‘one of those things’ 😲 A very frustrating, annoying, and expensive one of those things.
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David. Thanks for the questions.
1. Dont laugh…its an SP 540v. 😊
Yes its old, but I get it fully serviced by a roland engineer every six months without fail. It takes the best part of a day, and boy does Dave know his stuff. (cha-ching)
And there are still thousands of them about.
I have never not done the weekly clean, and the heads are jetting a perfect pattern.
2. Dont laugh again…Jetbest inks. 😊😊
Ive been using them since the warranty ran out.
They have never had issues, they are easily as good as Roland inks.
I believe Roland buy them in from the same factory, and they brand them, warranty them and charge a premium to cover this.
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Hey if it works, it works. Our VF2 isn’t without it’s issues. Printed 18m of wall covering, and the thing froze on the last 600mm 😡
Perhaps a nozzle’s dropped, or something bizzare like that.
It’s now a case of hoping the reprint matches whats already installed, or are you going for a full reprint to be sure?
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