Need Help Banding on only green on s80600

[regardstobuck]

I've been trying to get a print done today and I'm getting banding on only the green on my prints. I have done nozzle cleaning mutliple times and the nozzle checks come out great but when I'm printing on 8 pass I get horrible horizontal banding. I tried on a 12 pass and it worked good but then halfway through the print it seemed like a printhead clogged or gave out and started printing a really washed out version of the same color. I feel pretty confident its something wrong with a Yellow or Cyan printhead or nozzle since all my other colors print fine, but i'm not sure the next best step. I would prefer to not have to call in a tech since i'm in a smaller town and they probably wouldnt be able to get me help today anyway. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[swordguy3222]

I had a similar issue where I had to replace the damper. There was a slight clog in a line and the head could not keep up with ink refill. A work around for the time while I waited for new part, print on uni and if still not slow enough you can add a pass delay of of up to 10 seconds. That way it would give the machine a little break to refill. Give that a try.

 

[Michael-Nola]

It does sound like an ink supply issue. If the nozzles fire during checks then the head is good, move on.
90% of the time, ink starvation in those Epson designs is at the damper. Their ink formulations almost never clog in the lines unless it's been sitting for a few weeks OFF, and one color likely wouldn't be your issue.
I have had pretty good luck with flushing dampers instead of buying new ones.

1. Use a loupe to determine which color is dropping out. That's the color you need to focus on for future troubleshooting.
2. Take damper out, remove all hoses and flush or replace.
3. Soak it in cleaning fluid for 15 minutes then flush with very hot water.
-------Repeat until you feel it's clean and flowing water evenly throughout.
-------(You can't soak them forever or overnight, they are plastic and will be damaged in solvent for that long.)
4. Poke *gently* at the entry holes with a pick to ensure clogs are removed.
5. Check damper drain system, sometimes half of the tray/tubes are clogged.
6. Also note in your troubleshooting that green is a yellow and cyan build. Cyan is the most misbehaved of all pigment formulations. It's on the troubleshooting list to swap out for fresh ink and purge 5 times if damper doesn't fix it.

 

[rwinkie]

It does sound like an ink supply issue. If the nozzles fire during checks then the head is good, move on.
90% of the time, ink starvation in those Epson designs is at the damper. Their ink formulations almost never clog in the lines unless it's been sitting for a few weeks OFF, and one color likely wouldn't be your issue.
I have had pretty good luck with flushing dampers instead of buying new ones.

1. Use a loupe to determine which color is dropping out. That's the color you need to focus on for future troubleshooting.
2. Take damper out, remove all hoses and flush or replace.
3. Soak it in cleaning fluid for 15 minutes then flush with very hot water.
-------Repeat until you feel it's clean and flowing water evenly throughout.
-------(You can't soak them forever or overnight, they are plastic and will be damaged in solvent for that long.)
4. Poke *gently* at the entry holes with a pick to ensure clogs are removed.
5. Check damper drain system, sometimes half of the tray/tubes are clogged.
6. Also note in your troubleshooting that green is a yellow and cyan build. Cyan is the most misbehaved of all pigment formulations. It's on the troubleshooting list to swap out for fresh ink and purge 5 times if damper doesn't fix it.

Curious: I'm having issues with consistent greys in particular; you know, the first place to see issues. Mostly seeing shifts towards green or blue Epson was clueless and thought maybe there was a blockage in the damper so this seams like something that might work for me. I'm out of warranty anyways, but how do you typically access the damper? You are just pulling tubes and not the full damper correct? When you mention purge, how are you purging? My flushing pad is building up as well and I saw another post that mentioned pouring some cleaning fluid down the drain box under the flushing pad. Usually I have an excess build up of orange though. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

 

[mim]

Curious: I'm having issues with consistent greys in particular; you know, the first place to see issues. Mostly seeing shifts towards green or blue Epson was clueless and thought maybe there was a blockage in the damper so this seams like something that might work for me. I'm out of warranty anyways, but how do you typically access the damper? You are just pulling tubes and not the full damper correct? When you mention purge, how are you purging? My flushing pad is building up as well and I saw another post that mentioned pouring some cleaning fluid down the drain box under the flushing pad. Usually I have an excess build up of orange though. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

the s80600 has trouble with grays it seems. I always use a Pantone color for grays and they come out perfect, but with CMYK there can be issues. It could also be due to the profile you're using. I'd try messing around with those two options before you go for the damper.

 

[rwinkie]

the s80600 has trouble with grays it seems. I always use a Pantone color for grays and they come out perfect, but with CMYK there can be issues. It could also be due to the profile you're using. I'd try messing around with those two options before you go for the damper.

It's really strange, it strays over time but also over the course of printing in a day. Usually a problem until its warmed up after a couple prints so I avoid anything with grey until it's been printing for a while. Does it with spot colors and process colors. Spot colors aren't always an option, especially when trying to print with transparency (using Onyx, it really sucks at ripping that). Some of my profiles that I use push towards high saturation are worse than others but it does it with all profiles. Makes profiling new materials a nightmare and forget reprinting for existing clients.