Black streaks??? WTH?

[kevint2005]

This has recently started happening. Mutoh 1624x machine. From the rollers to where the platen it's perfectly clean, but then where the printhead is working back and forth it begins doing this random streaking effect. It's sometimes the direction of the rollers and sometimes the direction of the printhead. I've cleaned it thoroughly, printhead edges, rollers, my exhaust fan system on the printer, no fuzz or anything on the printhead that i can see at all. It did this really bad in the attached pictures last night, then after this job finished i printed a banner and it was literally perfect. No streaking in the white areas whatsoever so makes me think it's this vinyl possibly. Other note, the printhead/dampers are basically brand new, it was all replaced 3 months ago, so no nozzle deflection or anything. It has a perfect test print.
Any ideas? I'm going to try a different profile on my next print to see if it helps. If not then i will experiment with a different media. This here is Substance viny which i've loved everything about so far except this print quality i'm having.

 

[unclebun]

Static electricity due to low humidity. Get a humidifier and keep the humidity in the room up around 40% before printing.

 

[kevint2005]

Static electricity due to low humidity. Get a humidifier and keep the humidity in the room up around 40% before printing.

Interesting! I actually have a humidifier in a closet somewhere in my house. Definitely will try this

 

[Ogre]

On my Mimaki CJV150 I found a small ball of dust and fibres formed under the media jam sensor. Every time the sensor travelled over the capping station, the fibres took a bit of ink from the capping then smear it on the media. It was just chance to see the small ball of dust and fibres caught underneath. Once the dust removed the streaking disappeared.

 

[INPrint]

Did the humidifyer work?

 

[Kbrecken]

you can also check these guys out, they might have a product you could retrofit to your device to eliminate static on the device / media,

Ion360 Rods - Stopstatic.com

Ion360™ rod – Magnet Mount – provides solid magnet mounting of the ion360™ rod and makes them simple to mount and adjust. You place it where you need it and the magnetenhances the transfer of the discharge current to ground.

stopstatic.com

 

[bob]

Far more likely that static, gamma rays from the moon, or a Gypsy curse is a chunk of crud hanging from some part of the head carriage.

 

[unclebun]

Far more likely that static, gamma rays from the moon, or a Gypsy curse is a chunk of crud hanging from some part of the head carriage.

The OP says he thoroughly cleaned the whole printhead and carriage area and there is no fuzz present. In addition, fuzz on the printhead/carriage usually presents as discrete droplets and will also occur on the edges of the material outside the print area, on the hold-down devices, anywhere the carriage goes. The ghostly, misty "overspray" from static stays around the print area.