Canon ipf9000s - Shadow banding

[MikeyG]

Hi there
One of my Canon iPF9000s printers has just started to produce odd bands of darker area when printing solid colours.
I have attached a picture to illustrate.
In the pic, you can see a panel of printed blue (actual width 540mm), with two darker horizontal bands, one near the top, the other just below the centre.

Does anyone have any idea what is causing these bands?
It happened a few weeks ago, and I just used the other printer, but I need to get this job out on this particular printer!

Could it be an ageing printhead?

Many thanks for any help/suggestions!

 

[dypinc]

Have you ruled out media?

 

[MikeyG]

Have you ruled out media?

Hiya!
Yes, the media has been ruled out. It's a 200gsm satin photo paper, which we have used for years. This roll, which this problem was seen on was brand new, but has now been used on our other printer with no problem.

I think it's definitely something to do with the printer itself.

Could the heads be overheating when printing large areas of solid colours?

The printer doesn't display the same problem when printing smaller areas...

 

[MikeyG]

Update to Banding problem

For anyone who may be having a similar banding issue, I appear to have solved the problem by replacing one of the two printheads, which was over two years old, but which hadn't given any error indication.

I have just printed about 10m of a flat colour (the same colour as in the picture in my original post), and all seems to have gone well. No banding, at least!

So, hurrah and huzzah! All done!

 

[danno]

Thank you for the update. Just replaced 2 heads and the capping station on ours about 2 months ago. Now the issue is back. Good luck with yours.