colored streaks/stripes in grey design - 540v

[borderswine]

this grey design is giving us an issue where we're getting magenta colored streaks in the print. this also happens when printing solid blocks of grey. in the attached photo they are difficult to see, but they go horizontally on the screen.

ive had a service tech out, but it remains unresolved.

ive been told to check:
cap tops
dampers
ribbon cables

the heads are in decent shape.

I had to outsource the print of this design, and did so through a shop that has the same printer, also uses versa works, and roland inks. they used the same settings as i did to run the print. it came out fine, but if i look hard enough i can still make out some slight magenta colored streaks.

is this a limitation of roland? versaworks?

im interested in hearing peoples thoughts, or if anyone has seen these results elsewhere.


thanks!

 

[otctech]

In my experience silvers and greys are the hardest colors for the Rolands. We always print them on our newest machines because if the heads aren't printing flawlessly it looks like crap. I bet that if you had brand new heads it would print good. Not saying your heads are bad, just less than perfect.

 

[ColoPrinthead]

I think it's just the nature of printing neutrals with 4-6 colors. You might be able to make it less apparent by adjusting your colors at the RIP. My Versworks knowledge is limited, so I can't tell you the best way to go about it aside from playing with your overall color changes. I used to print black to white gradients on back lit and it really sucked.

 

[CS-SignSupply]

Have you tried exporting the file to TIFF and then output?

 

[AdamSok]

We found that the only way to print grey so it wasn't green and also to avoid the magenta is to use the Roland spot colors in illustrator. Only works with solid color, not gradients. World of difference!

-Adam

 

[eye4clr]

Looks like it may be a feed issue. Is the roll cycling slack then tension as it feeds? If it has a chance to feed one pass with the weight of the roll, then the next pass without that same back pressure, you can get this appearance.

 

[borderswine]

Have you tried exporting the file to TIFF and then output?

Weve got slack on the roll to eliminate that possibility. We've dodged banding this way, however I wouldn't describe this as banding in the normal sense.

 

[borderswine]

We found that the only way to print grey so it wasn't green and also to avoid the magenta is to use the Roland spot colors in illustrator. Only works with solid color, not gradients. World of difference!

-Adam

I plan to try this out, but why wouldn't this work with gradients? Because it formulates the in-betweens and defeats the purpose? This piece of artwork is all gradients...

 

[borderswine]

Have you tried exporting the file to TIFF and then output?

TIFF is our current file format.

 

[tomence]

I would use a spot color from the VersaWorks color library and you can still print gradients no problem. Use the K channel only to print gray.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Also try creating a blend with 0 magenta and setting VW to density control only. This will guarantee (yes I mean it!) that you'll get zero M in your grey.

Try a blend from 20,0,0,100 to 0,0,0,0.

Gradient problem solved.