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Colorspan 72uvr advance problem

nygroove

New Member
All of a sudden our 72 started advancing the media while it is making it's return pass in bi-directional mode. It makes a weird angled print pass, as its moving and printing at the same time. It prints fine in uni mode. Any idea how to calibrate this??
 

Mspec

New Member
when you load your media, and advance it, does it move normally, or is it jerky?

do you hear unusual noises when the media advances? does the same thing happen with lower pinch roller pressure?

If any of the above is true, when is the last time you applied grease to the grit roller shaft? Use something small that you can control ( like a syringe, or a Q-tip ) and apply a little grease ( not white lithium, try something silicone based or a wheel bearing grease) to the shaft where it interfaces with the cups in the platen. Do NOT get the grease on the grit rollers themselves, or you will get grease on the backs of your prints, and doublesided work will suffer.

If none of this is true, carefully open the media drive motor encoder cover ( two small screws on the rounded black housing where the cables connect to the motor ) and blow it out with some air, if the encoder disc is scratched up, you will likely have to replace the motor.
lastly, try adding a carriage pause to the print settings, and that might allow you to print without the strange advance until you find the fix, or repace the motor. That will ultimately be faster than running uni-directional.
 

nygroove

New Member
First off... Thanks for the replies. I have been on the road doing sales calls and haven't been able to answer back. I have been able to run the auto bi-di and it seemed to help some but didn't fix it all. And yes it does make horrible sounds when it advances and positions, so I will clean and lube every moving joint I can find in that system and let you know what happens there. One thing that concerns me when I consider the advance motor is that this machine will seemingly "lose track" of where it's at sometimes if I have to do multiple purges, and it will start to overprint already printed areas. I hope this doesn't indicate a bad part in the advance system.

In regards to the filters... We are able to order parts from Northlight Color. I haven't ordered filters in a while but I guess they are still available.

On the subject of parts... I could use a couple of printheads if anyone has some used ones. I have a printhead recovery machine that I have had good success recovering clogged printheads with, but I have a couple of heads that have electrical problems that could stand to be replaced.
 

nygroove

New Member
It turned out to be that the heads were out of level. Someone moved the carriage and left it un level. When the carriage goes right to left the heads fire in order and reverse order on the return trip. That uneven order gave the prints a skewed look.
 
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