Consistent colour printing issues TRUVIS- 3 banners none are the same blue when printed.

[dom]

I just printed three vector files on a Roland TRUVIS 540 and all three are the same colours from illustrator but when i print them all three banners are different blues. Using pre-press and banner profile. Can anybody help me out why every time they print I get a different blue. I have printed them out 3 times and I have yet to get three blues the same. If they were stand alone banners it wouldn’t be such a problem but they go next to each other and you really see the colour difference. Can anyone help?

 

[dom]

I replaced my ink pouches and did a job before this three piece. Can anyone help with how you print three similar banners with the same blues. Tried raising heat and dryer no change.

 

[weyandsign]

Does the same file print the same blue every time? The next file prints the different blue every time? If so, there's something in the files not matching.

 

[greysquirrel]

are you trying to print a .ai file? if so save to high res pdf. Is the rgb or cmyk? are they all the same? increasing heat on the printer can take your color another way, stay consistent.

 

[dom]

The files colour mode is cmyk. They are high quality pdfs. All colours used in the file are cmyk. The same file prints a different blue every time I print it out. I even tried the generic vinyl profile.
If it’s the same file, shouldn’t it print out the same every time? I have done a powerful clean on it to see if that worked and now I print an electric blue, if that is even a colour.

 

[somcalmetim]

I had a problem with shifting colors on VG2 and it turned out to be a clogged drain on my orange capping station...I did manual clean and put lots of cleaner in the capping station as well as scrubbing top of cap sponge with cleaner and swab...do a couple cleanings till all stations drain easily when cleaner is added...keep station lips clean so they seal against heads and dont use inks right down to bottom before changing...I think running an ink till the very bottom can introduce vacuum or negative pressure to your ink line...

 

[Kbrecken]

Wow, thats crazy, let's try imposing a small section of all 3 files together into 1 file, focus on the sections that need to overlap, then print, if all 3 are different in colour, we know its a file issue, if they are the same, then we know it's the device, the we can go from there,

 

[White Haus]

Wow, thats crazy, let's try imposing a small section of all 3 files together into 1 file, focus on the sections that need to overlap, then print, if all 3 are different in colour, we know its a file issue, if they are the same, then we know it's the device, the we can go from there,

This is what I was going to suggest. Print a small section of all 3 files together, see if they print different.

 

[Sean@CedarHouse]

There can be color change from one side of the printer to the other as well. So blue for example might be a different color on the right side of the print than the left which is subtle enough you wont notice until you place them side by side. So, one thing you may also try is to flip the opposing banners so in the orientation options, 1) is upright, and 2) is upside down 3) is upright etc.

 

[somcalmetim]

Wow, thats crazy, let's try imposing a small section of all 3 files together into 1 file, focus on the sections that need to overlap, then print, if all 3 are different in colour, we know its a file issue, if they are the same, then we know it's the device, the we can go from there,

Hard to do when I am pretty sure OP said it was the same file printing differently each time...which likely means it is a machine issue with a clogged head or clogged or compromised capping station that is starving one or multiple colors...machine cleanings might move things around a bit and give slightly different colors each time but until you clear the clog or even the pressure in the lines it will likely continue...I would change any low ink cartridges to full ones, try soaking the capping stations in cleaning fluid while you manually clean the head again, check test prints for clogged nozzles and then print a big 12" block of all your main colors to work things out and then try again...

 

[dom]

Thank you for all your responses. I tried several methods and tried printing it three more times. I moved and placed connecting parts of the 3 files together and did a clipping mask and it printed a similar blue ( a slight gradient over 18" I used 6" from each file.
My solution was to redesign it as one long banner with crop marks for where they were going to overlap and gave myself 3" overlap. The blue did nor print the same for the duration of the print. There is a slight gradient to the blues of banner when you look at it but now it is way closer now than the other 10 prints.

Once again Thank you for your guidance