Need Help Epson 80600 & 80600L Print Gutter/Color Bar width, adjustable?

[natallica]

Reaching out, hopefully someone knows...It's a nit-picky thing, but I'd love to fix it.

We have 2 of these printers and there are NO options on the printer panel to add these to each job so we've been using Flexi to add them (using 'Print Color Bar' option).
While it DOES add a 4 color stripe to the left side of our prints, which is what I'm after, it prints them in two different widths... one is 3/8" and the other is 3/4". It's not printer specific, and there are no options within Flexi to change the gutter size. The width of the bar varies from job to job and/or printer to printer, it's luck of the draw which width you get.

The width can also have an effect on the OPOS marks. If the gutter is too wide it can tile our print because it thinks it will exceed the media with (Not if it wasn't 3/4" wide).
I'd like to have it be the 3/8" ALL OF THE TIME, but Flexi seems to just pick it out of a hat and print it however it's feeling at that moment.
Has anyone else seen this, or know of a way to make Flexi settle on a color stripe width and stick with it on every print?

Pic#1 is the 3/8" width - Pic #2 is the 3/4" width

 

[marsuni]

Although Ergosoft RIP we use, have the ability to add them, we have never used it (since 2012) to our Epsons!!! It's pretty useless to an Epson printer to have them!!!

 

[greysquirrel]

Onyx allows you to make them any size you'd like...I would assume its in flexi somewhere.

 

[mim]

I'm sorry I do not know the answer to this, but I am curious what the benefit of having this stripe is. Why do you want to have these? I assume there is a good reason but I'm unaware, thank you.

 

[natallica]

I'm sorry I do not know the answer to this, but I am curious what the benefit of having this stripe is. Why do you want to have these? I assume there is a good reason but I'm unaware, thank you.

Printing these in the gutter does 2 things.
• One, it keeps some of the nozzles from drying out during passes when it's not 'calling' for a specific color. We do a lot of vehicle wraps and printing solid blocks of color, and it's useful when there is upcoming text or images in the file and the head can fire when needed and the head haven't glazed over from not being used till that point.
• Two, if during printing, you happen to see banding because some nozzles are dropping out, it will assist in seeing which channel it is that's causing the issue in a specific color.
Aside from the width Flexi makes them, the only other gripe I have with it, only does CMYK, not the other 5 colors (R/O/Lk/Lm/Lc).

It may not be as much of an issue on these Epsons, but our previous Seiko W64's it was crucial, Magenta was always being a PITA. We could easily see nozzle drop or ink starvation issues as they happen. Yes, it uses some ink, but it's pennies in cost overall, and I'd prefer the head fired when I needed it to.

Hope this helps,
-N8

 

[natallica]

Although Ergosoft RIP we use, have the ability to add them, we have never used it (since 2012) to our Epsons!!! It's pretty useless to an Epson printer to have them!!!

Useless because?

 

[CanuckSigns]

A word of warning, if you use the gutter marks and will be cutting the graphic out on a summa flatbed, don't, it messes up the location of the cut lines, I found this out after printing 3 full rolls in a rush for a client, loaded them in the cutter and it cut the bottom 2" off each panel.

 

[cornholio]

Useless because?

Because the printer firmware takes care of idle nozzles spitting during printing.