Help! Mimaki JV33 - Banding problem! Please help

[kkamauu]

We have a JV33 - brand new only 2 months old. Since we got it we have been having banding problems. Our supplier that we bought it from doesnt seem to know what it is yet. Its been a few weeks now and so I'm posting to see if anyone here knows what i should try.

The head is new, and all the nozzles are firing. We tried turning the heat setting all the way up and also all the way down but still get the same thing. We are testing on Glossy Canvas (made by epson). We printed the canvas at the suppliers shop using their demo unit and it printed great, using these settings:

720x720, uni-directional , 16pass

same settings at my shop but i get the ripple affect - see the pics.

we calibrated and comp multiple times before printing-

any ideas? these are to go into a art gallery so we want to get it looking just like the suppliers mimaki.

thanks!!

Pics are
1. HD pics are our shop print
2. One Shot is the suppliers
3. HD pics are our shop print
4. One Shot is the suppliers

 

[kkamauu]

we also get this on our 3m control v3 as well - ill post pics as soon as i get some -.

thanks again!
Aloha

 

[Letterbox Mike]

is that the only material and only test file you've tried printing? Try printing 540x1080 unidirectional 6 pass and see if you get the same thing.

 

[kkamauu]

ok - i will try and see what happens.

I have tried it on our adhesive vinyl - 3m ij180 V3 - same results. The canvas is more forgiving which is why i was expecting that is should work on there.

Any other suggestions as well?

 

[kkamauu]

FYI - the ripples go left to right just like the print head

 

[kkamauu]

FYI - we use onyx as well

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Give a lot more specifics. What profile(s) are you trying? Are you trying the same profile over and over? Are you trying the same file over and over?

On our JV33, 720x720 profiles seem to introduce a bit more noticeable banding on larger areas of solid spot color than 540x1080 profiles. 540x1080 is the native resolution of the head on the JV33, we find it is much more consistent than 720x720, which seems to starve the head of ink for lack of a better explanation.

 

[kkamauu]

just the same profile for canvas that i made, -

for the adhesive vinyl profile it is:
8 pass - bidirectional 720x720

im trying to get the best quality print for the canvas. i will change it to the 540x1080 and see what happens. uni directional or bi-directional? any recommendation on heat temps?

thanks!

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Try unidirectional first.

Are you sure the canvas you're printing on is SOLVENT printable? You said it was made by Epson, but is it for aqueous printers only?

Heat settings are hard to say, canvas is hard to print on anyway. We run Neschen Monet canvas at 48/45/50 though.

 

[artbot]

looks like ink starvation, maybe. have you done some color isolation? print big blocks of c, y, m, and k. to observe if all the colors give you this effect or just the cyan.

 

[kkamauu]

ok - i will print the large blocks of C,M,Y,K and also do another test with unidirectional, 6pass 540x1080

Our supplier is saying the canvas is made for solvent, but i will double check this with another supplier to be sure tmrw.

thanks for the quick replies -

 

[tomence]

Epson has their own solvent printer so i guess he's got the right canvas.

 

[kffernandez]

i'm putting my money on ink starvation. just like artbot says... isolating the offending head would be the first step. after that, i'd check/switch the dampers and see what heppens. a very small amount of air leaking into the connections could cause this. my second guess would be an electrical problem on the head - but is less likely [but not impossible] due to the new heads.

 

[kkamauu]

ill do that first thing in the morning - so we can see if this is an issue with cyan or other M,Y,K for that matter

 

[Morph1]

I get this happening here and there,
I found that it is the media , the material you're printing has friction burns,
as what makes the surface distorted by a rolling system where they manufacture the vinyl (your media) etc...

I tested this printing on calendared vinyl and then switching to cast vinyl,
the calendared vinyl looked just like yours, I would say switch the supplier of your media....

It is impossible that the same printer printed the samples good and suddenly when you set it up in your shop it prints bad....

hope this helps....

 

[Rooster]

There shouldn't be any issues with ink starvation at those print settings. Unless there's some kind of issue with the delivery system.

Did you have the heaters on when you calibrated your media comp settings? I find this will affect the calibration. When was the last time you did your drop_pos correct calibration? Cleaned the encoder strip? Do you create your own profiles? Are the ink limit settings the same or different between your machine the demo that printed the samples?

I run the heaters maxed out with canvas on my JV33, but I use the ES3 inks and they love the heat. I find the canvas very forgiving due the the texture, but normally I'm printing canvas at a higher resolution and number of passes than you (bi-directionally). Although I've gone as low as 720x540 6 pass and seen less banding than you're experiencing.

 

[kkamauu]

I believe the heaters were on when i did the calibration... how do i turn this off? Should i leave them off for the media comp as well?

I think our tech did the drop_pos correct calibration, not sure but that term sounds familiar. Im a little new to this machine. How do you do that? I can do that first thing in the morning.

Yes - i cleaned the encoder strip (it was clean already)

My inks are the normal ss21 cartridges -

should i try (bi-directional 720x720)?

thanks!

 

[kkamauu]

It is impossible that the same printer printed the samples good and suddenly when you set it up in your shop it prints bad....

hope this helps....

Sorry for any confusion - My supplier has a demo unit of the same exact printer model that i have. JV33.

I printed the canvas on my brand new JV33 and got this problem. But on his JV33 it prints perfectly. The only difference being that he uses flexi for rip and i use Onyx. However he did bring his laptop over with the Flexi rip and hooked it up to our JV33 but the print was still the same.

thanks

 

[Rooster]

Your drop_pos correct calibration should be detailed in your user manual.

I suspect your ink limits are set really high. If all your calibration settings are fresh and the machine is new it's the first thing I would check. Banding is typically caused by ink starvation. The RIP settings you've chosen normally wouldn't push the machine into a situation where it would get starved for ink at the head, unless perhaps there was no ink channel restrictions or total ink limits being applied.

I also just noticed that you're based in Hawaii. What are the humidity levels like around the printer?

 

[kkamauu]

fixed!

GOT IT !!!! Thanks GUYS -

540x1080 6 pass worked -

plus i added a little more saturation and the print comes out beautiful.

thanks for the suggestions - !
Aloha