Ink Bleeding on a VP-540

[ScottB]

I'm getting bleeding on all four colors. Of course the manual has a great print troubleshooting section in it so I'm asking the experts!

On four large color blocks at the top of the sample image there's bleeding between the cyan and magenta and the yellow and black. It becomes more evident when you look at the horizontal gradient bars with the bleeting occuring at both ends (not in the middle).

I'd really appreciate any advice since I'm already behind on my orders!
Thanks Very Much in Advance!

 

[Mike Paul]

Got a pic?
What material are you printing on?
Heaters on?

 

[ScottB]

Heaters on. Printing on Arlon DPF 4560 GTX. Bleeding occured after changing to new roll after a day of down time.

Pic of actual product attached.

It actually looks more like embroidery than print...

Thanks

 

[Mainframe]

I would clean the heads manually & try a few different rolls of material just to make sure you don't have a bad roll. After that I don't know what to try other than profile & heat settings.

 

[smdgrfx]

also looks like your black could be too rich. That happens to me sometimes on different types of materials. Try a different profile also.

 

[Sign Ninja]

Shot in the dark, but you're either printing too fast, or laying down too much ink.

 

[Tony McD]

You might try GCVP :Glossy Calendered Vinyl (ESM) setting for the Arlon 4560
Tried the Arlon profile, and it looked like what you're getting.

 

[mac_man_luke]

also make sure your black is not set to overprint

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I had that happen and I can to the conclusion that it was laying to much ink down too fast. Try running it uni-directional to see if that helps. Or use the "W-Pass" if you are using VersaWorks.

 

[rwinninger]

Always happened when running banners on hi speed.

 

[ScottB]

Ok, so here's what I've done so far.
I've manually cleaned the heads (twice)
Switched Profile to GVCP and got slightly better results
Switched to New Arlon profile with the same results as GVCP
Printed Uni-Directional (got a nap in while it printed) and the text came out noticibly lighter.
I slowed down the head speed from 750 (or what ever default is) to 700 and got back to my origional problem.

I'm going to print on a different type of material and see how that goes.

I do appreciate all your sage advice and tips! But do have a Happy Easter!

You all know what I'll be doing.... Wrestling with a printer!

 

[Jester1167]

My guess is your laying to much ink down too quick and/or your heater temps are too low.

I believe the terminology for this is dot gain.

 

[ScottB]

I just printed on some Oracal 3164 gloss with the Oracal profile. Print looks great!

So now its the material or the profile?

 

[Jester1167]

Use the oracal profile on the problem material and you will have your answer.

 

[DigitalBBQ]

When using profile that is not belong to the RIP this type of print problem can happen. Profile usually created specifically for particular media and particular inkjet dither style. When using profiles that has not been certified by Roland which they already done the density and homework on checking out on every of their media; you will ended up with this type of ink saturation.

Easy fix is to do your own density measuring, but that cost you spectrometer and colorimeter equipment requirement, and the RIP you using must offer a profiling function which communicate with the measuring devices.

Bi-directional, if the media comp is not correctly set, you will have the over-landing problems.

Inks, if and when you put 3rd party inks and it mixed with the original inks, this type of over landing of inks can happen because it compromise the integrity of the original profile.


Also the head height, some media do not like particular height; so that also contribute to inks landing problem.

But from your picture, it looks like either media, or ink, or profile problem.

 

[ScottB]

Situation Resolved!

I went back to the supplier of the Arlon, tried all three different rolls with different batch numbers and all had the same result: dot gain. Arlon later notified me that they had a known bad batch of material and were looking up the "numbers" and they would let me know. I switched over to Orcal 3620 and havent had a problem! Nor have I ever heard what the batch numbers where from Arlon.

Thanks for all the advice! I've learned a lot with this headache!