We just had our print head and capping station replaced early this year. Nozzle check was okay everyday, but the background shows banding but you can see the solid orange, green, and sky blue looked great. It wasn't printing like this when the replacements were weeks old. What seems to be the problem now? Thanks
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Need Help - Mutoh XPJ 1641SR
- Thread starter jvb
- Start date
Try running your nozzle check right after you print a heavy solid fill instead of first thing in the morning. A channel can pass a cold nozzle test and still drop out once it's been laying down full coverage for a few feet, that's exactly why your solids look fine and the dark background bands
If that's what you see, I'd be looking at the dampers. Did they get changed when the head and cap station went in? They usually don't, and they're the thing that goes off a few months later while everything else still checks out. Same with the wipe, a worn one stops cleaning the head properly under load.
Worth re-running your media feed calibration too before you spend money, that drifts on its own and shows up in gradients first
If that's what you see, I'd be looking at the dampers. Did they get changed when the head and cap station went in? They usually don't, and they're the thing that goes off a few months later while everything else still checks out. Same with the wipe, a worn one stops cleaning the head properly under load.
Worth re-running your media feed calibration too before you spend money, that drifts on its own and shows up in gradients first
Although I don't use the exact same printer, I’d like to suggest a few test methods.
This is similar to the advice in the comment right above.
First, run a nozzle test before starting your print to confirm that all nozzles are firing correctly.
Go ahead and run the print job, and as soon as it finishes, run another nozzle test without doing a cleaning cycle first. Check if all nozzles are still firing.
If you notice a specific color dropping out, try replacing the damper. The damper supplies ink to the printhead, but it also functions as a filter. When the filter reaches the end of its lifespan, ink can drop out during printing like this.
While it's a different printer, here is an article explaining the function of a damper and real-world issues caused by not replacing it:
https://artjetech.com/when-to-replace-the-damper/
The second method to test is swapping channels.
Since other solid colors are printing fine, try swapping Cyan—which is used heavily in the problematic blue shades—with another color.
I’m not sure if your printer model supports channel remap/reassignment settings, but if it does, you can swap the damper order and change the color channel configuration in the software accordingly, as explained in the link below.
If no ink drops out during the first test, and the issue continues to occur only on the Cyan channel even after swapping, it's likely that there is an issue with the Cyan channel's jetting, despite it being a brand-new head.
https://artjetech.com/solid-color-banding-fix-tips/
This is similar to the advice in the comment right above.
First, run a nozzle test before starting your print to confirm that all nozzles are firing correctly.
Go ahead and run the print job, and as soon as it finishes, run another nozzle test without doing a cleaning cycle first. Check if all nozzles are still firing.
If you notice a specific color dropping out, try replacing the damper. The damper supplies ink to the printhead, but it also functions as a filter. When the filter reaches the end of its lifespan, ink can drop out during printing like this.
While it's a different printer, here is an article explaining the function of a damper and real-world issues caused by not replacing it:
https://artjetech.com/when-to-replace-the-damper/
The second method to test is swapping channels.
Since other solid colors are printing fine, try swapping Cyan—which is used heavily in the problematic blue shades—with another color.
I’m not sure if your printer model supports channel remap/reassignment settings, but if it does, you can swap the damper order and change the color channel configuration in the software accordingly, as explained in the link below.
If no ink drops out during the first test, and the issue continues to occur only on the Cyan channel even after swapping, it's likely that there is an issue with the Cyan channel's jetting, despite it being a brand-new head.
https://artjetech.com/solid-color-banding-fix-tips/
Solventinkjet
DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Vertical banding like that is usually an encoder issue in my experience. Might need to be cleaned or replaced. It could be an ink flow issue like mentioned above. Changing dampers never hurts.