Need Help!!! SC-540 not my friend

[Graphics.Atl]

I have recently started a sort of partnership with a guy who has a Roland SC-540. This machine is virtually brand new with very few hours on it. It was not used everyday and also somewhat neglected in the cleaning. A Roland tech/friend of his came out when I first started working with him to replace the black print head. He kind of hurried through it and when he left everything seemed okay. Well I started using it and didn't notice a problem until a couple weeks later. I had a pretty mild head strike and recovered fine good test print, just realigned the bi-directional. I have enclosed a picture of the test print and the bi-directional printout. On the test print Group A is off and the light cyan head looks like it has two light spots. On the bi-directional print the light cyan is smudged (came that way off of the printer). I have done two manual cleanings and the last time the black sponge under the caping station was saturated with ink. I am using the existing colorip 2.2 software he has, we will soon be upgrading to versaworks. The biggest problem I am having is that I get bad banding just in dark colors. I can see that there is a correlation between the printer output and the test print but what do i do, or what is off? I know that i can call a tech but I would like info so i can fix it myself if possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[AllSquare Jason]

Contact me if you like - I'll get you in touch with my tech. Maybe he can help via phone or email ~

We are located in Greenville,SC and have a ton of customers in ATL.

 

[Graphics.Atl]

thank you

 

[Graphics.Atl]

bumpity bump

 

[SignsOfMaine]

something you didn't mention is whether you gave it a good manual cleaning around the heads with cotton swaps and that clear stuff that breaks down dried ink... If I go a while without doing that, my prints get more and more banded, and immediately after doing that it's fine. Not sure how it works or why, just know it does. I do it at least once a week even though the thing does its own automatic clean every time I power it up (kind of annoyingly, the option for moving out the print heads for a manual clean is buried deep under lots of submenus)

 

[woolly]

hi

imo the black head is out of alignment in effect its twisted. there is a adjustment and test print to set that up.
might have been the head crash that gave it a nudge.

on std vinyl with colorrip 2.2 use 720x720 8 pass bi dir. should be band free.

woolly

 

[selt]

Wooly has it correct. The black head needs the BIAS adjusted. It adjusts how the head is twisted. This can give you light banding.

Have the tech come out and tweak it for you.

 

[Graphics.Atl]

wow, thank you guys...I did do several manual cleanings to no avail. I was thinking it was out of whack but I didn't have issues with the other colors so I was confused. It's not that noticeable but can anyone help with the light cyan?? There are two light spots in the test print. Thank you all for your input.

 

[selt]

To be honest, I don't see enough of an issue with the Lc in the test prints to even worry about.

Banding usually falls in one of these categories.

- Speed (The faster the print, the more you are likely to notice banding)

- Media Feed (You need to adjust this for every different media you load in. I also tweak based on image sometimes. If the image is very dark I may bump the media feed up a notch or 2.)

- Profile (Ink density)

- Heat (Heat set too low or too high can cause banding. And it's not "what is the heat setting?" It has more do do with the delta between the heat setting and the ambient room temp.)

Of course many other things can contribute to banding but if you cover those 4 then you should be well on your way to getting great results.

 

[Graphics.Atl]

Thanks that helps quite a bit.