Print Ghosting / Poor Print Quality

[BOOMWRAPS]

Hey All, Hoping for some advice. I have had a Roland SP 540 for about 4 years now and all has been great. Last month or so have had some poor quality. I just changed out pump caps, wipers, sponges. I notice that I have had ghosting on the edges of text and where 2 colors meet seems they bleed over each oter a bit. My test print shows missing shots in the black, but does not look horrible.

I have been reading these forums and people have mentioned to try:

Cleaning the encoder strip or flipping up side down and cleaning the sensor with alcohol? 1. Where is the sensor and do I use alcohol? Do I flip the encoder strip? or Just clean with alcohol?

2. Any other calibration I may need to do to remedy the situation?

3. Also you guys mentioned static electricity? Been really bad lately in my shop?

Please help with any feed back...

Thanks

 

[J Hill Designs]

maybe alignment?

 

[SEOR]

Boom, you are experiencing nozzle deflection. Here are the common culprits and solutions. I have experienced every failure and fault that is possible with the SP540 so if you ever need any help, please PM me.

1. Static: The printers worst enemy and this is where I put my money in your particular case. Wipe the rear platen off with rubbing alcohol before you print or pick up an anti static kit. Also you can wipe the media with rubbing alcohol on a test print to make sure static is the culprit. Static is THE number one cause of nozzle deflection, especially in the colder months.

2. Upper Mist Sponge: Remove and replace the upper mist sponge (just saw where you already did this). This will also cause insufficient clearing of the ink buildup on the nozzles, causing misfire or ink dropout.

3. Head Carriage Setting: Make sure head carriage is on LOW setting for vinyl. Most people dont even know you can change head height. High head carriage setting and static can make foggy, ghosted images.

4. Manual Cleaning: Do a manual head clean EVERY day. This will also help remove static on the hea assemblies as well. This is the method where you hold down the "Cleaning" button while you power on, sending the carriage to the far left service door. Swabbing the edge of the heads, the wipers and cap tops. If you need more info on how to do this, PM me.

When your encoder strip is dirty, it will result in "print stepping", not ghosting. Lastly, making sure your print calibration is correct will also seal the deal.

 

[BOOMWRAPS]

THANKS VERY MUCH.....I just moved printer to another location at office and hopefully I can get this resloved. I just started my issues again with my printer not regognizing media width???? thats encoder strip right? Also how do clean the encoder strip sensor? Sorry for all the questions.....

 

[LarryB]

If it is 4 years old you may need a new head or 2. I just replaced 2 heads on my Soljet Pro XC III and had the same problems you are describing. Putting the head down will improve print quality but also make you more prone to head strikes. Leaving the head up keeps your print heads safe but print quality suffers and also you end up with a lot of overspray near your capping station which is not good long term.