Print Issue

[Mikesbales]

Hi guys. My Roland tech is off this week so I'm hoping you can help me with something. Roland SP-300V is printing a gradient on the first few inches or so of every design I'm printing. In the attached image that should be a solid yellow. This just started yesterday evening and seems to happen on every print. Ink is about 95% full (Roland OEM ink) It happens on the first few inches printed of a design, even if I rotate the image. The attached image is of a design I've printed 100's of times without issue. It's not the design or the layout (same settings as always). Any help would be appreciated.

 

[jesper]

goofy stuff.

a few things you might try, that you might allready have done, but who knows.
- on my setup I have different ques with different settings, every now and then a print file ends up in the wrong que making weird results, so make sure it's in the right pre-setting.
- Try reloading the file and make a fresh rip, helped me a couple of times when I ended up with weird results.


might help, might not, but it's something to try atleast while you're awaiting better suggestions.

//Jesper

 

[Mikesbales]

I just reloaded the image from the original file and still have the same issues. Swaped out the media and tried a different profile and still the same issue

goofy stuff.

a few things you might try, that you might allready have done, but who knows.
- on my setup I have different ques with different settings, every now and then a print file ends up in the wrong que making weird results, so make sure it's in the right pre-setting.
- Try reloading the file and make a fresh rip, helped me a couple of times when I ended up with weird results.


might help, might not, but it's something to try atleast while you're awaiting better suggestions.

//Jesper

 

[jesper]

problem shooting then

Make a new file with a few swatches, just squares with color fills.
make sure one is the same color as you're trying to print.

what we're trying to find out is if the printer is able to print 1: your desired color in a new file 2: any color

if a brand new file makes the same result, try a blue square and a green one. do the same effect come out?

//Jesper

 

[Mikesbales]

Jesper, Thank you. I just printed 30 swatches of each color in the design and now it appears to be printing as it should. I guess a standard cleaning wasn't enough and it just needed to get some new ink through the heads. Thank you!!!

 

[jesper]

so everything running smoothly now it seems, good stuff!

I recently changed ink to a cheaper brand, find myself running more cleaning programs as it seems to clog the print heads more than the last ink type I used.

Happy to help, good luck with your prints and make sure to show off the final result!

 

[Solventinkjet]

Change the magenta and yellow dampers if you want to avoid this problem in the future. As the dampers get older, they weaken and the filter clogs. When they are too weak to hold the proper pressure, ink starts to flow back up through the head. The magenta and yellow colors are shared by the same head and cap top so the magenta flows up into the yellow and is causing your issue. If it happened already it will happen again until the dampers are replaced.

 

[Ragnabrok]

Printing or cleaning lots will un-merge ink from the heads/dampers, but doesn't solve what caused them to merge in the first place.

the 2 caps share a common pump, so if one is compromised, it can affect the other as much as itself. So one of the drain lines could be blocked, or one of the caps isn't sealing, so the pump is just pulling air.

I mention both, because even though the problem is the magenta merging into the yellow on head 2, it could be the black/cyan cap on head 1 that is failing.