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print looks like it is streaking or washed out

gabagoo

gabagoo

New Member
My jv3 130spoII is now 4 yeaers old. Outside of changing the capping station I have not replaced any other parts. Lately when printing larger graphics that have larger areas of spot colours can notice what can only be described as a streaking or washing out of colour. I don't see it all the time and have no idea what causes this. I am printing 720 x 720 4 pass bi directional in slow speed.

I have never ran cleaning fluid through the lines in all these years. I do maintain and clean the machine every day and perform a nozzle wash for an hour once a week.

Any ideas what this may be caused from?
 
Ghost Prophet

Ghost Prophet

New Member
Heads could be getting clogged over time. If that is the problem, then you can fix by running cleaning solution through the heads or replacing them.
 
signcrafters london

signcrafters london

New Member
Two dampers for each color. So 8 if you are running CMYK x 2. I bought my JV3 used a few months ago and had to replace one of the heads. I also bought new dampers, a bunch of tubing and a myriad of other stuff at the time. I replaced my regular dampers with oversized dampers. They were $16 each. I want to say the regular dampers were $8 each, but I'm not sure.

I got all that stuff from Kent at Mac Media. http://www.signs101.com/forums/member.php?u=12239 He's a merchant member here and has earned all my future business. I ordered all my parts around noon on Saturday and they arrived first thing Monday morning.
 
gabagoo

gabagoo

New Member
What exactly do these dampers do? control the flow of ink? and what would make them need replacing...build up?
 
Letterbox Mike

Letterbox Mike

New Member
The dampers are like a secondary ink reservoir right over the head. They hold a small amount of ink, basically they "prime" the head for lack of a better use. The ink delivery system cannot always maintain a dead constant supply of ink depending on how much ink is needed for the print job, so the dampers hold enough that the heads "should" always have enough ink right there for printing. As you're printing, the lowering ink level in the damper creates a vacuum or siphon and draws more ink from the cartridges, through the lines and into them.

The dampers have a small filter in them to catch any last contaminates in the ink before it enters the actual print head. Over time, the filters can get gunked up. If this happens, your ink supply is diminished or at least isn't sufficient to supply ink to the heads on areas of heavy coverage. This is the most common cause of "ink starvation", which sounds like may be what you're experiencing.

If you haven't replaced them in 4 years, I'd definitely be doing this, it's something you are best off changing out at least once a year. We just changed them in our JV3, went with the newer larger version. I bought aftermarket ones (I can't remember where now) for about $30 ea., OEM ones are closer to $80-90 ea.. If you've never installed them (which you haven't obviously), you may be best off having a tech do it, it's not hard but there is a nipple on the top of the head that goes into the damper and if you're not super careful you can break that off and then you need a new head. I've changed them once, but now I pay my tech to come do it for extra insurance, it's not worth me ruining a head.
 
WrapperX

WrapperX

New Member
insignia said:
....We just changed them in our JV3, went with the newer larger version. I bought aftermarket ones (I can't remember where now) for about $30 ea., OEM ones are closer to $80-90 ea..
Click to expand...


You may haver over paid. I wouldn't pay more then $20 for any Dampers. Little pieces of plastic shouldn't cost that much. Do some research cause I've seen them priced all over the sky. From $40 to as low as $7/pc
Check out this site: http://www.solventinkonline.com/comersus8f/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=18

and do some investigating. Don't get stuck over paying something you shouldn't.

The cheapest ones usually don't come with the plastic connectors from the ink lines to the dampers but you can usually just take the ones off of the old ones.
 
T

tbaker

New Member
If you haven't changed dampers in all this time, I agree that changing them is a logical first step. While I agree that you shouldn't be overpaying for parts, I would suggest that you get quality parts from a known trusted source. I've had dozens of dampers go bad ( from faulty manufacturing) over the past year. It got to one point where I dropped one supplier all together.

Additionally, I'm recommending to all my clients that own a JV3 to increase their maintenance cycles, Do a nozzle wash every day for at least 5 minutes ( personally I like longer, but 5 minutes minimum) a disway clean once a week, and clean oil the rail weekly at a bare minimum. If cleaning solution isn't being held in the cap station, then you have pumps that are going bad ( after 4 years, these probably need to be replaced as well).

Turn off your printer, remove the maintenance cover on the left side, slide the carriage down to it, grab a flashlight, and look at the bottom of the carriage assembly to see if there is any dust or whatnot that may be scraping across your prints as well.

Just a couple tips.
 
gabagoo

gabagoo

New Member
oddly enough today everything is streak free...... so far....

I wonder if it could be my heat settings to high also? any thoughts?
 
T

tbaker

New Member
your heat ( again depending on the type of ink you run, but in general) should be between 32-35c

If the banding crops up again, try switching to uni directional mode ( what firmware is loaded on your printer?)

keep in mind that uni-directional slow is faster then bi-directional slow for production.

If the problem persists, it honestly sounds like dampers or pumps as the culprit.
 
C

Case

New Member
can for sure be heat related, environment related, profile related... all of those can factor in...

On the other part of the topic, I agree, you can't go bargain hunting for everything... If you have a trusted dealer and you can count on them to help and back you up when you need them, then sometimes you may pay higher but it benefits you in the long run....

Who's got the cheapest price??? i don't care... Who is reasonable and I can count on them when I need them: that is what I care about and what you should reconsider when going "bargain" hunting.... Obviously, opinions vary... But those bargain hunters go scrambling when they need a dealer that knows what they are doing or can help... Where were you when I needed you(bargain hunter to dealer)????----Where were you buying your stuff from(dealer to bargain hunter)???? lol, This topic can go on all day...

Anyways, my opinion only...

Case
 
T

tbaker

New Member
I agree with you, especially on something like these dampers, saved a couple bucks per ( which adds up when you're buying hundreds) but the savings involved were eaten up by the return trips to pull the stupid things.

You don't know until you try, and this is sometimes the cost of doing business, but, it's not a cost that I enjoy.
 
gabagoo

gabagoo

New Member
On these particular prints I was using a calendered conform (automark) and had my heat at 45 - 40...In fact the last time I saw streaking like this was in a 13oz banner at those settings.
I will experiment and bring the settings down.

Somewhere in the past year or two I had heard that more heat allowed the ink to penetrate the substrate better and as I was having scuffing issues felt that the higher heat had somehow solved that issue. Gonna take it down to 40 35 and see how that works
 
T

tbaker

New Member
As the years go by, we learn more and more about the printers. It used to be thought that more heat helped, then no heat. At the moment, all of the people in my organization are recommending the 32-35c range, individual printer/ink sets are going to vary this a touch, but that setting seems to work most consistently.
 
Tim Kingston

Tim Kingston

New Member
I have another suggestion besides dampers etc. ( not saying it isn't dampers but try this next time it happens). Take some tension off the roll you are feeding to the printer , just unwind it by hand a few turns and see if it cures your problem. I print like this all the time and it cures a similar situation to yours, especially on heavy stock like banner material. Also, I can see a difference in very light "acceptable" banding. Using this method I see no banding at all. Period. Just thought I'd suggest you try it! Tim

PS- Also, try taking the auto take-up off of auto, if you have this option and try it manually.
 
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