Reds and Yellows printing Off - HP Latex 115

[mameighan]

Haven't used my printer in a couple of months, Printing fine but reds are now closer to magenta and yellows muted.
Printer says all inks and OP have expired? Would this be the cause or no?

Flexi 21 - recent update
Have not changed any profiles.

Thoughts? Comments Appreciated?
Have tried various files with red that I know/knew were good!

 

[P Wagner]

If the ink is significantly expired (more than a few months), it is possible for the pigments to drop out of solution. This results in pigment-depleted ink which lacks the proper amount of colorant. From the pics, it is possible that the yellow ink (and possibly other inks) has fallen out of solution.

After you replace the ink carts, remember that there are about 50ml of ink in the IDS and printhead reservoir (per channel) that remains depleted. This ink can be either printed through or syringed out to allow fresh ink to get to the nozzles.

 

[jadrewitz]

I had a similar issue with my HP Latex 115. I print somewhat regularly just not high volume. The Light Cyan was expired by a few months it may have been a year, I don't remember, I noticed my grey were more greenish and it was hard to get grey. A lot of the colors were slightly off. I first replaced the light magenta/cyan printhead and the grey came out great then over time it was back to the greenish grey color and that when it hit me. The new print heads come with a little ink in them, so when that ink ran through I was printing with the expired inks again. I replaced the expired inks and after many print jobs the colors returned to normal. Once the colors returned I ran the image quality maintenance tasks in the printed and cut out the swatch with the colors printed so in the future after I run the same test I can compare them to see if a particular color is failing. Good luck, at least its not a $2000 printhead replacement!

 

[mameighan]

Thanks for the input. I may just go ahead and replace the heads and ink at once so I don't have to push ink through it - seems like a lot of effort and time and substrate.

 

[balstestrat]

Well not really if you select some profile that uses a lot of ink. Like 20-pass backlit and print some CMYK qubes. Lights might be more difficult to purge but the cmyk you will get pretty quickly with that.
Honestly waste of money to replace good heads.

Anyway, Do not insert the new heads before you have run the new ink into the old heads. Otherwise you will mix the old ink in the tubes into the new heads.....

 

[mameighan]

Well not really if you select some profile that uses a lot of ink. Like 20-pass backlit and print some CMYK qubes. Lights might be more difficult to purge but the cmyk you will get pretty quickly with that.
Honestly waste of money to replace good heads.

Anyway, Do not insert the new heads before you have run the new ink into the old heads. Otherwise you will mix the old ink in the tubes into the new heads.....

Thanks, so what do you suggest? - Replace ink and run solid colors to purge? I have no idea how much to print? Do I just keep going until I see a change in the color? How much ink would be in the tubes if I was to go with the new head route? I just don't want to be chasing down the cause with large prints.

 

[balstestrat]

About 30ml per channel in the tubes. If you have PrintOS you can see the usage. Or just look at the total from the web server and guess approx. Or if the shade starts to change, yes.
Remember to give a good shake on the cartridges.

 

[jimmmi]

What if you remove and shake the ink cartridges one by one? Doesn't solve the problem?

 

[mameighan]

What if you remove and shake the ink cartridges one by one? Doesn't solve the problem?

First thing I did but did not help. I imagine I will have to push a lot more ink through.

 

[karst41]

Rendering intent has changed again.

Flexi 10 and the HP L26500 would hit any Pantone Formula in the book.

Starting with Flexi 11 they removed SO Diffusion. Ipiss a better yellow that these POS Latex roll to roll printers
can print even at 130%

 

[mameighan]

Rendering intent has changed again.

Flexi 10 and the HP L26500 would hit any Pantone Formula in the book.

Starting with Flexi 11 they removed SO Diffusion. Ipiss a better yellow that these POS Latex roll to roll printers
can print even at 130%

This may have coincided with an upgrade to Flexi 21 - any suggestions?

 

[RandyDe]

About 30ml per channel in the tubes. If you have PrintOS you can see the usage. Or just look at the total from the web server and guess approx. Or if the shade starts to change, yes.
Remember to give a good shake on the cartridges.

View attachment 154345

Great advice here. Today's project is finding out why our LTX 110 is printing weak yellows and this will help me to diagnose the issue. Photo attached, the top label is printed off our xerox and the bottom off the hp.

 

[balstestrat]

Great advice here. Today's project is finding out why our LTX 110 is printing weak yellows and this will help me to diagnose the issue. Photo attached, the top label is printed off our xerox and the bottom off the hp.

Is it low usage machine or you just had this issue suddenly?

 

[RandyDe]

Is it low usage machine or you just had this issue suddenly?

Coming out of all the covid bs we aren't using the printer as much as we would have before. In the past month we've had a decent amount of work through the door. This all first started when I was trying to print a client's job early last week (a logo) with neutral grey made up of a combination of cmyk in the native file and then of course adjusted further at the rip per normal. It was printing pink/purple. Didn't notice much in other jobs we ran other than the label work with the beige background. I'm currently printing a yellow bar in attempt to flush the line, on the second print now. I may have to order Y/M heads as they are both expired but were running fine. I have an extra yellow ink cartridge which I can insert as well if needed as the one installed is now down to 15%.

 

[balstestrat]

Coming out of all the covid bs we aren't using the printer as much as we would have before. In the past month we've had a decent amount of work through the door. This all first started when I was trying to print a client's job early last week (a logo) with neutral grey made up of a combination of cmyk in the native file and then of course adjusted further at the rip per normal. It was printing pink/purple. Didn't notice much in other jobs we ran other than the label work with the beige background. I'm currently printing a yellow bar in attempt to flush the line, on the second print now. I may have to order Y/M heads as they are both expired but were running fine. I have an extra yellow ink cartridge which I can insert as well if needed as the one installed is now down to 15%.

Well you might even get away with it. It's bad when people have these and the cartridges sit for a long time. Yes - it's meant to be so that you don't need to shake it but it's also supposed to be replaced every so often, like couple of months.

 

[RandyDe]

Well you might even get away with it. It's bad when people have these and the cartridges sit for a long time. Yes - it's meant to be so that you don't need to shake it but it's also supposed to be replaced every so often, like couple of months.

How do I get HP Print OS to refresh or update so that I can see how much ink my yellow test used? I printed twice but do not see it updated in my list?

 

[balstestrat]

How do I get HP Print OS to refresh or update so that I can see how much ink my yellow test used? I printed twice but do not see it updated in my list?

It just takes a moment to update.

 

[RandyDe]

Well you might even get away with it. It's bad when people have these and the cartridges sit for a long time. Yes - it's meant to be so that you don't need to shake it but it's also supposed to be replaced every so often, like couple of months.

Well after installing a new yellow ink cartridge and flushing at at least 35 ml yellow ink I still have weak yellows. All head appear to be printing fine other than they are all Out of Warranty. Thoughts?

 

[balstestrat]

Well after installing a new yellow ink cartridge and flushing at at least 35 ml yellow ink I still have weak yellows. All head appear to be printing fine other than they are all Out of Warranty. Thoughts?

Color calibration was done?

 

[RandyDe]

Color calibration was done?

Color calibration was done, I even tried changing media's to rule out that my icc profile on the Rip didn't get corrupted or modified somehow without my knowledge.