Need Help Roland Truevis sg-540 printer problem

[ewded]

Hi Guys,

I just bought my very first large format printer - a roland sg540 and i have a few questions for those who are a bit more experienced

Problem 1:

There was a horizontal banding from the first minute and cannot get it out with calibration. I tried 4 different vinyl (poli-tape digiprint premium clear & white, oracal 3628 and another cheap one) banding is present on all off them. Nozzle check shows no missing nozzle althrough 1 or 2 lines are a bit out of the row but present.

Problem 2: Bi-directional print is ugly please see image


What I tried:

calibration -> perfect
bi-directional settings: perfect on both simple and detailed. Also set in service menu.
cleaning: quick + medium - no change
printing: 5sqm/ 16sqf - no change
temperature set from minimum to maximum - no chane
quality setting: fast - normal - best : different pattern but both problem present
uni dir/ bi-dir : unidir shows no color "shift" but banding present


As image shows this color "shift" appears on different spots. Part of the print is ok, others are problematic, when reprinted problematic spots appear on different parts, not always on the same place.

I tried different files, vector, raster, downloaded from net and self-made design too. I though it was laying down too much ink but color problem present on super-light colors too like 10% cyan and similar.

Do you have any ideas? Thank you in advance.

 

[Joe House]

I see the simple bi-directional test. Have you done the detailed bi-directional calibration?
I think I would set your feed calibration at 25, but I don't think that's causing the banding. If your nozzle test isn't perfect, then you can't really expect perfect prints.
Did you purchase this from a Roland dealer? You should definitely get them involved till you have a satisfactory print. Also understand that a 4 channel printer will not print as well as an 8 channel printer with light inks, but you should not have the banding that I see in that print.

Good Luck

 

[ewded]

I see the simple bi-directional test. Have you done the detailed bi-directional calibration?
I think I would set your feed calibration at 25, but I don't think that's causing the banding. If your nozzle test isn't perfect, then you can't really expect perfect prints.
Did you purchase this from a Roland dealer? You should definitely get them involved till you have a satisfactory print. Also understand that a 4 channel printer will not print as well as an 8 channel printer with light inks, but you should not have the banding that I see in that print.

Good Luck

Thanks for your answer, the tech visited me yesterday (official roland dealer) and he wasn't able to fix the banding problem either, he keeps telling the what I call bidirectional problem is only material problem, but I call it BS, I received some sample prints printed with an identical machine and it was perfect. On photo paper you get real photo quality you cannot see the grains with naked eye.

He'll contact roland in greece to find a solution for the banding issue. I'll post the updates if anyone is interested.

 

[Joe House]

Thanks for your answer, the tech visited me yesterday (official roland dealer) and he wasn't able to fix the banding problem either, he keeps telling the what I call bidirectional problem is only material problem, but I call it BS, I received some sample prints printed with an identical machine and it was perfect. On photo paper you get real photo quality you cannot see the grains with naked eye.

He'll contact roland in greece to find a solution for the banding issue. I'll post the updates if anyone is interested.

Don't discount "material" problems. They're probably more accurately a material/profile problem. But make him prove it by successfully running a similar Roland media with a Roland profile or a similar media from a major manufacturer before you accept that explanation

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[ewded]

Thank you for the answers, I think I found the source of the problem.

I printed some 10x10" squares - WIDTH is on spot but LENGTH of the sides are not equal, it varies between 0.01 and 0.02 inch, tech found the encoder was bent.

 

[ewded]

Encoder was changed - now the square is true square but both of the other problems are preset so I just asked for a refund, the machine is gone now and waiting for the refund. Tech promised an update on the forum about the problem, so I'm inviting him to join the thread.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Encoder was changed - now the square is true square but both of the other problems are preset so I just asked for a refund, the machine is gone now and waiting for the refund. Tech promised an update on the forum about the problem, so I'm inviting him to join the thread.

Welcome to the "Roland had to buy back my printer cause they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it" club

 

[Robert M]

This reminds me of the thermal printers Roland came out with in the 90's. The PC60 and PC600 had constant problems with the print heads failing. At the time Roland was just taking ALPs printers and re configuring them to print onto vinyl. After that era they moved over to using Epson print technology and converting it to solvent use. From what I read about these new machines is they no longer use the Epson print heads that all previous (except the AJ1000) models used. So to me it looks like giving up the tried and true Epson print engine is more than they can handle. With Epson now selling directly against them with their Sure Color products they were forced to move to another head manufacturer. Maybe they just were not prepared to have to start from scratch after so many years of depending on Epson for their print technology.

 

[ewded]

You're right Robert, the new Ricoh head has less DPI to it and it lacks the nozzle recovery function (the next nozzle replaces the bad one) so if you have a clogged or damaged nozzle - that's it, you cannot do anything to help it unless you change the whole head - one of them actually as it's equipped with 2 PH instead of the monoblock. I have to admit though that the 3pt text looks extremely good and 4pt is just perfect, but we don't want do print that much text, do we? On the other hand the ink is so thick that the cleaning cycles seems to never end. It just cleans itself and cleans itself and I just watch the ink drops falling into the waist container and feel like my blood is dropping away.

Right now i'm looking forward to take a look at the Mimaki cvj150 in the action. It has all the features versacamm vsi has and the samples I received the other day are very promising. And the price is much lower. I'm new to the printing business but I just can't believe that a 30" printer should cost $15.000 (vs-300i). The Mimaki is around $10.000 and prints 43" sounds way better. It has nozzle replacement feature, 1440 dpi, perf cut mode, kiss cut mode, TAKE UP SYSTEM included, INK included, you name it.

Will see next week.

 

[CanuckSigns]

I gave my vg640 the nickname "kitty" because all it did was sit in the corner and clean itself.

 

[Cosmin]

Hello man!
I'm the technician who took the printer from you. The issue of print quality came from horizontal head adjust and bidirectional default in service mode. I also slowed down the scan from 1185 to 889 in versaworks and I do aging for feed motor in svm up to 4 hour. I made the print sample with SG 300 and is identical now.

 

[Robert M]

Ewded

I think you will like the new Mimaki CJV150 series. While the Roland has a lesser resolution than current Mimaki and Mutoh printers, I don't see anyone talking about speed. I saw somewhere that the Roland SG series had a Max, yes Max speed of 101 sfh. The new Mimaki CJV150 series has a max speed over 580 sfh. I don't see why you would pay more for a Roland and get a much slower printer that does not even come with a take up. Not to mention what looks like a box of service issues if people are sending them back

 

[ewded]

Hi Robert,

Speed is the least important thing for me but yes, you're right about it. Roland is more popular where I live and I never even bothered to take a look at other brands. Since I'm new in this industry I wanted to get a good machine and start production right away but now I have no machine in my office and I'm slowly getting expert in printing technology

 

[Allensign]

Hi Guys,

I just bought my very first large format printer - a roland sg540 and i have a few questions for those who are a bit more experienced

Problem 1:

There was a horizontal banding from the first minute and cannot get it out with calibration. I tried 4 different vinyl (poli-tape digiprint premium clear & white, oracal 3628 and another cheap one) banding is present on all off them. Nozzle check shows no missing nozzle althrough 1 or 2 lines are a bit out of the row but present.

Problem 2: Bi-directional print is ugly please see image


What I tried:

calibration -> perfect
bi-directional settings: perfect on both simple and detailed. Also set in service menu.
cleaning: quick + medium - no change
printing: 5sqm/ 16sqf - no change
temperature set from minimum to maximum - no chane
quality setting: fast - normal - best : different pattern but both problem present
uni dir/ bi-dir : unidir shows no color "shift" but banding present


As image shows this color "shift" appears on different spots. Part of the print is ok, others are problematic, when reprinted problematic spots appear on different parts, not always on the same place.

I tried different files, vector, raster, downloaded from net and self-made design too. I though it was laying down too much ink but color problem present on super-light colors too like 10% cyan and similar.

Do you have any ideas? Thank you in advance.


View attachment 130655 View attachment 130656

Printheads need calibration. Call Roland helpdesk and they will talk you through it. Very good folks to deal with

 

[ewded]

Printheads need calibration. Call Roland helpdesk and they will talk you through it. Very good folks to deal with

Thanks Allensign, Tech came ~10 times couldn't fix the machine. Later I fixed every problem myself by returning the machine That was 1 y ago, since then I print with my mimaki cjv150 day and night without any issue.

 

[93Works]

Thanks Allensign, Tech came ~10 times couldn't fix the machine. Later I fixed every problem myself by returning the machine That was 1 y ago, since then I print with my mimaki cjv150 day and night without any issue.

How do you like the Mimaki? Is it around the same price? I am having the same problem but with a sg-300, horrible bi-directional printing, banding, and slight over spray on month old printer. It's an extremely regrettable purchase, I don't know how they're such a popular brand.

 

[ewded]

I print product labels with it, it's perfect. It's much cheaper and comes with 8 colors (epson DX7 heads like the Roland VS series) 1440 dpi vs donno 960? It has blocked nozzle bypass system and whatnot. What I like about it is that it doesn't clean itself every time you fire up the thing like Roland does. One thing I miss very much is versaworks, I hate mimakis rasterlink not that it doesn't do anything versawork does but it's so much uglier and harder to navigate.

Take a look at the image zoomed in, you can see the clarity if you compare the print to the blue background which is an OFFSET!!

 

[93Works]

I print product labels with it, it's perfect. It's much cheaper and comes with 8 colors (epson DX7 heads like the Roland VS series) 1440 dpi vs donno 960? It has blocked nozzle bypass system and whatnot. What I like about it is that it doesn't clean itself every time you fire up the thing like Roland does. One thing I miss very much is versaworks, I hate mimakis rasterlink not that it doesn't do anything versawork does but it's so much uglier and harder to navigate.

Take a look at the image zoomed in, you can see the clarity if you compare the print to the blue background which is an OFFSET!!

Wow thank you for that sample image, I wish my Roland output something half as good as that. 1440dpi? Roland outputs 900dpi! I don't know how in the world I got it stuck in my head that Roland was the go to of printers, now I'm banging my head on the desk... I can only find the Mimaki for about $14k though which I don't mind since I can choose my ink set up and it comes with the take up system, I'd have to pay 2.2k+ for Roland's system.

 

[ewded]

Mine was around 8000 USD. I'm sure Roland has good machines too like the Versacamm series but TrueVis was meant to compete with semi-pro printers like mutoh so they exchanged the epson PHs to these cheap ones. They also wanted to compete with 3rd party chinese inks so they're selling the same ink for $65 instead of $105 in eastern europe and other developing countries. They call it "Elements" and use different labels but it's the exact same ink.