strange banding

[jimmeth411]

So hopefully somebody can help. I am printing on a cjv30-160, and keep getting banding issues. I'm using flexi 8.6 to rip, and trying to print a solid gray. The issue I'm having is it will print lighter "strips" across the image, meaning about an inch will be the correct color, and the next inch or so is slightly lighter, then back to correct. I attached a picture, but not sure if its very noticable here. We tried cleaning the encoder strip, adjusting the feed rate, different profiles, different pass rates. Does anybody have any suggestions as to what it could be? We are out of ideas over here. Thanks guys!

 

[mudmedia]

gradients in flexi = nightmare.

Try either flattening the file and ripping as a tiff or if you have photoshop try creating the gradient in photoshop and seeing if that fixes your gradient step issues.

 

[jimmeth411]

It isn't a gradient I'm trying to print, its a solid gray block. To be honest, I don't think we've had any problems with gradients or other solid colors, just this gray.

 

[mudmedia]

is the color associated with a logo or can you try a slightly different cmyk code for grey to see if it still is there?

 

[jimmeth411]

yeah, its actually a pantone color that we have to match. But we haven't tried changing it at all to test. We might have to try it and see how it looks.

 

[jimmeth411]

So I tried changing the values ever so slightly, and it still has the same issue. 1 inch of correct color followed by an strip slightly lighter. someone please help!

 

[MJerome]

Almost sounds like a feed issue, have you tried printing that file in Uni-direction?

 

[P Wagner]

Almost sounds like a feed issue, have you tried printing that file in Uni-direction?

Looks like chromatic banding. Attempt to print in uni-directional mode and if the banding goes away, that is your culprit.