Need Help Uneven color Epson S40

[fine point]

We printed 20' x 13' wall mural on UltraFlex Fabritac with Epson eco-sol S40. 3 tiles.

It was a simple map image in white on a light brown background color.

When we installed, we realized the left side of print is much darker (more cyan) than the right side and the seams between the tiles are super obvious.

I do not know how it happened nor to solve it.

We did change the cyan ink between the 1st and 2nd sheet. If that's the culprit I would think the second sheet would be darker than the first, and not the uneven color....

Anyone have similar issues??

 

[P Wagner]

Can you post a pic?

 

[fine point]

Please see the attached

 

[F1225hgB42w]

This is called "Shading" and is a common problem when printing murals (or any tiled print products), it is especially difficult on wall covering (typically you get the best results with a UV ink that sits on top of the substrate vs being absorbed into the material like solvent/eco solvent). We've fought this over the years, here is a link from dreamscape's website discussing how to fight that problem:

What is shading, how can I control it? : Dreamscape Support

Attached is the pdf from Dreamscape if you can't follow the link.

We've never really seen shading on that material when we use our solvent printers (Epson S80s and Epson S60s - which use the same inks as the S40). Make sure to rotate the panels and the shading should go away.

Best of luck!

 

[a77]

Looks like it's darkening right at the edge for you.
I just did a mural with light gray background and I *think* I see a bit of shading (as described in the dreamscape pdf that DSGI posted - thank you!!!). It's very minimal in my case, but after that I will be flipping my tiles. Never saw the need before, but it looks like it will flipping them for future jobs.
I run the S40 as well, been really happy with colour consistency so far.

 

[jfiscus]

ALWAYS flip every other tile. On every printer, since the beginning of time.

 

[F1225hgB42w]

Yes, I agree that flipping every other tile/panel/whatever you call it is a big deal, however our experience on Epson has been that if we print the job on the same printer (we have multiples of some printers so always use the exact printer), with media from the same roll/lot, even if the panels are printed out of order or are not flipped we don't see shading (I'm mentioning this more as an accolade to Epson for their printer consistency - not as advise for running a job), however we could not do this on our old HP Latex L360 - if we didn't rotate panels shading was extreme, even we rotating panels shading would sometimes show up on the Latex as the heat seemed to cause inconsistent cure of the ink across the printer. Flipping the panels/tiles does help and is an important part of successful mural/multiple panel graphic printing.

Best of luck!

 

[papabud]

yes almost all printers have a left to right side color shift, thats why its important to do a flip every other tile.
if you print it straight, your seems will always be a shade off. if you flip that shade is more like the next panel

 

[jfiscus]

We also USUALLY would not have to worry about color shift in our prints either, but when it DOES happen, you will wish you had been using it. It is really simple to turn on in a RIP and it doesn't hurt anything at all to run the panels like this. We didn't have issues for years with one old printer, then we did on a 53' trailer wrap.... two full rolls of wasted materials taught us an expensive lesson - never again.