Need Help VG-540 Grainy/Less detailed Quality Sticker Prints

[artinojs]

Hey all! Fairly Newbie here so please explain to me as if I was 10. =)

Acquired a vg540 and started printing 5" tall stickers out of my garage for friends a few months back. Prints were looking nice back then but now I am noticing some grainy/fuzzies to the prints and they just no longer meet my level of satisfaction.

I was fortunate to have a print from back then to compare to the same image now. (attached) I have also attached the "test print" page. I'm hoping it is something that can be adjusted manually such as a setting or a calibration and not a complete print head replacement.

Anyway, I have tried:

Manual Cleanings (around the heads), Auto cleanings (easy, medium, strong) Wiper blade Replacement, Tray draining, Tray replacement. (Fuzzy print was made after all of the above executions)

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions or could lead me in the right direction on what I can do to get some clear detailed 5"sticker prints back, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Regards,

Art

 

[damonCA21]

Hi Art, the next step would be to calibrate the heads and make sure they are correct. The steps for doing this are all in the service manual. You also need to run a test print from in service mode. This will check the small nozzles as well as the standard test print only tests the larger ones

 

[White Haus]

Nozzle check still looks decent.

What profile/print settings are you using? Can you use a higher resolution/pass profile and see if the quality improves?

 

[artinojs]

Hi Art, the next step would be to calibrate the heads and make sure they are correct. The steps for doing this are all in the service manual. You also need to run a test print from in service mode. This will check the small nozzles as well as the standard test print only tests the larger ones

Thank you for the response. Unfortunately, my printer did not come with a service manual upon purchase. Would you happen to have any recommendations on a website or YouTube tutorial that would be able to show the step by step procedures of executing this?

I will try this next.

On another note, I was tinkering with it last night for some time and after wasting a lot of ink from reprinting in different settings, I came across a setting that actually produced a better (sharper detailed) image than the one from when I first acquired the printer.

By changing the setting for bi-lateral to unilateral, it produced this. (Attached) The detail of the hands and eyes appear clearer and less grainy in my opinion.

Any ideas on what this means about my bilateral mechanics of the printer. Would some “bilateral” components need to be replaced?

Regards,

Art

 

[artinojs]

Nozzle check still looks decent.

What profile/print settings are you using? Can you use a higher resolution/pass profile and see if the quality improves?

Thanks for the response. would you be able to guide me on how to execute using a higher resolution profile would look like.
Attached is the settings I use. (Think this is what you asked for.) I haven’t change the settings since the day it purchased it (unless it was to troubleshoot quality issues such as now.)

Also On another note, (as explained to another member) I was tinkering with it last night for some time reprinting in different settings, I came across a setting that actually produced a better (sharper detailed) image than the one from when I first acquired the printer.

By changing the setting for bi-lateral to unilateral, it produced this. (Attached) The detail of the hands and eyes appear clearer and less grainy in my opinion.

Any ideas on what this means about my bilateral mechanics of the printer. Would some “bilateral” components need to be replaced?

Would be receptive into hearing what this means from other community members who have more experience in the Roland printing equipment than I do.

Regards,

Art

 

[damonCA21]

unilateral or uni direction gives a better quality print than bi-directional on most printers. The only difference is with bilateral the printer prints in both directions when the head moves, so on the left and right passes, with uni it only prints on one pass and not on the return.
The printers uses the same components for both, so there isn't anything faulty that would need replacing just based on that

 

[highrolling24]

How is your environment? Humidity ? Heat? has this changed?
I have a VG2 and I noticed humidity affects it quite a bit. I have good prints around 45%
also the heat settings on the printer might affect it

 

[Jim Hancock]

This should fix your problem. Do the detail version, not the simple version, better results. The fact your results are what you want in Uni-directional confirms it's a bi-directional issue.

 

[White Haus]

Thanks for the response. would you be able to guide me on how to execute using a higher resolution profile would look like.
Attached is the settings I use. (Think this is what you asked for.) I haven’t change the settings since the day it purchased it (unless it was to troubleshoot quality issues such as now.)

Also On another note, (as explained to another member) I was tinkering with it last night for some time reprinting in different settings, I came across a setting that actually produced a better (sharper detailed) image than the one from when I first acquired the printer.

By changing the setting for bi-lateral to unilateral, it produced this. (Attached) The detail of the hands and eyes appear clearer and less grainy in my opinion.

Any ideas on what this means about my bilateral mechanics of the printer. Would some “bilateral” components need to be replaced?

Would be receptive into hearing what this means from other community members who have more experience in the Roland printing equipment than I do.

Regards,

Art

Where it says "Media Type", try experimenting with different options. I see you're already printing with High Quality setting @ 900x900dpi - you might want to see if there are any other media types that will allow you to print at a higher resolution. I'm not familiar with that exact model, but we used to print most fine stuff at 720x1440 on our Rolands.

Another thing you could do is try to find a profile for the actual material you're printing on. We had a good Oracal 3651 profile we used for a lot of media on our old Roland XR-640. Usually these are available on the manufacturer's website.

Like Jim Hancock mentioned, if your print quality is significantly better in uni-directional, then it likely means your bi-directional alignment is off. I'd try running the calibrations as Jim suggested and see if the quality improves, otherwise stick to uni-directional until you can pinpoint the issue.

Hope that helps! Good luck.