Weird Printing Issues, please help

[kmajid]

How is everyone doing today? We were in the middle of printing a 36"X48" and noticed that the printing on the edge was going off to the side and was not a crisp line. Please check out the attached images for reference. We did a couple of cleanings including one manual cleaning and are still having the same issue. When doing a test print we did notice that the black lines were coming up a little weird as well, attached is a shot of that as well. Any idea what could be causing this? Any idea on how to fix it? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

K

 

[Malkin]

We had trouble like that with an older aqueous machine. I think it might be caused by a dirty encoder strip. (thin translucent strip of plastic above where the print carriage rides)

 

[Bradster941]

Please update your profile so we know what printer you have.
Currently I have moved this thread to the Roland section assuming you bought a sp-540.
If this is not the case, please pm me after updating your profile so that this thread can be moved to the proper section.

Brad

 

[kmajid]

Thanks Malkin, any idea how difficult it is to change that out or how much they run?

Brad, i will update my profile accordingly. Sorry for posting in the wrong spot.

 

[J Hill Designs]

yeah I would clean the encoder strip first off - search here - plenty of threads on the subject - DO NOT USE SOLVENT CLEANER FLUID

 

[kmajid]

Thanks, i'll try to find a post that will help us out.

 

[artbot]

is it one color only? i think the encoder strip would have to throw off all the colors, it tells the head carriage the "y" coordinate only. if it's one color only i'd first look a the data ribbon inlet to the print head to see if there is ink, and or the data cable is damaged, or not properly seated at the head or slider board. to prove it is or isn't the head malfunctioning vs boards, etc. you'll need to do a data swap.

 

[Ragnabrok]

Definitely stair stepping from the encoder strip. a good cleaning should solve that no problem.

If you cant find a better guide, my best method is a blue shop cloth (or any decent non linty non tearing non abrasive papery towel) drowned in 99% isopropyl. Get the machine in cleaning mode so the carriage is easy to move around. carefully, and without creasing or crushing pinch with the soaking paper towel (it shines a light through the encoder scale to read, so both sides need to be cleaned) and give er a good clean end to end. with it in cleaning mode you can just push the carriage out of the way.

 

[kmajid]

Thanks for all the help. Cleaning the encoder stripe fixed the problem. I really appreciate the help!!!