What the H#&& is this??!!?

[Brands Imaging]

So we have been getting these weird color blotches in our prints. At first I thought we had a bad roll of material but then it happened again.

I am worried that my print head might be going bad or something. I really have no idea what this is. It cant be a heat issue and it happens sometimes a few times withing the roll, so its not a contamination issue..

Any thoughts?>

 

[Custom_Grafx]

It still looks like a media problem to me... why are you confident that it's not a media contamination issue?

 

[Brands Imaging]

its happened on 2 or 3 rolls - only really shows up with darker clolors

 

[gabagoo]

definately looks like a media problem. Could the roll be getting contaminated somewhere while being rolled into the print head?

I would try a completely different roll and brand

 

[WrapperX]

Could be a heat issue. When you are running your prints do you see any lifting or bubbling of the material as it comes through the rollers? Even the slightes of lifting can cause the inks to not land where they are intended to land.

 

[housemusikid]

I have had this happen before. It was a temperature issue. This usually happens on 3M IJ-180CV3-10. Also, I have had bad spots in the roll. I have either turned the heaters off (pre-heat and print heat) and it goes away. If that did not work try uni-direction printing. I am sure you have done all of these! Good luck!

 

[Sticky Signs]

Could be a heat issue. When you are running your prints do you see any lifting or bubbling of the material as it comes through the rollers? Even the slightes of lifting can cause the inks to not land where they are intended to land.

+1 Looks like the media is lifting from the vacuum table causing the ink to land in the wrong spot. Lowering the heat may prevent this.

 

[thewood]

I will just echo the previous posters. It looks like too much heat.

 

[Brands Imaging]

i just dont get it...
IJ180CV3 is the best material IMO to install with but the most awful to print on...

So I messed with the heat settings and Its too soon to really know if I'm gonna get those random spots again but now I'm getting this magenta banding in all my darker colors...

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

What's your heater settings? 42/30/50? or are you lower than 42 on preheat?

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Try 3M's IJ180C-10 profile, 540x1080 6-pass unidirectional, heat set at 40/40/50. By far the best print quality we get on IJ180, at other resolutions (especially 720x720) we'd get a lot of weird defects in the prints, but at 540x1080 they're always flawless.

 

[housemusikid]

On my Mimaki, I do about 45/40 on a slightly chilly day and 40/35 on the "perfect" day. That 3M can be tricky, but it is fabulous. TRY UNIDIRECTION...it always works for me when the heat issue sucks.

 

[Brands Imaging]

What's your heater settings? 42/30/50? or are you lower than 42 on preheat?

that did it!!! I kept it at 12 pass cause i was nervous and changed it to uni directional and now its great. i think the trick is keeping the PRE heat kinda high and the PRINT heat kinda low...I tried going way high on my heat and way low and messed with the feed rate but nothing worked till i did this,,,

its funny, I buy that solvex junk from fellers in matte to do bullsh*t jobs around the shop and it prints AMAZING, like seriously amazing...but all the good stuff is a PIA.

thanks a lot guys I really appreciate all your help.