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Banding On One Side But Not The Other?

player

New Member
I am printing with an SP540V. I am printing a graphic that has a 1" x 12' green stripe at the right side and another duplicate stripe on the left side.
The stripe on the right is perfect, but the left stripe is getting banding.

What would cause this?

Thanks
 

MikePro

New Member
color dropout in either your cyan/yellow ink supply or a dirty encoder strip at that end of the printer.
the former having many causes, such as an airbubble in the ink line/bad seat on the capping station/loose cable connections/list goes on but I think your C/Y line isn't being supplied with ink fast enough to keep up with a line of print.... unless your encoder strip isn't telling the printer to fire that color on that line in the first place. but, ultimately, pics or it never happened :)

quickfix: (assuming clean encoder) dial-up passes, slow down pass rate, run in bidirectional, and possibly dial-up delay between passes.
 

player

New Member
color dropout in either your cyan/yellow ink supply or a dirty encoder strip at that end of the printer.
the former having many causes, such as an airbubble in the ink line/bad seat on the capping station/loose cable connections/list goes on but I think your C/Y line isn't being supplied with ink fast enough to keep up with a line of print.... unless your encoder strip isn't telling the printer to fire that color on that line in the first place. but, ultimately, pics or it never happened :)

quickfix: (assuming clean encoder) dial-up passes, slow down pass rate, run in bidirectional, and possibly dial-up delay between passes.

Thanks... I could take pics but it is exactly as I described. Solid green bar on right, exact same green bar on left has banding...

I have been having trouble with the cyan. I was doing a static effect around black letters. That seems to have cured itself.

Can I change the passes etc. in VersaWorks?
 

MikePro

New Member
also never hurts to assume there's a gremlin under the hood. a full-on cleaning and flush could be all it really needs.
pass rates are usually wherever you can control the temperatures. no clue with vw here.
onyx, its in the que and I right-click jobs to printer settings.
 

Filmpro

New Member
Check the media temperature across the width. You are probably having a lower temperature on the left side which is causing the banding. Roland heaters often show these kind of problems.
 

phototec

New Member
Didn't you just say the banner you printed came out GREAT?

The reason you were asked to post pics, is because there are different types of banding, and the more experienced users here can be more specific about your problem when they SEE the banding you are having.

Assuming you have run a nozzle test print to verify that the print head is working properly here are some things to consider:


Adjust the Media Feed Rate on the printer.
1. If there are white gaps between the passes, lower the rate.
2. If there are sharp dark lines between the passes, increase the rate.
3. If the roll has a lot of media on it, the printer will feed at a different rate than with a roll that has very little media on it.
Check to make sure the inside edge of the media roll (cardboard tube) is not bend or frayed. If it is, this may cause a different feed rate from one side of the printer to the other. Try to get a perfect circle tube and use a utility knife to cut away excess part of the cardboard tube.


Temperature and humidity can affect the quality of the prints. For most printers you will want to keep the environment at 72°F ±7°F and 50% ±10% humidity. The further the environment is from these optimum settings, the greater the chances of seeing banding in the prints.
Maybe your printer is colder on the left side?

During summer times, high humidity in the air will cause the ink to not dry fast enough.
1. Raise the heat settings
2. Print slower by changing the print speed in the ripping software.
3. Print uni-directionally instead of bi-directionally.
4. Increase the number of passes.
5. Decrease the humidity in the air.
6. Print at the highest number of passes for your printer

During winter times, low humidity in the air will cause the ink to dry too quickly
1. Lower the heat settings
2. Print faster by changing the print speed in the ripping software.
3. Print bi-directionally instead of uni-directionally.
4. Lower the number of passes.
5. Increase the humidity in the air.
6. Print at the highest number of passes for your printer
Because of the low humidity during winter times, static electricity may cause irregular prints. Anti-static mats and grounding the printer may help with banding issues. However, the only sure way to solve this issue is by raising the humidity around the printer itself.

:thumb:
 
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