Banding/Over-spray Problem....Help

[chevylane]

I'm experiencing an extremely frustrating issue with banding and overspray on my sp540i, praying somebody can help me out. I have read through virtually this entire forum and tried nearly all of the fixes posted that i am capable of. I have done several manual cleans, changed cap-tops and wipers, head soak, feed calibrations, bi-directional calibrations, adjusting heat settings, different profiles. Humidity and static have been ruled out. My next step is to attempt to clean my encoder strip which I am a bit nervous to try but am willing to if it will help these problems. Ive attached some photos for reference. Would love to hear some input from the weathered pros out there.
Thanks for any advice whatsoever.

 

[ocean502]

When this happens to me I unravel the media so it doesn't have to pull a heavy roll. My pinch rollers probably need replacing, but I just babysit the media and keep it unraveled. Hopefully, someone has a solution.

 

[Triggerhappy]

try these things, and we`ll figure it out

-do a fill test, take a picture, let us see it.
-print the same files in uni-directional printing, let`s see the results

My money is on the dampers, but will know more after you do these tests. I would NOT recommend to change the dampers yourself as you can very easily damage the print heads.
cheers

 

[player]

There are deflections in the black and blue, looks like you may have had a head
strike... Try a good head soak.

 

[Ragnabrok]

The bias adjustment is out based on the nozzle check, though that wouldn't cause overspray that far, could be a component of the banding though. Not the encoder strip, that would cause stair stepping, which isn't present.

 

[chevylane]

What exactly is a fill test? I will try uni-direction, thanks for your input appreciate it.

 

[altereddezignz]

Make a solid filled square and print it.

 

[Triggerhappy]

fill test

Sorry, my bad. It`s a function of the service menu, where every head prints it`s own color in a square, so it`s easy to observe which one causes the banding. Any tech guy on site can do it. You could do as said before, squares, with 100% cyan, another with 100% magenta and so on. Th

 

[chevylane]

So I did a headsoak and ended up drawing magenta into my yellow lines but I tried the fill test anyway. I have since recovered the yellow back to normal. Anyway the fill test shows banding in all colours except what would have been the yellow box which was printing magenta at the time. What does that say about my banding?

 

[splizaat]

So I did a headsoak and ended up drawing magenta into my yellow lines but I tried the fill test anyway. I have since recovered the yellow back to normal. Anyway the fill test shows banding in all colours except what would have been the yellow box which was printing magenta at the time. What does that say about my banding?

Does the Blue square have any yellow in the CMYK makeup? If so, I'd think they're banding because it's looking for yellow and it's either not there, or it's not spraying enough.

Have you checked your feed calibration? (but wouldn't make sense if the 100% magenta isn't banded)

 

[chevylane]

Yes I've checked the feed calibration as well as the others. The banding has been an ongoing problem for months guess ill just have to live with it. Its the cyan over-spray that has really got me nervous as it seems to be getting worse day by day.

 

[splizaat]

have you tried a different vinyl? and a different profile?

 

[player]

Let's see another test print...

 

[chevylane]

I have tried tweaking the correct profile and also tried a few others with the same or poorer results. Unfortunately I dont have any other vinyl to try but that may be my next best option. Here is my most recent test print after a manual clean this morning. Thanks for the suggestions

 

[Triggerhappy]

uni-dir

Please print the same fill test using uni-directional printing. After doing so please print the same fill test using uni-directional printing and head speed down to minimum.
Would like to see the results!
Thx

 

[player]

I have tried tweaking the correct profile and also tried a few others with the same or poorer results. Unfortunately I dont have any other vinyl to try but that may be my next best option. Here is my most recent test print after a manual clean this morning. Thanks for the suggestions

Probably not your solution, but the "line" across the middle shows you need to calibrate. I forget which calibration but it is the one with the 2 grey boxes on top of each other and you adjust the boxes until there is no gap or overlap.

 

[Andy D]

When this happens to me I unravel the media so it doesn't have to pull a heavy roll. My pinch rollers probably need replacing, but I just babysit the media and keep it unraveled. Hopefully, someone has a solution.

In my experience, many times it's not just one issue that causes a bad print. Ignoring the over-spray for a second, the dark area going thru the middle of the "R" does look like a feed issue.
You may have a roll that has been dropped and is oval not round and that could cause a uneven feed. If that's the case, as CrazyDazy said, make sure to pre-feed out the roll as it prints, you may need to re-adjust
the feed to avoid stepping. Also, not sure if this is an issue you're having, if your media isn't loaded square, you will have gaps on one side of the print and dark lines on the other..

 

[chevylane]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I will try to recalibrate the feed, as well as do a fill test on the slowest speed and get back with the results tomorrow.