Black is printing green

[Double Diamond]

Our sp-540v was ocasionally printing blue ish black and is now printing a dark green where black should be. It does share a head with the cyan, and I believe when printing 100%k it uses some blue which made me think the inks were contaminating each other? The test print (on the keypad) is good, except the black is dk green. The test print in versa works prints dk green in place of black.
Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[fmg]

Sounds like you may need to change the capping station.

 

[Robert M]

cap top or pump

Could be your cap top is not draining and allowing the colors to mix in the cap and migrate into the head. Locate the drain lin for that cap and check to see if it is clear. move from there and check the pump.

 

[Double Diamond]

Black still off

After some advice I suctioned off some black ink and printed some solid black stripes. They are a dark grey... not really black. I am thinking of flushing the black line and trying a new black cartridge.
Any thoughts on this are appreciated.

 

[MikePro]

pictures?

is your test print contaminated?
are you sure you're printing 100%K and not just setting up 100%K printfile but letting your profiles change the formula to CMYK%'s?

 

[musquoni]

100%k stripes are going to print grey. You need support from cyan magenta and yellow for it to be a solid black. i would recommend changing captop and if it has an old style pump to change or rebuild it. The pump becomes clogged and doesn't drain the ink resulting in pooling of both colors in the captop.

 

[Double Diamond]

Seems fine now

After changing the damper... no change. I found air in the line and thought damper leak, but it was probably me not tightening line after suctioning from before. I then replaced at the same time the ink cartridge and cap top. We had some gray printing briefly that turned to black soon enough. I don't know if it was the cap top or the solaris liquacolor ink. I believe we will start using only roland inks though. The machine down for most of a day is far more expensive than the ink savings can justify... just my 2 cents.
Thanks for the input and advice, I hope to return the favor. Joe

 

[MikePro]

doubtful it was the ink. air in ink lines could have easily caused this.

 

[rjssigns]

Not printing black

Cat's out of the bag now. Third party inks huh? I posted up on this in another area and will give you the readers digest version. We had a complete shutdown of our Roland because of third party inks. We keep $900 worth of unopened 3rd party inks on display as a reminder what crap they are. It printed all kinds of crazy colors just before it totally quit.
Here's the skinny. You will have to check the lines from the cap tops to the pump and from the pump to the "puke" jar. Ours were not only clogged, but hard as a rock. New cap tops and all pump lines were in order. Yanked out both heads and got lucky with soaking and purging under pressure then flushing. 4 carts of cleaning solution and pressure cleaning the lines. If it wasn't for Jason with Far From Normal we'd have been screwed. It still makes me sick to think of what it cost to get back on line.
I got exactly what I paid for with 3rd party inks!

 

[Victor]

straight black will tend to not print as a good deep black, you will need a supported black.
Try a 30c,30m,20y,100 blk or some variation of this to ensure you get a deep rich black.

 

[LiqueColor]

Roland Service manuals recommend you change the capping stations every 6 months!

A little on the aggressive side but we recommend at least every 18 months.

When you see ink contamination on the same head between two different colors, it is normally because the "felt like" material in the capping station has swelled and acts like a wick between the two lines.

If the ink level is less in on of the colors that shares the same head, ink can wick from one side of the head into the other line. This is why you are getting the color issues.

They only acceptable way to determine if a capping station is good is to disconnect the capping station line from the pump and pull a vacuum on it with a syringe. If you pull air or ink mixed with air, the capping station needs to be replace. You cannot look at a capping station and visually determine if it good or bad. The alternative is to put clear tubing on the capping station (to the pump) and see what the ink stream (or lack of it) looks like as the machine is cleaning.

Hope this helps.

Martin Rizzo
mrizzo@liquecolor.com

 

[Jason_Elliott]

100%K 25%M 25%C. Leave the yellow from the equation. Yellow is not going to add any color other than a hue difference.

3rd party inks suck!! There is no good aftermarket ink that will not in time cause issues. Thats why Roland, Mutoh & Mimaki have their own inks. These are tested and known to not cause issues. Yes they are more expensive but all it takes is one issue with 3rd party inks to erase any savings you maybe getting.

If those caps havent been changed recently and the dampers are a year or two old. Its time to replace and remedy your issues. I can go on for hours but why!! Simple replacement of consumable parts goes along way and will save you money.

 

[Fatboy]

100%K 25%M 25%C. Leave the yellow from the equation. Yellow is not going to add any color other than a hue difference.

3rd party inks suck!! There is no good aftermarket ink that will not in time cause issues. Thats why Roland, Mutoh & Mimaki have their own inks. These are tested and known to not cause issues. Yes they are more expensive but all it takes is one issue with 3rd party inks to erase any savings you maybe getting.

If those caps havent been changed recently and the dampers are a year or two old. Its time to replace and remedy your issues. I can go on for hours but why!! Simple replacement of consumable parts goes along way and will save you money.

What a lot of crap!Go wash your mouth!

 

[DRamm76]

I agree Fatboy..it's always the machine's fault. If I could get commission on the amount of people who will swear by 3rd party inks until there is a problem I could retire by Christmas.

"But it's the same ink as the Roland" Thats the best line ever.

If I throw a BMW emblem on a Volkswagon Beetle will it run the same as the BMW?

 

[Double Diamond]

I changed the cap, damper and ink cartridge. It worked for a while... then the blue started acting up too. I have changed the black and blue cartridge to roland and will also change the yellow and magenta when they are empty. No more liquacolor solaris inks! I was getting 500cc cartridges for $80 and loved it because the roland 220cc are $80. We now get roland 440cc for $122ish and will from now on. Our volume is not high enough for the bulk ink system so I feel we are doing the right thing for the print heads and lines. I read some of the other related threads and it seems it is common for the lines to become hard and clogged... who has time for that? We bought a printer to print... and make tons of money, so if it takes a little more money to make money, we will just charge a bit more if we need to make more, right?
We appreciate all the professional and experienced help and opinions, Joe