Black prints spotty but crop marks ok??

[backwoodsgirl]

RESOLVED!!

Help... never had this issue before. I’m printing rich black and it’s spotty like this. The colors are also spotty it’s just most noticeable in the black. However the crop marks are a nice crisp black. I’ve tried 3 different vinyls and various media profiles with same result. It does seem to improve a bit in random areas.

The file is cmyk illustrator eps, the black is 100% of each color.

In a test print all nozzles are firing perfect. I’ve already checked bidirectional alignment it’s good.

 

[ewded]

Are you sure the the reg marks are not printed differently? (slower or unidir?)

 

[backwoodsgirl]

I’m pretty sure the crops are uni direction and quite fast. I’m wondering if it could be encoder strip issue?

 

[ewded]

Try to print unidir, if that's good it's probably encoder strip issue. Also try to print bidir but set a 5 second pause between scans. If the result is good then the media does not accept ink fast enough (in this case you shouldn't have the same issue with light colors)

 

[backwoodsgirl]

RESOLVED!
In Versaworks I chose Sign&Display for the color management preset. Prints beautifully now!!
I'm not sure why but it had gotten switched to Pre-Press... I blame the cat.

 

[klingsdesigns]

Any chance this is a 3m product. 180cv3 180mc?

 

[backwoodsgirl]

Another update if it would help anyone.... the problem seemed to come back on occasion, so I flipped the encoder strip end for end and cleaned the encoder sensor. Nice and crisp again.