Canon Colorado 1650 Vertical Banding - Canon no solution?

[thetsp]

Wondering if anyone else has dealt with Canon and come up with a solution for this problem.
Essentially we're getting vertical banding on almost all coated or uncoated medias, and it becomes more apparently on heavy dark colors. Lighter colors you don't really notice.

We've tried so many different things
- Crank up vacuum, lower vacuum - no change.
- Tried 5 or 6 different media types - no change
- Tried various quality settings - no change.

We have been in touch with our local dealer who told us they have seen this problem but only when customers are printing on a coated 1105 media . They said it was related to the wheels going through the media and sort of "denting" the coating. But we've switched to a mixture of 3 other uncoated medias and still getting the problem. I have ordered a set of replacement wheels from Canon which are apparently a month away in order to test, but I have my doubts. The banding we're seeing is very right - 3/15 - 1/4" apart the entire way through the print zone where the wheels are spaced much much further apart. So I can't see it being the wheels.

Has anyone else dealt with this issue before with Canon directly or a dealer? We want to bring printing vehicle wraps on our Canon, but where we hit big large dark color swaps I can tell will be an issue.

 

[victor bogdanov]

Do you only see that in matte mode?

Have you tried different "strategies"

What material is that in the picture? I've seen stuff like on on certain materials and I think it has something to do with the material surface

 

[victor bogdanov]

Run the material though the printer the other way, rotated 90 degrees to see if the pattern direction changes to rule out material. You can splice in a rotated section of material onto the roll to test

 

[thetsp]

Hi Victor, really appreciate your thoughts.

For medias, we've run this file on the following medias and got the same results on all medias
Avery 1105
IJ40C - matte
IJ40C - gloss
Avery 2611 - 6mil
RiteMedia 4mill
IJ35c matte

In this particular case we've done 99% of our testing in matte mode, as this job is for a customer who requires a matte finish for wall wraps etc. But I believe when we were testing this on 1105 we ran it in gloss mode. But that was several months ago, I'll run a test again to see if I can see the problem in gloss mode. If by chance its only apparent in matte mode, what would that indicate the issue is?

For the material, being the issue, do you think its something to do with all the various medias showing that banding in their construction process? Your thinking here if we rotate 90 degrees that it would indicate its 100% its a media issue ?

 

[thetsp]

So we ran a test and it is much harder to see in gloss mode. Just due to the glare and the fact the color appears much darker in gloss mode the vertical banding is less apparent.
Although when it was coming off the printer it did look to be a bit more obvious. But after curing and looking at it in comparison I'm finding it a lot harder to see. What would that typically indicate?

 

[Grizzly]

I have a 1650 and an M and haven't see vertical banding like this that wasn't related to material, but considering you've tried that many medias definitely the printer.
If it's happening more apparent on matte mode, it probably has something to with the encoder or the machine isn't level.
I've seen this more on my flatbeds especially with gray tones and was told it was do to vibrations in the machine.
Throwing it out there cause I'm not sure what else to tell you, but have you changed the lubricator pads recently?
Does changing the speed adjust the location of the lines?
Happy to run a test on my 1650 if you want to send me a file.

 

[Pauly]

Does it happen on the solids on the ship print. Or just your file?

 

[thetsp]

I have a 1650 and an M and haven't see vertical banding like this that wasn't related to material, but considering you've tried that many medias definitely the printer.
If it's happening more apparent on matte mode, it probably has something to with the encoder or the machine isn't level.
I've seen this more on my flatbeds especially with gray tones and was told it was do to vibrations in the machine.
Throwing it out there cause I'm not sure what else to tell you, but have you changed the lubricator pads recently?
Does changing the speed adjust the location of the lines?
Happy to run a test on my 1650 if you want to send me a file.

IF you could print this file that would be awesome in at least showing canon its not the media. In terms of vertical banding its more a gradiented banding as opposed to a hard banding that you would see on horizontal banding. So in terms of seeing that dark light, woudl that not indicate something with surface not being perfectly even going through the print zone (so something to do with vacuum or like you said the media?)

 

[thetsp]

Does it happen on the solids on the ship print. Or just your file?

Sorry not sure what you mean on the ship print? It happens in almost all colors, but you can only really see it in deep dark colors like dark greens, blues, etc. This color we're doing happens to be really bad at showing it. BUt its much more apparently in matte mode as opposed to glosss. But think its being hidden by the glare reflectivity a bit of the gloss mode.

 

[victor bogdanov]

IF you could print this file that would be awesome in at least showing canon its not the media. In terms of vertical banding its more a gradiented banding as opposed to a hard banding that you would see on horizontal banding. So in terms of seeing that dark light, woudl that not indicate something with surface not being perfectly even going through the print zone (so something to do with vacuum or like you said the media?)

I just printed this file on banner I had loaded and its printing perfect, this was matte speed. Have you tried printing in faster modes is the problem still there in matte speed or matte quality?

I don't have any other suggestions, I've only see the problem you have due to materials

 

[Pauly]

Sorry not sure what you mean on the ship print? It happens in almost all colors, but you can only really see it in deep dark colors like dark greens, blues, etc. This color we're doing happens to be really bad at showing it. BUt its much more apparently in matte mode as opposed to glosss. But think its being hidden by the glare reflectivity a bit of the gloss mode.

The Colorado has a built in test print. does it happen on that?
Does it do it on AveryMPI2000 (the default stock for the colorado)