Color Consistency / Digital Printroom Environment

[JWesthead]

Trying to get some opinions and what other people may be doing if experiencing with temperature, humidity, color shift.

-6 printers
-Profiled / Color Controlled
-3M IJ 180Cv3

I have ruled out every variable possible except temperature/humidity control. Our main shift is occurring on our Vutek 3360s. We use a gray control swatch and printed for 1 week every 4 hours. If the temperature/humidity is the same I can reproduce color exact every print. So I would like to look into the department being controlled however to do so isnt an easy task. Especially, when I have seen a color shift (visible not just by spectro) in as little as 2 degrees and 3% humidity. This seems like an outrageous tolerance....not to say impossible but WOW. What are your thoughts?

 

[eye4clr]

We have a corner suite on a thick concrete walled building. On the west facing wall there is as roll up garage door. In the summer we can get a 10+ degree shift when the sun hits that door. It becomes a giant heat radiator. By 2-3 pm the whole wall is hot and the AC runs non-stop.

We've gone to have a little "weather station" next to the RIP. For paneled jobs we write down the temp/humidity at the start of each tile to make sure we're within a few degrees. Otherwise it gets ugly fast.

 

[JWesthead]

Pretty much what Im seeing as well with a 10 degree shift. We have a dryer for one of our printers thats a 250 degree oven. At what point temp/humidity do you start seeing a difference? ....and what point is unacceptable for a tiled job. Realistically I could start a job and never finish it before it would need what looks to be recalibrated....but it really its fine when the temp/humidity is back where it should be.

 

[rfulford]

Can you benefit from rotating every other panel or is the shift consistent from side to side?

 

[eye4clr]

I get a sharp shift with stable output before and after the sun hits that wall. But the panel that prints before or during the shift will not match the next at all....not even close. 10 delta E is obvious to a blind person if you have colors that are grey or close to grey.

 

[JWesthead]

Consistent prints across the media. Wandering output all day long. I dont see a shift on the UV printer which I agree with....I also dont see much of a shift on the HP TJ8300 (enclosed printer seems to hold its own environment) Mimaki I havent really had to closely monitor but seems to not vary as much. Vutek 3360s are the nightmare.