Epson S30670 Banding

[klemgraphics]

I've always has some minor banding issues on some medias and it seems to be worse on some colors that others, light to medium blues being the worst.

The weirdest part is how the banding looks.....

If I print in 720x720 the banding is in the feed direction but is worse toward the edges of the media than in the center.

If I print in 720x1440 I can eliminate the feed banding but then get this funny squiggly looking banding running parallel to the length of the media about 2" or so apart running the entire width of the media.

I'm printing a wrap right now that is primarily a solid blue and it has been a nightmare to this point. I've tried feed adjustment both auto and manual, tension adjustments, vacuum adjustment, everything I can think of and it still seems hit or miss on getting sellable prints.

Other than this ongoing issue I love the printer.

Media in question right now is Avery MPI 1005 Easy Apply RS, I have also had some similar issues with Oracal 3651. At this point I'm not sure if it's the printer, media, or a combination of the 2 but It's driving me nuts.

Hopefully you can see in the pictures what it looks like.

 

[klemgraphics]

Morning bump.

 

[chrisphilipps]

Have you tried to print it in unidirectional? This can fix a lot of printing anomalies.

 

[klemgraphics]

I've tried that in 1440x720 in hopes that it would take care of the squiggly banding but it remains almost exactly the same. I too thought that would probably take care of it.

 

[chrisphilipps]

What about in the 720x720 mode? You said that this mode only has the horizontal banding in it and not the squiggly one. Another thing you can try is to print out blocks of each color CMYK and see if it is in all colors or just one of them.

 

[a77]

Occasional banding has been my only problem with my s30. Like you, I have been really happy with this machine except for this which comes up with only certain files - and yes blues suck sometimes!

I have one client where they only design in 100% cyan.. was really a problem with banding.

After calling epson, they just asked me to do a nozzle check whenever I run into problems. They said if the nozzle test pattern looks good, then there is no issue and it must be feed related.

I tried everything, and after searching on the forums here, it looked like "ink starvation" to me. So I asked them to replace the damper assembly, so they did and then guess what, my cyan was coming out nice and solid. This was about two weeks ago and I got through that job and should check again today. This is a good reminder.

Like chrisphillips suggested, make some large 52" wide blocks of cyan and magenta and print them. My magenta was coming out nice and solid with any mode, 4/6/8 all bidrectional. But my cyan was not until they replaced the damper. You might remember they had an issue with some cyan ink that they recalled.. so my thinking that if that cyan caused a problem with clogging heads, why not suspect it would somehow clog the dampers?

Now for the 'vertical' banding, in the feed direction? I would definitely suspect your media is not sitting straight on the platen and is rippling a bit. Are you able see anything with a flashlight through the viewing window or maybe run it with the cover open to have a better look?

Hope you find a solution to your problem and keep us posted

 

[Snydo]

Have Epson send you a set of teflon pinch rollers, we run the crap out of our s30 and after about a year of heavy use our pinch rollers were basically disintegrating and leaving residue on the media and prints looked very similiar to your first picture. Best of luck.

 

[a77]

Just did my cyan block test and the banding is back for sure. Looks like after the damper change and all the cleaning/flushing that goes along with it, it seemed to "fix it" but not for long. I called and they are sending a tech, probably with a new head.
klemgraphics, let us know how you are making out.


edit: I should mention my magenta is looking great (as usual)

 

[a77]

New head today courtesy of Epson. Going to be printing 52" x 8" solid bands of cyan every week to monitor progress.

 

[Tyler Durden]

Let us know the update on this. I was thinking it could be a media issue. I have a roll of that and one side prints great while the other does not.

 

[wsigns]

How?

have you tried to print it in unidirectional? This can fix a lot of printing anomalies.

i've looked through the manuals and i'm not seeing how to switch to unidirectional - help?

 

[mdjamesd]

i've looked through the manuals and i'm not seeing how to switch to unidirectional - help?

Which RIP are you running? In Onyx 11, right click on the job, edit, printer settings, in the upper right of the grey box.....

Make sure you're using the correct profile in your RIP, and use RIP settings when selecting the media on the printer

 

[Rydaddy]

Which RIP are you running? In Onyx 11, right click on the job, edit, printer settings, in the upper right of the grey box.....

Make sure you're using the correct profile in your RIP, and use RIP settings when selecting the media on the printer

+1 to the above. If you haven't modified some of those settings on that screen to troubleshoot - i would recommend that. And also on the previous recommendation to try 'uni' as well. I attached a screen capture of the Job Options that you find with the instructions above. In case that helps. This is from an S70670 but should be similar.

 

[mdjamesd]

Hooray! I was quoted!

And yes, the screen is virtually similar to mine with an S30670.

 

[Mechanic]

Same Problem

Hi! I'm having the same banding problem, particulary in darker skin tones (places with dark shadows for example).
Also having it in some plain colors, like browns, some dark oranges, dark greens, etc).
This problems appears in only some files. So it's very difficult for me to fix it.
Epson tech service had recently replaced head, damper assy, pump and ink cartridge bay assy. For the known cyan ink related problem.
I have done already all the possible alignments and this issue is still present.
I'm currently printing a lot of Frontlite banners for a bikini manufacturer and this banding within te darker skin tones is really giving me a hard time.
The background and the rest of the image is great, though. So the banding it's not all the way in the same line of printing pass. Is only focused in darker skin tones and browns.


Any Help?