Epson S40600 banding

[soggywinter]

My team is getting banding on most prints from our Epson S40600 about 24-36" after the job starts. A couple of medium or heavy cleanings before run right before a job prevent the banding. I've cleaned the printer with OEM cleaning fluid and polyester swabs, changed the cleaning pad, and thoroughly cleaned the capping station. The machine is almost three years old. We're printing on Silh poster paper, Briteline 13oz Banner vinyl, and Briteline adhesive media for stickers.

Are there additional diagnostic or troubleshooting steps that anyone can suggest? thanks.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

How many passes does your profile use?
We occasionally get banding on blue/cyan if running very low pass count (4-6) which goes away at 8 pass or higher.

 

[soggywinter]

typically four passes. I'll run some jobs with 8 passes and see what happens. thanks.

 

[a77]

6 pass would do it.

but if you're doing 4pass, you have to make sure your feed calibration is right, so check on that.

If you show your banding photos, we might see something else.

 

[jfiscus]

Check the media profile on the printer itself. Then recalibrate the media feed within that. Running 4-pass you HAVE to have that spot on or you'll see banding.

 

[WeFixPrinters.com]

If it is intermittent, it is unlikely a configuration issue. If you print a nozzle test before and after printing are you missing nozzles? You could have an ink starvation issue which could be caused by a number of things, such as a bad ink cartridge (unlikely unless they are aftermarket), a weak pump cap that is not properly priming the head, some partially clogged dampers (Epson calls this a duct assy on this model, it houses the dampers), a bad/failing/dirty printhead. It could also be a dirty paper feed encoder disc (on the far left behind the cover, if there is dust or ink spray on it the feed could over or underfeed and cause banding....the belt that attaches to it could also be loose/worn (also unlikely. I've also seen defective media cause this....Let me know if you have any other questions

 

[soggywinter]

Thanks everyone. a77 diagnosis of 500mm calibration prints being imprecisely measured turn out to be the fix. I ran a couple of rolls of Sihl Blueback at 4 passes with zero banding after getting 1.5mm of stretch adjusted for. WeFixPrinters.com - Thanks for the detailed suggestions. I checked out your website and noted your company away for future reference for out of warranty wide format support services when they are needed.

 

[a77]

awesome