Epson Surecolor S30670 Issues...

[AXWRAPS]

Our SureColor S30670 has an issue we cannot resolve. We purchased the machine in 2012 and had pretty good success with overall usage with minimum down time. We have used Onyx 10.2 print software since the purchase.
Over the last few months we have noticed an unusual condition. When doing long (anything over 6'-8') prints on vinyl media the printer prints fine at a normal speed for awhile, then slows down to a crawl after several feet, almost stopping at the end of the pass, causing wide banding. Up to thess point when it slows down the ink is solid but when it slows down it leaves wide (3"-4") banding that is very noticeable when printing dark solid colors. It doesn't seem to be a print head issue as nozzle checks look good. The banding happens when the print head slows to a crawl and seems like more ink is deposited on part of the media causing the banding (darker paths In print media).
We have shortened the distance using the network cable, switched to USB cable, tried 2 different computers, one with windows 10, the other with windows 7 and still no luck.
Hoping someone else out there may have encountered and remedied similar issues.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[printhog]

Off the cuff I'd be inclined to look at internal printer buffers and data stream issues.

Any stall in the print pass will cause a visual defect from modified dot gain.. the defect is merely a symptom of an underlying issue.

its only a freaking sign!

 

[jfiscus]

Ours will slow down as described during high network traffic.
If it is isolated on your network, you may want to call in an IT pro to help figure out where data is coming from or going to; you may have a virus.
Possibly your RIP is configured to send the data incorrectly?

 

[AXWRAPS]

Not just a "freakin" sign...it's for a vehicle wrap and unfortunately it is solid black with some overlaying graphics. If we were to attempt installing on the vehicle the banding would be very noticeable. I wish it was just a "freakin" sign...wouldn't be an issue!
Epson says maybe updating firmware. Going to try that to see if it resolves issue. As for network issues, it's hardwired via Ethernet wire straight from computer to printer. Also used USB with same results so don't think it is a network connectivity/bottleneck issue. Reinstalled RIP (Onyx) twice and tech support say configurations are correct.

 

[bigwow]

Agree with printhog, sounds like a buffer issue - how full is your disk? We run Caldera on a dedicated RIP machine, connect to the printer directly via USB (this way we don't have to worry about network traffic across ethernet), and when the allocated Caldera partition gets near capacity the printer will do exactly as you describe - empty the temp folders and voila, back to normal.

I'd clear all old temp files and create a very simple 8' vector file consisting of one thin rectangle and see if it still does it, if it doesn't, it's a buffer / stream issue.

 

[jfiscus]

Check the physical HD space on the RIP machine, possibly it is not large enough or fast enough. We now have SSDs in our RIPs and everything is much faster.

 

[GetTarps]

Our SureColor S30670 has an issue we cannot resolve. We purchased the machine in 2012 and had pretty good success with overall usage with minimum down time. We have used Onyx 10.2 print software since the purchase.
Over the last few months we have noticed an unusual condition. When doing long (anything over 6'-8') prints on vinyl media the printer prints fine at a normal speed for awhile, then slows down to a crawl after several feet, almost stopping at the end of the pass, causing wide banding. Up to thess point when it slows down the ink is solid but when it slows down it leaves wide (3"-4") banding that is very noticeable when printing dark solid colors. It doesn't seem to be a print head issue as nozzle checks look good. The banding happens when the print head slows to a crawl and seems like more ink is deposited on part of the media causing the banding (darker paths In print media).
We have shortened the distance using the network cable, switched to USB cable, tried 2 different computers, one with windows 10, the other with windows 7 and still no luck.
Hoping someone else out there may have encountered and remedied similar issues.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[GetTarps]

I have the exact same issue! It takes me 5-6 hours to print 60 ft, 720 4 pass.

So sick of this issue!