Help: JV3-160SP

[ucs]

Hello and thank you for reading my post,

We have a few year old Mimaki JV3-160SP, I've had this issue for ages now, and recently replaced all the dampers, the capping station, the pumps, among a few other parts although anytime I print anything at the beginning the print shreds" about 3", might anyone have any suggestions what to check for next? Any help would truly be greatly appreciated.

P.s. the print pattern is actually 100% perfect (not like you see in the image)

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

What do you mean by shreed?

 

[ucs]

please look at the image, you will see on the right hand side (head station side) where the colour "shreds" into tirangle like shapes.. although after that point, the print is fine. only 3" or so at the beginning of the print.

 

[artbot]

looks to me that your head carriage is falling forward "out of the gate" then corrects itself. i'd turn off the machine and slowly slide the carriage to the left looking for any twisting or lifting/lowering motion along that first section. just guessing but possibly the belt is lifting or pulling it out of wack?

 

[MikePro]

i like artbot's idea, but I'll throw one out there for the heck of it anyways...

you don't, by any chance, have extreme parameters input into your alignment procedures do you?
its easy to keep adding values thinking you have to align the displaced lines, whereas you really only have to identify the correct values once and not keep repeating and adding more to the current value you set during the last test.
(its one procedure in particular that i'm thinking of but I can't remember the name offhand...with the black lines, short and tall and the one marked "0" in the center)

 

[ucs]

artbot; im not 100% sure what you mean... are you referring to when you print the tick marks and adjust left or right (I forget what that is called)... how do I go about checking for this?

 

[ucs]

so I printed the tick mark pattern, the first 4 patterns are easily read, although the ones after start pixelating randomly and some of the lines dont even print so you can not tell if the adjustment needs xxx+ or xxx-

 

[artbot]

no test. i just figured you should manually pull out the carriage and look for some odd play/action behavior in the mechanics. if you are having some weird behavior with trying to print a test pattern, i'd figure that there might be something electronically wrong with the printer.

if you bump the file out like put your scan start at 10", does it still do the pattern? or is it confined to that location on your platen?

 

[ucs]

its confined to that location at the beginning only... 3", so normally what i would do is position the image so any irrelevant data is printed in that portion of the print... if possible.

 

[SightLine]

Might also be some stuff on the encoder strip there at the first few inches.

 

[ucs]

is it possible to remove the encoder strip and clean it with anything?

 

[artbot]

have you looked at the encoder? i figured the tech already checked that. i'd say if there's something wrong with it, it's more likely that the strip has popped out of it's track than being dirty. dirt causes the y to loose a step occasionally and or constantly causing the print to drift/stare step sideways. can you get a close up of the weird pattern? maybe scan it so it's in perfect focus. wondering if there's any tell tale signs of data corruption or it's just mechanical.

 

[ucs]

ok... so heres so far what i've noticed... when i do a print test pattern, the beginning 3" the pattern almost doesnt come up at all, but if i print it past 3" its 100% perfect, now I've had a tech from ND look at it and he has no idea (weird eh), so most of the time I do the maintenance myself on the machine now... i am beginning to think it is the encoder strip as upon inspecting it closer there is dirt here and there... so what i would like to do is remove the strip and clean it with something.. just not exactly sure what to use.. i will scan the pattern for you and post it soon.. just juggling a few things between working on the machine.

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

i like artbot's idea, but I'll throw one out there for the heck of it anyways...

you don't, by any chance, have extreme parameters input into your alignment procedures do you?
its easy to keep adding values thinking you have to align the displaced lines, whereas you really only have to identify the correct values once and not keep repeating and adding more to the current value you set during the last test.
(its one procedure in particular that i'm thinking of but I can't remember the name offhand...with the black lines, short and tall and the one marked "0" in the center)

It's the feed calberation

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

ok... so heres so far what i've noticed... when i do a print test pattern, the beginning 3" the pattern almost doesnt come up at all, but if i print it past 3" its 100% perfect, now I've had a tech from ND look at it and he has no idea (weird eh), so most of the time I do the maintenance myself on the machine now... i am beginning to think it is the encoder strip as upon inspecting it closer there is dirt here and there... so what i would like to do is remove the strip and clean it with something.. just not exactly sure what to use.. i will scan the pattern for you and post it soon.. just juggling a few things between working on the machine.

You don't need to remove the encoder strip, just use a lit free cloth or rag use some alchol with a little water, ring it out and rub gently. You also might want to clean your sensor.