Yeah sure I'm not saying the heat is the only thing. 700 got it's own issues.
Did you get the enhancement kit done on it? Otherwise (and even with the kit if the installer doesn't know or wasn't careful!) I can almost promise your drive roller encoder is scratched and I've seen that making problems. And this wasn't even a widely known issue a year ago.
2nd is the dang new OMAS which I hate. The lense gets dirty so easy and it just doesn't read as well as the old ones in 500 etc. That's why I really like the new OPT wheel on 630.
My opinion, way more paneling problems on 300/500 than 700/800. And I hope 630 has even less but that is to be seen.
Anyway you should be able to get decent result if everything is in working order. Have you tried to figure it out? These hairlines show pretty well if the movement is off during print or not (my magenta alignment is off, don't worry).
If you have some space on the side of your job you can add them and see how it moves. It should be consistent, no thinner and thicker lines mixed. At least you know if you have a problem that can be fixed or settings modified.
I asked about the enhancement kit, and I was told its being slowly rolled out and only being allocated to machines with problems right now... That was about 3 months ago. We have an Epson Solvent printer we print everything critical on, so I havent pushed it too much.
I had the beta firmware which helped (I think its non beta now) - I can get it to print decently accurate.... But you have to jump through hoops to do it. And its pretty much impossible unless you start the print after its already on the take up reel...which wastes 4 FT of media, or you need to print 4 FT, stop, then print your panels. Not sure if the enhancement kit fixes that...
We pay for the extended warranty, so theoretically I can have them throw parts at it to try and "fix" it, but from everyone I know with a 700, and every reply on here... it seems to be a consistent issue, so I just dont want to waste time to get marginally better results.
We do a lot of wall graphics that are 10 FT long with small text, or small parts that need to align perfectly.... We've never got the 700 to do those properly - so we can print on the Latex and then spend 20 minutes strategically stretching each panel so it aligns properly... Or we can print on our solvent and have it be 100% bang on without giving it a thought... so we just choose to use our solvent! If it were our only machine... I'd probably spend more time trying to get it perfected.
But even with printing with it attached to the take up... its not consistant. We do a lot of extruded signs - 12" by 8 FT panels, 6 panels, sometimes 8 - If we print it all at once, the first 3 panels are ok... then the next 3 panels match that set, but then it can be a quarter of an inch off. If you do it while its taped up on the reel...all 6 panels will match.... and you waste 4 FT of material. But then if one of those panels has a head strike, or the installer messes up and you go to reprint... it doesnt matter if you do it after its on the take up reel or not... the reprinted panel can be 1/8, to 1/4" off from the other panels... especially if you reload the media. So we can get it to match... but then if theres a reprint, you're screwed.
Maybe it's the driver encoder, maybe the enhancement kit will fix it or make it better... We spent days playing around with beta firmwares and different ways to print it, its got A LOT better than a year ago, but it's still not perfect... or even perfectly consistently off. My Resin 50700 uses heat as well, and I've done 10 FT Panels that align 100%... another reason I don't think heat attributes to it at all... on cheap media, maybe.... But it just feels like Epsons solvent, and Latex just works without tinkering, or hoping / praying when you get to the job site everything aligns... where as on the HP.... I get to the job site knowing I'm going to be struggling.
Still love the HP For pretty much everything, we just wont use it where alignment is critical - If it was our only printer...we could make it work - It just takes longer to do the install.
And being 1/8 of an inch off over 8 FT isnt bad - I've seen wall graphic installs that go off way further than that... But if you can get perfect alignment... I don't see a reason not to! So we'll stick to our Epsons for the more critical stuff... and hope the next generation of HP's gets better and better at alignment. We'll always have an HP in our shop, it does a lot of things great / perfectly... alignment just isnt one of them! At least our printers alignment isnt.
