HP L25500 problems continue

[yamaha581]

I know I had posted a thread before but we are having another probelm (just the luck we have) lol

We have pretty much replaced everything on this printer and just had it apart and cleaned today. We have all brand new print heads in the machine and have done all the test prints and alignments that we could. When we print it is like all the prints are coming out blurry and nothing is lining up. There is white spaces in between where certain colors should be against each other. For example in the pictures there is white showing in between the red and black when it should just be solid red against the black. you can also see it is pretty blurry. Would anyone know what is causing this? We have been having this problem for awhile and have replaced multiple print heads. No print heads are going bad now but it is still printing like this with all new print heads. We were having a problem with it overheating before but we had started doing prints in only 4ft or 5 ft sections and did not have that problem but it would still print like this right from the beginning.

 

[iSign]

what does it do on photos?

what rip are you using? (sorry... didn't go hunt in your profile)

what format files are you sending?

The reason I ask is that I have the same printer & thought i probably had more problems with mine then anyone... (just the luck I have ) but I've never seen this...

...that said, I did decide loooong ago, when running my mimaki, that I would eliminate some of the possible issues with my file, by choosing to never send vector art, and only raster images. I would be very surprised if you would get this from a raster image... but maybe it already is one?

Also, I use Flexi, so I know flexi interprets illustrator files differently sometimes & I design in Illy, so that is the other half\, or the bigger half of why I quit importing vector files, (except for cut data) because long before there could be print issues... there could be import issues.

...and that's also why I wonder what you get with photos?


All the above was regarding the white outlines... as for blurry prints, are you sure the profile is a good one?

 

[dypinc]

Looks like your throwing way too much ink at it. What are your ink limits, pass, drying and curing temps?

 

[yamaha581]

what does it do on photos?

what rip are you using? (sorry... didn't go hunt in your profile)

what format files are you sending?

The reason I ask is that I have the same printer & thought i probably had more problems with mine then anyone... (just the luck I have ) but I've never seen this...

...that said, I did decide loooong ago, when running my mimaki, that I would eliminate some of the possible issues with my file, by choosing to never send vector art, and only raster images. I would be very surprised if you would get this from a raster image... but maybe it already is one?

Also, I use Flexi, so I know flexi interprets illustrator files differently sometimes & I design in Illy, so that is the other half\, or the bigger half of why I quit importing vector files, (except for cut data) because long before there could be print issues... there could be import issues.

...and that's also why I wonder what you get with photos?


All the above was regarding the white outlines... as for blurry prints, are you sure the profile is a good one?

We have been printing on this for a little over a month and had no problems at all until now so it can't be anything to do with the rip since it was working.

We are using Onyx and we send over all of the files as an eps to print them. We also have an L26500 and can print with that with the exact same file and settings with no problem so it has to be something with this printer. Which we can't seem to figure out. lol

 

[yamaha581]

Looks like your throwing way too much ink at it. What are your ink limits, pass, drying and curing temps?

I am not at the shop right now so I am not sure but we have printed with this for over a month with no problems at all. We actually printed out two prints perfectly fine and then all of the sudden it started doing this and it has been like that since then. We have not changed anything since we were using it when it was working so I do not see how it could be anything with the ink settings since it was working fine and now all of a sudden its like this. I know we are using the Oracal 3105 profile I believe is what it is. I will have to check on all of the settings for it tomorrow morning.

 

[Typestries]

bad media- try another or try this roll in your other machine

too much ink

too little heat

inadvertently or unintentionally changed rip settings /profile causing the above "too's"

We have 4 of these running, and the above is what causes what your photos show in our experience. Put on your troubleshooting hat.

It's NOT bad printheads. There's lots of ink there.

the overheating-this looks under heated. Are you sure you didn't turn the temps way down?

Overheating-are your fans dirty? machine top and curing unit fans - small brush and vacuum will help move more air as engineered and solve overheating.

 

[yamaha581]

bad media- try another or try this roll in your other machine

too much ink

too little heat

inadvertently or unintentionally changed rip settings /profile causing the above "too's"

We have 4 of these running, and the above is what causes what your photos show in our experience. Put on your troubleshooting hat.

It's NOT bad printheads. There's lots of ink there.

the overheating-this looks under heated. Are you sure you didn't turn the temps way down?

Overheating-are your fans dirty? machine top and curing unit fans - small brush and vacuum will help move more air as engineered and solve overheating.

Thank you! We have multiple rolls of this material and many others so it is not the material.

I will check the fans first thing tomorrow and see what they look like! The guy that I work with always insists that the heads were bad so we went out and bought all new print heads when I figured it probably did not need them in the first place.

Thanks again!

 

[P Wagner]

Does the machine complete the calibrations without generating an error? I am referring to the Printhead Alignment calibration that is typically done when a printhead is removed / replaced.

From the images, it is difficult to see if the white gaps are caused by alignment issues, or potentially caused by ink coalescence. Particularly with the L25500 (first generation HP Latex), many canned media profiles use far too much of the light inks (light cyan and magenta) and this tends to cause over-inking, where ink pools, merges, and bleeds out on the media. The solution is to use some combination of more heat, more time, or less ink to control ink coalescence. If you are seeing the problem more clearly on the sides of the media, versus the center of the roll, this would support the over-inking theory.

 

[Typestries]

Does the machine complete the calibrations without generating an error? I am referring to the Printhead Alignment calibration that is typically done when a printhead is removed / replaced.

From the images, it is difficult to see if the white gaps are caused by alignment issues, or potentially caused by ink coalescence. Particularly with the L25500 (first generation HP Latex), many canned media profiles use far too much of the light inks (light cyan and magenta) and this tends to cause over-inking, where ink pools, merges, and bleeds out on the media. The solution is to use some combination of more heat, more time, or less ink to control ink coalescence. If you are seeing the problem more clearly on the sides of the media, versus the center of the roll, this would support the over-inking theory.

Excellent knowledge, thanks! Curious what the OP reports back.

 

[yamaha581]

Does the machine complete the calibrations without generating an error? I am referring to the Printhead Alignment calibration that is typically done when a printhead is removed / replaced.

From the images, it is difficult to see if the white gaps are caused by alignment issues, or potentially caused by ink coalescence. Particularly with the L25500 (first generation HP Latex), many canned media profiles use far too much of the light inks (light cyan and magenta) and this tends to cause over-inking, where ink pools, merges, and bleeds out on the media. The solution is to use some combination of more heat, more time, or less ink to control ink coalescence. If you are seeing the problem more clearly on the sides of the media, versus the center of the roll, this would support the over-inking theory.

Yes the machine does complete the calibrations with no errors.

We have been printing with this on the same media and profile for over a month and had no problems so I am not sure what would cause it to happen now. It prints like this the whole way across the material where the image is so it really is not just along the edges. I will look into that though!

 

[yamaha581]

bad media- try another or try this roll in your other machine

too much ink

too little heat

inadvertently or unintentionally changed rip settings /profile causing the above "too's"

We have 4 of these running, and the above is what causes what your photos show in our experience. Put on your troubleshooting hat.

It's NOT bad printheads. There's lots of ink there.

the overheating-this looks under heated. Are you sure you didn't turn the temps way down?

Overheating-are your fans dirty? machine top and curing unit fans - small brush and vacuum will help move more air as engineered and solve overheating.

Here are the settings I got from the rip for the profile we have been using.

12 pass
Drying temp - 131
Curing temp - 230
Heat airflow - 30

 

[ddarlak]

it's your profile

 

[yamaha581]

it's your profile

Did you read what I had said multiple times? I have been using this profile for months and not had any problems at all.

 

[ddarlak]

Did you read what I had said multiple times? I have been using this profile for months and not had any problems at all.

yes I read what you said.

I have two of these machines, sometimes without reason a material I have used for years, and have multiple rolls stops working. your machine is fine. too much ink is going down, something changed without your knowledge, either in the material, your profile, your firmware...something, but it ain't your printer

I finally tossed three rolls of banner material that printed fine for years because all of a sudden I had similar results that you had and not a dam thing worked except chit canning it and moving to a new material.

 

[danno]

Have you checked the actual temps with an IR temp sensor? My heat/cure elements went out and didn't code in the machine. We replaced them and have been good since then.

 

[yamaha581]

yes I read what you said.

I have two of these machines, sometimes without reason a material I have used for years, and have multiple rolls stops working. your machine is fine. too much ink is going down, something changed without your knowledge, either in the material, your profile, your firmware...something, but it ain't your printer

I finally tossed three rolls of banner material that printed fine for years because all of a sudden I had similar results that you had and not a dam thing worked except chit canning it and moving to a new material.

We are now back to the same problem with it saying the # 3 print head is bad again. If we could ever get this problem fixed I will try and move onto the problem we were having earlier. lol

 

[yamaha581]

Have you checked the actual temps with an IR temp sensor? My heat/cure elements went out and didn't code in the machine. We replaced them and have been good since then.

I have not done that yet but once we try and figure out why this #3 printhead keeps going bad and are able to print again I will have to try that.

 

[yamaha581]

We got it to take the print head and did a test print. Here are some pictures of what it looks like. if you look at the black lines along the sides of the cyan and black checkered area they are broken up and not a solid color like they used to be on the test prints. Is there something we should check that would cause this?

 

[P Wagner]

What is the media (manufacturer and part #)?

That looks like either a chemical problem (ink and media not compatible), or possibly a heater issue (not enough heat in the print zone causing ink to migrate and coalesce). Are you getting any errors that reference the print heater systems?

 

[yamaha581]

What is the media (manufacturer and part #)?

That looks like either a chemical problem (ink and media not compatible), or possibly a heater issue (not enough heat in the print zone causing ink to migrate and coalesce). Are you getting any errors that reference the print heater systems?

We are using a material called Substance which is for motocross graphics. We have not had any error codes about heat. The only ones we have received are about overheating the print head and one we have got is about condensation on the print head. That is what we are having the problem with now. We called HP about it and they really did not say anything to us. We just have to try and figure out how to stop the condensation that is happening on that one print head for some reason.