HP Latex 360 problems

[da1vid]

Hello.

I hope someone can help me with that. I have an HP Latex 360 printer and after a few days that it was off it starting to print really ugly. I am also receiving the 98:03 error code.

I am attaching the images. The lines are not clear, the ink is leaking and it is cracked, totally grainy... What is really strange to me is that the frog is printed much better than the rest of the print.

Also, this is printed on the vinyl. If I print the same poster on paper, the print will be perfect. First I thought that maybe there is some problem with the vinyl but after trying to print it on 6 different types of vinyl that is obviously not the case.

I cleaned the heads a few times, and I also replaced almost all the heads (except the OP and LC/LM). I ran the drop detector and for all the heads there are less than 10 nozzles out, except for light cyan (there are 1056 nozles out). Need to replace that head for sure, but could that be the reason for print like that? And again on the paper, the print is great. And also this much better-printed frog is really bothering me.

I would really appreciate some help and advice. Thank you so much in advance!

Best regards,
David

 

[P Wagner]

The 98:03 error is almost certainly related to the lc channel, which is reporting no nozzles jetting in the drop detect. Your options are to clean (manual/ auto) that PH, or to simply replace it.

The coalesence could be related nozzle peformance with the OP head, but this would affect all medias not just vinyl and not paper. The other option could be that the vinyl is contaminated with high concentrations of plasticizers, which interfere with the ink's ability to immobilize the pigments on the media. You could try cleaning a marked section of the vinyl with isopropyl alcohol, and then printing a job in that area to see how the image looks in each area of the media (cleaned and not cleaned). If the ink looks good in the cleaned area, and has the coalesence in the non-cleaned area, you have ID the definitive root cause (media contamination).

 

[da1vid]

Hi P Wagner.

Thank you so much for your help. I also believe the 98:03 error is for sure related to the lc channel. But can the print be that bad because of it? And can it be good on paper and not on vinyl?

Should I try and make a print only with the CMYK profile where the lc head is off and if the problem is the same then there is probably a problem with OP head?

I know about problems with plasticizers. That is why I tried and print it on 5 or 6 different types of vinyl and the same problems happen on every single one of them.

Thank you!

Best regards,
David

 

[P Wagner]

You could create a CMYK-only print mode that does not use the lc/lm ink channels as a test, but I am not sure that is the direction that I would go. I would run a nozzle test print or the drop detection and see what PH1 is delivering and reporting with respect to nozzle performance.

Dropping an entire channel such as lc would typically cause colors (particularly grays and near-neutrals) to drift, but I would not expect to see major coalesence from the loss of an entire channel. Extreme grain and bleed is more typically associated with insufficient OP or plasticizer contaminated media.

 

[balstestrat]

I would do this. Replace the LM-LC printhead with a new one. Then try with a completely different vinyl roll and see how that looks.
Then you know if the vinyl roll was faulty (extreme case of plasticizer) or if you still see it then your OP printhead is faulty.

Now I know you wonder and say that it shows no missing nozzles in the drop test. However it can go out once you start printing. That test does not simulate actual printing.

 

[da1vid]

Hello everyone. Thank you so much for your answers and I am very sorry for my late reply. My son had heart surgery so I was out for some time.

So I changed the OP print head as well as LC/LM printhead, but the problem still persists.

I ran the drop detector again and the result is again the 1024 nozzles are out for the light cyan.

Any idea?

Thank you so much!

Best regards,
David

 

[balstestrat]

Clean clean clean it or warranty replace it if it doesn't wake up. Who knows, maybe you have a problem with the carriage PCA.