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Need Help HP Latex problem with prints

nico

New Member
Hey guys, first off merry christmas to everyone in this great community!

I just got my first machine, a HP Latex 110, that oddly enough has a 310 label on it but flashes the 110 firmware.

Anyways besides that, I've been having problems with prints, the last rows always come out with an error, a small little detail that makes the ink look like they had been slightly rubbed or to put it another way it is like the printheads "spray" a little ink right at the end.

I am attaching photos that show the last column and the one next to it.

This happens no matter where I am printing on the roll, always at the end of it, the last portion of the print.
So far I've mostly printed tests, labels and stickers, so it'll always show at the last column of the group. It'll happen regardless of where the printheads print the last part of the graphic, I am using 54" rolls, it won't matter if the graphic ends at 50, 40, 30, etc.

The technicians have looked into it and haven't figured it out yet, it has been over a week now, and they decided to call HP just now, so I figured I'd ask here see if anyone else has had this problem or knows a way to solve it, since it'll probably take longer than expected with the technicians.

We've tried aligning the printheads, optimizing print quality, we've tried with different materials, we've double checked that the materials are in the right position before printing (they look fine, we first thought that one side could've gotten up a little bit), the technicians adjusted temperature too and other stuff, the metal holders too.

Any input is very appreciated, thanks!

On another note, we are using Flexi and we've also had problems with prints being centered, i.e right and left margins are never the same, we can tell by the cut marks, and when we try increasing the margins (evenly) with Flexi the machine will print a bigger margin on one side and decrease it on the other, to the point that cut marks get printed right at the edge of the material, makes absolutely no sense.
 

nico

New Member
uploading photos, forgot to attach.
 

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dypinc

New Member
Try printing with a confidence strip / color bars at he edges of your print. Not exactly sure what Flexi's term are for those colorbars.
 
+1.

In SAI/ Flexi, they are called Color Bands. You can enable them on any of the four sides of the print (see attachment). They are found on the Labels Tab of the Default/ Job Properties dialog.
 

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nico

New Member
thanks guys! really appreciate that, had no idea those existed, I am a totally new to Flexi and printing with latex in general.
That should definitely work, I think, since the errors I am getting are always at the left end of the print, will try it and let you know.

makes me wonder if issues like these are common with some large format printers? or do color bands have other uses, can't think of any right now.
 

dypinc

New Member
I don't normally use those color bars but I do notice when I print banner trim lines where the banner print ends the trim lines beyond that are fuzzy.
 

ikarasu

Active Member
Color bands help make sure all the heads are firing, it prevents drips from heads not being used much / prevents lines from clogging. Works great on solvent... I've never used it on my latex though.

It might fix your problem, but I'd still be curious as to why the problem is there in the beginning, as it shouldn't be. How are your nozzle tests? I sometimes get a lot of spray on the marks at the end of printing... Never really thought about it until now, since every time I print it's perfectly fine.

I'd suggest static since its winter time... but if it happens at the end only, I doubt it's that!
 

nico

New Member
It might fix your problem, but I'd still be curious as to why the problem is there in the beginning, as it shouldn't be. How are your nozzle tests? I sometimes get a lot of spray on the marks at the end of printing... Never really thought about it until now, since every time I print it's perfectly fine.

Agree, that's the same the technician said and why he decided to call HP which hopefully will look into it soon.
As for tests, since I am pretty new to this I can't really tell yet what's wrong/right or what to look for, when I asked the tech guys how to check them, they said "don't worry they are fine", so I am learning online, I'll do some and upload photos as soon as I can.

Thanks for the help guys!
 

nico

New Member
Attaching photos of printhead tests and printhead alignment prints

All input is appreciated.

thanks,
nico
 

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dypinc

New Member
What is the status of your printheads? Are they relatively new, under warranty or old? They don't look right, way too rough unless it is the media causing this. What media was used for the PH alignments?
 

nico

New Member
What is the status of your printheads? Are they relatively new, under warranty or old? They don't look right, way too rough unless it is the media causing this. What media was used for the PH alignments?
The printheads are the ones that came with the machine so should be completely new. Using cheap media though, $80 vinyl roll that the distributor sent with the machine, called Microsolv. I don't know if that's what could be causing the issue, can't find online good examples of how printheads tests should look on HP latex yet, and I am a complete newbie at this so have little idea of what to look for.
Thank you for the help.
 

dypinc

New Member
Since the printheads are under warranty I would be pushing for new printheads, through tech support, or your distributor. I would think that would be the first place to start. Possibly a red flag here "a HP Latex 110, that oddly enough has a 310 label on it but flashes the 110 firmware" maybe a rebuilt machine for some reason.
 

ikarasu

Active Member
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04721790 Go to page 87.

Its hard to tell from the pictures... But it looks like your optomizer is too high, also looks like the heads are a bit out of alignment.

I suggest reading from page 85+ on print quality issues. I'd go through all the setup under print quality again - Remake a profile for your media, following the guide step by step. My first media our tech setup for me... I think if he didn't, I'd probably be lost / confused about setting it up. But I'd suggest running through the steps on print quality... They have images of what everything should look like, and give you very detailed step by step directions on setup.

It sucks because you're wasting a lot of ink and media in the process... But generally once it's setup, it's good to go forever. a GOOD tech would have printed a lot of samples / tests, and made sure everything was right before they left. I'm not saying your tech didn't do his job, but he shouldn't have ever left you with a printer thats not running 100% perfect out of the box.

I have no experience with microsolv... But their own manufacturer has no specs on it.

MicroSolv 4 mil Promotional Calendered Glossy Vinyl with Permanent Acrylic Adhesive 54'' x 55 yds

It sounds like one of them no name-china brands... So that could be a part of the problem. Though your prints look fine in most places. I'd try changing the optomizer levels... Too much optomizer can make it bleed/fuzzy like that.

How are the prints resistance wise? If you try to scratch them off with a coin or nail, do they come off? Some media isn't compatible with latex, and it doesnt adhere properly to the ink. Your media is likelly fine, but since it's the only media you really have, it's worth doing a scratch test and playing with the optomizer levels.
 

nico

New Member
Possibly a red flag here "a HP Latex 110, that oddly enough has a 310 label on it but flashes the 110 firmware" maybe a rebuilt machine for some reason.
Oh yeah definitely red flag, was completely confused when I first saw it and thought I got a lucky upgrade (not). The response of the technicians when I asked: (at first) "that's odd" (then) "don't worry about it".
Turns out (I just found out today) that HP does this thing where they "block" the machine's capability to use bigger ink cartridges (775 instead of 400ml), it is a software thing and apparently both machines are absolutely the same.

Thank you very much for this man! So, taking the manual's references, the tests I've ran so far look, imo, pretty decent, coalescence and bleed check out when comparing them. I will look a little bit deeper into them though.

I suggest reading from page 85+ on print quality issues. I'd go through all the setup under print quality again - Remake a profile for your media, following the guide step by step. My first media our tech setup for me... I think if he didn't, I'd probably be lost / confused about setting it up. But I'd suggest running through the steps on print quality... They have images of what everything should look like, and give you very detailed step by step directions on setup.
Will do, most definitely, thanks!

It sucks because you're wasting a lot of ink and media in the process... But generally once it's setup, it's good to go forever. a GOOD tech would have printed a lot of samples / tests, and made sure everything was right before they left. I'm not saying your tech didn't do his job, but he shouldn't have ever left you with a printer thats not running 100% perfect out of the box.
I swear it's been already like over half a roll of tests with the tech guys, but they definitely left the first day without enough tests and that's why now they've been here for almost two weeks coming and going, so yeah...

How are the prints resistance wise? If you try to scratch them off with a coin or nail, do they come off? Some media isn't compatible with latex, and it doesnt adhere properly to the ink. Your media is likelly fine, but since it's the only media you really have, it's worth doing a scratch test and playing with the optomizer levels.
Pretty decent even though it is cheap, I've personally done scratch tests, so resistance looks good.

I am right now trying to find Oracal or Kemika (italian) distributors.

I really really appreciate all the help guys, means the world starting and being a total noob at this!
 

orcabruce

New Member
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04721790 Go to page 87.

Its hard to tell from the pictures... But it looks like your optomizer is too high, also looks like the heads are a bit out of alignment.

I suggest reading from page 85+ on print quality issues. I'd go through all the setup under print quality again - Remake a profile for your media, following the guide step by step. My first media our tech setup for me... I think if he didn't, I'd probably be lost / confused about setting it up. But I'd suggest running through the steps on print quality... They have images of what everything should look like, and give you very detailed step by step directions on setup.

It sucks because you're wasting a lot of ink and media in the process... But generally once it's setup, it's good to go forever. a GOOD tech would have printed a lot of samples / tests, and made sure everything was right before they left. I'm not saying your tech didn't do his job, but he shouldn't have ever left you with a printer thats not running 100% perfect out of the box.

I have no experience with microsolv... But their own manufacturer has no specs on it.

MicroSolv 4 mil Promotional Calendered Glossy Vinyl with Permanent Acrylic Adhesive 54'' x 55 yds

It sounds like one of them no name-china brands... So that could be a part of the problem. Though your prints look fine in most places. I'd try changing the optomizer levels... Too much optomizer can make it bleed/fuzzy like that.

How are the prints resistance wise? If you try to scratch them off with a coin or nail, do they come off? Some media isn't compatible with latex, and it doesnt adhere properly to the ink. Your media is likelly fine, but since it's the only media you really have, it's worth doing a scratch test and playing with the optomizer levels.
Hey guys, first off merry christmas to everyone in this great community!

I just got my first machine, a HP Latex 110, that oddly enough has a 310 label on it but flashes the 110 firmware.

Anyways besides that, I've been having problems with prints, the last rows always come out with an error, a small little detail that makes the ink look like they had been slightly rubbed or to put it another way it is like the printheads "spray" a little ink right at the end.

I am attaching photos that show the last column and the one next to it.

This happens no matter where I am printing on the roll, always at the end of it, the last portion of the print.
So far I've mostly printed tests, labels and stickers, so it'll always show at the last column of the group. It'll happen regardless of where the printheads print the last part of the graphic, I am using 54" rolls, it won't matter if the graphic ends at 50, 40, 30, etc.

The technicians have looked into it and haven't figured it out yet, it has been over a week now, and they decided to call HP just now, so I figured I'd ask here see if anyone else has had this problem or knows a way to solve it, since it'll probably take longer than expected with the technicians.

We've tried aligning the printheads, optimizing print quality, we've tried with different materials, we've double checked that the materials are in the right position before printing (they look fine, we first thought that one side could've gotten up a little bit), the technicians adjusted temperature too and other stuff, the metal holders too.

Any input is very appreciated, thanks!

On another note, we are using Flexi and we've also had problems with prints being centered, i.e right and left margins are never the same, we can tell by the cut marks, and when we try increasing the margins (evenly) with Flexi the machine will print a bigger margin on one side and decrease it on the other, to the point that cut marks get printed right at the edge of the material, makes absolutely no sense.
 

orcabruce

New Member
I think I would start with an alignment. & cleaning .
Then for SURE use a good quality material. The cheep ones from my experience on either latex or solvent (We have both) always creates more problems then its worth.

Also, is the technician qualified on these? He should have known that the latex100 is basically the same machine as the 360.. just has less ink capacity. and a few auto things

Tracking may be an issue as well. They come with a default I think of 280 or something crazy. We set ours to 42. We had a similar problem when we first got ours doing window perf..
We eliminated the smuginging by doing this as well as the feed rate.

Hope this helps
 

nico

New Member
alignment and cleaning was done, agree I am looking for good quality materials. They are supposed to be qualified but honestly they are just generalists imo, I'm certain they have more exp with solvent than latex, they've already scaled the problem to HP so hopefully it'll be better now.

Tracking is something I haven't looked into yet, will definitely now, appreciate it!

Just an update: they are going to replace the air pumps (I think that's what they are called, located next to the ink cartridges inside the machine), apparently this is a preventive measure they take with some models, I was told HP's instruction was to check if some models have certain air pumps which present failures in the long term and replace them beforehand.

Happy new year all!
 

nico

New Member
UPDATE: Air pumps where changed 2 days ago. Since then the machine is making a noise it didn't make before, it is a loud buzz coming form the air pumps (where the ink cartridges are) that happens every 2 minutes whenever the machine is ON, no matter if it is printing or not. Noise wasn't there before they changed the pumps.

Has anyone experienced this?

Although the machine seems to be working fine I am curious about the noise, since I definitely didn't hear it before in any of the models we demo'd at the showroom.

Also: problems with prints right at the end of the roll are still there and HP is finally coming tomorrow to check what's going on.
 
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