Ink Fish Eye

[formanek]

I am having some issues with the ink almost looking like it is fish eyed. Mostly the black ink. It has spots in areas that look like thinner dripped on it and exposed the white vinyl underneath. Ideas?

 

[J Hill Designs]

contamination

 

[randya]

Media contamination.

Dust, dirt, oils, water mist.
Or the media itself.

Dust and dirt will often have a dark center - the solvent collects around particles
Oils, water and media often have light centers where adsorption and absorption are inhibited.

 

[Gino]

More than likely it is some foreign substance causing it to wick away as already mentioned, but sometimes, if it's noticeable more in darker colors.... it can be a form of puddling which is just too much ink going down for whatever reasons.... and not drying properly.

 

[mark galoob]

change your heater settings, or change the print settings, ie slow it down...

i had this happen on crappy advantage material they sent and said was soooo good. stoped using it and prob solved...


mark galoob

 

[tbaker]

actually this could be caused by several things.

It could be pooling caused by heat to low.
It could be pooling caused by media contamination.
It could be ink drops from a blown damper.

Any pix that you could post would help in diagnosing the issue.

 

[formanek]

:U Rock::U Rock::U Rock::U Rock:

Awesome responses! It is ONLY noticeable on the black. My shop is also a work shop for everything from snowmobiles to my metal work. The printer and media is always covered, but I am sure some dust most likely is still on the media. The fact that it is only black makes me think that dust wouldn't be it. I will post a pic when I can. Thank you!!!!

 

[tbaker]

Even if media is covered remember that this is winter time. Cold== dry conditions, we heat the media when printing, when you take it off it cools, if you cover it immediately you can get minute condensation on the surface, if you don't you can get dust.

Since this only happens in black I would be more inclined to think that it is ink level related, as in, your black build is too dense for the given media.

Even if you print on the same media consistently, lots vary by manufacturer and ink limiting can change in a dramatic fashion.

Check your black build, unless you are using 100% black and no other colors, I would bet it's this. If you're building your black, try 25/25/25/100 as a max and adjust downward from there.

Check your heat, you should be in the 32-35C range, remember your heat should go from hot to hotter to hottest ( pre/print/dry)

 

[jwright350]

I would say that odds are 90% that you are trying to print a process black that is laying down way to much ink and its pooling. This mean that you don't have a good enough color profile and your ink limits are set wrong. I would bet if you printed the same image on matte banner material it doesn't have the same problem.

So.. either write a new profile, crank your heat up real high.

About 1/2 of mutoh "problems" I would say are related to bad color profiles / RIP settings.