JV3 160sp Banding gets worse as carriage goes left

[CopilotPrinting]

Hello, We have been having a problem for a few months now. We are getting a faded banding that gets worse as the carrige goes away from the starting point.

It is happening in uni and bidirectional printing, fast and normal, 8 pass 4 pass. We have adjusted the room temp and humidity,changed dampers and pumps. We thought it was a print head but it is happening when we print solid blocks of C, M, Y and K by them selves. Also we can see it in the gray printed bars when we do a media comp check.

Any suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Sticky Signs]

I've been having the same problem with my Roland (only on solid colors - images seem to be ok) and I recently posted a thread about it. Some people suggest that it may be ink starvation as the moves away form home, and my tech has suggested that the carriage may be physically out of whack and would have to be realigned. I'm ignoring it for now hoping it will go away... Please let me know if you have any luck finding an answer.

 

[EvAnN]

Hi,
- I think you have to check your carriage. on mimaki JV3SP, you have a head lever and 2 head lock screw assy (black pastic screw). Check if those 2 screws are well tight and check if the carriage is well aligned when you tight those 2 screws.

- How many years old have your printer ? Perhaps you have to check your bushing (2 right and left of the carriage).

- In rare case it could be the wired heater : check with your hand if you feel heat on all the platen assy.

I hope these can help.

 

[CopilotPrinting]

Thanks a lot... The machine is about to be 3 years old. I will check all that out in the morning tomorrow. How can I tell if the bushings are bad? Also is that a part that suppliers have or it it something at a hardware store?

I will let you know what I find.

Thanks

 

[inkmed]

I do not think it is the problem of cartridge position.
please check the carriage motor and the data cable.
or the chips.

Good Luck!
Adam from Inkmed

 

[CopilotPrinting]

Adam,
How do I check the carriage motor and data cable? Also what chips are you talking about?

Thanks

 

[Printhead]

Did you have a head strike lately? The carriage could have taken a hit and it's possible it would have bended from it's origin. Just a couple micrometers off could result in pretty drastic changes in print quality.

 

[signswi]

I'd try a new encoder strip, but first when was the last time you did a bi-direction calibration and which type did you do (regular print.adjust, or any of the maintenance mode calibrations...)?

Also just to be really obvious, are you sure the roll of material you're using is tightly wound and that you have it loaded square to the machine?