L25500 prints fading in and out

[kyjoe340]

Hard to explain but during print some colors will slightly change and some mild banding also. It doesn't happen everytime but enough to waste a lot of time, ink and vinyl. Thought it may be a printhead going bad but I've changed them all. No codes on the printer. Any ideas?

 

[Snydo]

Other than the banding it sounds like contaminated media, do your test prints look ok?

 

[kyjoe340]

Hmmmm, I hadn't considered that. My printer is in my basement, though it is clean(ok maybe not) it can get humid in summer months. I'm having trouble with some 3M Ij180CV3 mostly and it has got some age to it, bought in 2012. I put in some new Oracal 3951 and it printed great. The ink goes on ok maybe the print heads are picking up contamination off the media, that would explain the random color changes. Sometimes the print is greenish or has a blue tint, no one thing everytime, random. I guess it would depend on which print head gets contaminated. The print head gets cleaned during the print and everything prints normal for a while. Thanks, that very well may be the problem.