• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Mimaki UCJV300-160 patchy printing

n893

New Member
do you every try to remove air from subtank using airtool? they provide small connector n tube with the machine. and you can bleed it using plastic
 

Rickey J

New Member
Hi, hoping someone can help

I have a Mimaki UCJV 300-160 and am now seeing patchy prints, especially noticeable on block colours, mainly darker blues (always the worst flat colour). I have had the Air Purge error come up quite often so have gone through the process but it still reappears. The machine is out of warranty now so any advice would be helpful, it happens on all medias, see photo.

I am having the same issue with mine as well. I know for a fact that some of the issues people are having is due to a cable issue in the printer. This is an issue Mimaki is aware of but not fixing it unless you are having certain “issues” with the printer. Mine was replace with a new shielded cable. It did not fix my problem but I’m sure some of you could benefit from it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Nicky Zhou

PrintLinks
After reading the posts, I just have some different idea except the air pressure or ink starvation isssues on that..
In fact, we have been facing similiar issues before, we definite it as a banding issues related with Ink droping precision and ink spread on the substrates; The first dots drop precision, that is related with the motion vibration, we changed one Energy Chain from suggestion of Iguis, that make a better result , not 100% remove the banding on the spot color , light color and dark color. The next step is change the UV lamp specification with the lamp supplier, as the lamp curing will effect the ink spread and the ink curing at the same time. The better the ink spread, the less the banding it is. The time or the curing will give the ink dots a different vision of effection, so need a different power on different inks. Expect the above 2 we do, another is the software data map .

Here you may try to lower a bit of your lamp power, it can be adjustable. and if you have 2 lamp, you can try with a post curing .
when you lower the carriage speed, or increase the passes, you can check how is the result.
;)
 

Retro Graphics

New Member
how often do you clean the print heads? like do a hard clean? are the inks current or are you using chips to run older expired inks?
 

yannb

New Member
I have witnessed that good bidirectional alignment (‘drop pos’) and feed comp are a necessity to get rid of banding. Once we had this type of banding in dark blue. Adjusting feed comp purely visually didn’t do the trick. What did work was printing a file that has two lines 280mm apart, and then painstakingly measuring with a ruler and magnifying glass and adjusting feed comp and printing again until it was exactly 280mm. Between each iteration of feed comp value, the banding frequency changed. We ended up at feed comp 40 for vinyl.
 

kienkien

New Member
Hi all, i started to have the patchy print too and it's getting obvious when using 600 x 600 16 pass.
It's strange that 300 x 900 12 pass is better then 600 x 600 16 pass.
Just bought the printer on Jan 2022 and already informed the technician regarding this and till now they didn't have any solution for this yet.
Anyone got any idea on this?

Your prompt response would be highly appreciated. Thanks!​

 

Attachments

  • 600 x 600 16 pass.jpg
    600 x 600 16 pass.jpg
    97.2 KB · Views: 351
  • 300 x 900 12 pass.jpg
    300 x 900 12 pass.jpg
    110.9 KB · Views: 291

TheCPC

New Member
Hi All,
Glad I found this as I have the same issue's with my UCJV300-160. Solid colours print with blemishes, tone jumps (whatever you want to call them) and then issue with the film slightly lifting between pinch rollers and the vacuum then getting these weird darker tone marks. Not sure what the fix is. uni direction? higher res? nozzle test is 100% fine.
What did you guys do to fix??
Regards
 

TheCPC

New Member
I think its a vacuum and pinch roller issue. The machine needs more pinch rollers because its creating lifted areas where there is no pinch roller (hope that makes sense). On my machine I get heaps of patchy printing in dark solid colours, assuming everyone else notices that too. I almost cringe when I need to print them the only thing I can think to do is over laminting with matte laminate which hides some imperfections. Does anyone know if more pinch rollers can be added or is there a way to add a better vacuum?
 

TheCPC

New Member
I have this issue too. Visible in dark color blocks. Sometimes just bands like on your photo's, other times sort of weird patterns. Don't know how to describe it other than that. Might have to do with the lifting/bulging of the media i have a lot of the time. Also have minor headstrikes/ink wipes a lot due to the slight lifting of the vinyl. Attached photos show the patchy printed areas in the black section. Supposed to be 100% black, no gradients or jpg artifacts what so ever.
Hello I get the same thing happening in mine it seems the pinch rollers are creating a ripple in the film and when the print head travels across the film it cures with those imperfections. Do you know how to fix the issue??
 

Retro Graphics

New Member
could that be the humidity in your shop causing the paper backing to ripple? I know I have a roll of Perf that is on some shitty paper backing and I can't do a white layer b/c if it sits to long rolled out the perf vinyl starts rippling away from the paper. In my case I think it's the cheap perf vinyl I bought. I have seen paper backing ripple during masking when the humidity is high though, so just a random thought as well. I also had a day I was printing and it was like 90 degrees and the humidity was permeating the house, All my colors were not only printing off but I was having some a lot of banding then too I noticed. I literally just remembered that job while typing this because I had to reprint 2 out of a 3 piece hood wrap b/c the colors didn't match up. Wasn't using any blue on the job but the reds and yellows were coming out weird too. So yeah def, check your humidity as well.
 

TheCPC

New Member
The weather here is very cold, bad for printing. I have re-checked all my settings but warmed the room up to 25 degrees Celsius, bought the pinch rollers closer together and started to reprint the job, looks better so far! fingers crossed I did not jinx it. Will let you know of the outcome!!
 

TheCPC

New Member
could that be the humidity in your shop causing the paper backing to ripple? I know I have a roll of Perf that is on some shitty paper backing and I can't do a white layer b/c if it sits to long rolled out the perf vinyl starts rippling away from the paper. In my case I think it's the cheap perf vinyl I bought. I have seen paper backing ripple during masking when the humidity is high though, so just a random thought as well. I also had a day I was printing and it was like 90 degrees and the humidity was permeating the house, All my colors were not only printing off but I was having some a lot of banding then too I noticed. I literally just remembered that job while typing this because I had to reprint 2 out of a 3 piece hood wrap b/c the colors didn't match up. Wasn't using any blue on the job but the reds and yellows were coming out weird too. So yeah def, check your humidity as well.
The weather here is very cold, bad for printing. I have re-checked all my settings but warmed the room up to 25 degrees Celsius, bought the pinch rollers closer together and started to reprint the job, looks better so far! fingers crossed I did not jinx it. Will let you know of the outcome!!
 

TheCPC

New Member
Hi all, i started to have the patchy print too and it's getting obvious when using 600 x 600 16 pass.
It's strange that 300 x 900 12 pass is better then 600 x 600 16 pass.
Just bought the printer on Jan 2022 and already informed the technician regarding this and till now they didn't have any solution for this yet.
Anyone got any idea on this?

Your prompt response would be highly appreciated. Thanks!​

Hi, I have been playing with my machine a lot to fix this issue and i think i have come to a solution. make sure your room is 25 degrees and make sure the pinch rollers are not too far apart. 600x600 should be fine but check your feed comp, drop pos etc and adjust. also dont print on the media straight away take it out of the box and let it get to room temp
 

Albert Ma

New Member
my machine is same, talked to Mimaki Australia, they say this is normal, UV patten happen for this little machine due to no ink temperature control, why they dont tell me before I buy?
 

TheCPC

New Member
my machine is same, talked to Mimaki Australia, they say this is normal, UV patten happen for this little machine due to no ink temperature control, why they dont tell me before I buy?
Hi Albert Ma Can you send me the information Mimaki Australia sent you about this happening because no temp control. I am in Melbourne. thank you!! :)
 

Impact1

Wide Format Technical Solutions
You may want to verify the humidity levels in your shop are within the recommended range (35% to 55% is recommended). Also, if you take the back cover off on the ink bottle side their is a white 1l bottle connected to the air line. Make sure the bottle cap is screwed on tight. Last, if you are getting overflow, pressure and sub-tank errors I would check the air lines on the carriage side and make sure it doesn’t have ink in it via the sub-tank.
 

TulsaScuba

New Member
20240315_152327.jpg

Has anyone found this actual cause and solution for this issue? UCJV300-160 going on 2yrs old, now it doesn't want to print solid color without fade bands. Updated firmware, adjusted feed comp, adjusted droplets, air purge, vacuum set to strong. Did I miss anything? Humidity controlled print room 45-50%
 

Attachments

  • 20240314_143920.jpg
    20240314_143920.jpg
    1.2 MB · Views: 140

RonnyCrack

New Member
Been having similar issues with my clear ink on my UCJV300, where the first 2inches or so of the print are super thick gloss, and then it lays down a lighter layer/gives light banding in the clear ink and a less spectacular glossy look.
 
Top