Mutoh 1304 Printing Issues

[HPG Prepress]

Hey Guys, I'm New to this Forum, and I've Got a question regarding the print quality of our Mutoh. When printing dark graphics against white, I am noticing a Foggy kind of spray on the left side of the print. I have attached two photos to the thread here; ( I have done some color manipulations to make the issue most visible, since camera phone made it difficult to see clearly) the dark area is a dark Blue and the light area is of course the print media. as you can see, sometimes its a straight band trailing out past the intended graphic, and sometimes its an irregular pattern trailing past the intended graphic. originally I thought there was a static issue, so I set a humidifier under the machine, and have had no change in this issue. This tends to happen With all of the materials we use, With the exception of our Banner Material

 

[Solventinkjet]

Do you use a high speed low resolution profile for the banner material and lower speed higher resolution profile for the vinyl? The reason I ask is because lower quality profiles require much less precision from the print head. So when the print head is going bad it tends to show up in the higher quality prints first.

 

[HPG Prepress]

Do you use a high speed low resolution profile for the banner material and lower speed higher resolution profile for the vinyl?

Yes I do believe that this is the case. I'm Still kind of Green at diagnosing and figuring it all out. this was shipped up to us from our second location about a year ago, and they had already set up the profiles and whatnot. I do notice that for the banner profiles, it prints significantly faster, with less time needed to warm up with the heating elements, so I COULD assume that its is a high speed low resolution profile, as the print quality also does not meet the same as when i print on adhesive backed vinyl and other materials such as that.

I also forgot to mention yesterday ( i was kinda in a fog trying to troubleshoot) we use triangle inks, and have been for about the past eight months (June of last year) and haven't had any problems with printing until it got cold (4 months later), which was why i originally thought it was a static issue. Could this be a linked issue?

I've been thinking about calling in a service on the machine to get it up to snuff, and KNOW the way it is supposed to be and the extent of what I need to do as far as maintenance and whatnot.

 

[Solventinkjet]

It is possible that the head is just fried. That being said you can change the print head cables which is a cheap option that can fix the problem sometimes before going out and buying an expensive head. It looks like your alignments are off as well. It may be worth the service call to get everything up to snuff. A good tech will be able to diagnose any electrical issues that may be causing the head issues. In my experience when I see issues like this, 50% of the time it is the head, 25% is the cables and 25% is a combination of failing boards, ink system, or static.

 

[HPG Prepress]

Awesome, I am glad to know there are other POSSIBLE causes beside a print head. My next question I suppose is, do you know of any reputable companies on the east Coast? (We are located in Southern Maryland)

 

[Jeff South Florida]

I would also investigate static.