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OK - then NOT OK

Marie

New Member
Lately, the prints on my JV3 start out very smooth (no banding). Then about 2 or 3 feet into the print, it starts banding. These are mainly photoshop files with gradients and/or photos. Any thoughts?? - Thanks!
 

iSign

New Member
are you printing bi-directional?

usually when it's a feed calibration issue (media comp in Mimaki terms) it would show banding right from the get-go, but I had a similar issue 2 months ago, and will still be working further to resolve it, but there is another calibration for bi-directional printing, and there a test print that my tech support guy had me run to check for it, which prints a row of colored boxes next to a small print file that you run it with. I forget what it's called, but it clearly showed my printed areas laid down by the left-to-right travel did not align with the sections of the print laid down by right-to-left travel.

The short term fix was to run in uni-directional, and push my number of passes from 8 to 12. It obviously prints a lot slower, but we immediately had much better prints.

The rest of the solution involves some more complicated calibration correction that I could be trained over the phone to do, but some test prints are being evaluated for evidence of a possible need for a print head replacement. I've not had a tech out here in 2-1/2 years, and if it's time for getting one back out here, I'll just let them do the calibration adjustment.

Anyway, try what I did, it might help. Maybe someone here will know what that test we did was called. We print with Flexi, and I think we called up the test from there, not from the printer control panel.
 

Marie

New Member
Thanks for you input.

I'm running uni-directional, 6 pass. It seems like if the print is calibrated properly at the beginning of the print it would hold throughout the entire print.

Here's my new theory: Could it have to do with the take up reel - maybe once the print is taped to the core, the material is being pulled too fast? But then how do I compensate for that?
 

michaelmcmurphy

New Member
if you calibrate registration without the material taped to the core and then tape it down when it reaches,the tension can cause banding.we always use a scrap piece of vinyl taped to the core as like a leader to the printed material.So we always have tension

Murphy
 

Marie

New Member
Thanks for the suggestion.

I figured out how to loosen the tension on the uptake reel. So far, it seems to have helped.
 

gabagoo

New Member
Definately it is the take up reel. I always wait and once the vinyl or banner is attached the banding will begin and I have to go from 0 to -40 or more in some cases. You can always tape on a leader if it is a sensitive print and hook it up immediately to the take up reel. Adjusting on the fly is the greatest trick I have learned, hopefully you have learned how to do that and you can generally fix it relatively fast.
 
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