Printing Problem

Hey guys, here is what my Valuejet is printing like the past couple of days. Any ideas what could be causing weird streaks like this?

 

Heaters are on - been printing with the same profile, settings, and material for the past few months. This just started yesterday, I am sure it is maintenance related, but can't figure it out. Did some cleanings, alignments, nozzle checks - everything looks fine. Can't get past these weird splotches printing though.

 

Yeah I tried different rolls of the same material already, I just switched to that vinyl that is in the photo -- that is the most recent print. It is doing the same thing on various materials.

 

I don't wipe the roll with alcohol, it has been my experience that it causes more problems than it does help. I generally feed the roll forward a couple of feet before I start printing anything, and the lines that are coming out are the same at the beginning of the roll or in the middle of the roll.

 

I think the yellow and blue blurs you are seeing on the edges are the result of a crappy camera -- those aren't there in the actual print.

I did clean of the encoder strip though, a lot of dust on it but it doesn't seem to have done a lot. Printing with the print head in the low position fixes the problem a little, but not noticeably enough to call it "gone".

Talked to Fellers for a while about this today and did some trouble shooting. Looking more and more like we are going to have a tech come out and replace some parts.

Eeeehhhh.

 

Yeah, it does it in head low as well, but not as noticeably.

ALSO wasn't due to a head strike. There is now a brand new head on the machine and it is printing the same way.