Overspray. Here's a
link to a very thorough thread on the same topic, same machine.
HAH! blast from the past! reading that thread again, reminded me of my frustration half a decade ago
whatever your course of action may be, or plan to take, keep this thread updated and we'll keep trying to chime-in. I'm resisting the urge to write paragraphs of how to diagnose a problem on that machine from point A to Z, because if you don't know what you're doing while servicing/diagnosing then you could be opening a can of worms and wind-up with even more issues than you started-with.
Try searching the forums for "mimaki jv3 overspray / ghosting" and read into everyone's theories/resolutions for a better understanding of how to diagnose your own issue.
of the multiple instances of overspray/ghosting, my fixes were:
*proper alignment - after a printhead replacement, I had been ADDING values to certain alignment procedures rather than replacing them, leading to extreme values that caused hazy prints.
*fresh ink - I'm pretty sure one of my ghosting issues arose from using an ink cartridge that had been sitting on a shelf for a year. which may have settled/seperated causing hazy prints.
*cleaning encoder strip/sensor - I was boggled by string of inconsistantly hazy misprints, turned out there was a light dusting of magenta ink on the lens of the encoder sensor. cleaned it and was quickly back to 100% that same day.
*head replacement - obviously a new head should fire perfectly, if properly installed, and the process of replacing it usually covers all of the above potentials.
noting that static was NOT ever one of my issues. I'm still quite firm on the fact that static-related ghosting is a myth ....especially isolated to a single color channel.
p.s. after switching to latex, my jv3-160sp has been taking up space here in my shop for over a year now. if you want to pickup a cheap backup printer for production/parts, keep me in mind. comes with an assortment of additional parts/ink/heads/tech stuff.