Roland LEC2, UV printer, Lines in white prints

[RONIN]

Hi,

I recently acquired an LEC2. I've been having some issues with white lines showing up when I print white. Please see picture below - is this normal? or any suggestions what can be done to correct it. The lines can only be seen at certain angles and lighting.

Feed is calibrated but have noticed that on the calibration feed test print that there is sometimes a small change in the optimal option. If I repeat the test several times in a row, the previous optimal setting might show a very slight narrow gap between the top and bottom blocks, meaning it needs adjusting by at most +/- 0.1

So to be clear I kept going between this range: -0.1, -0.05, 0, 0.05, 0.1

I've adjusted media gap as best as I can, cleaned encoder strip and tried different media. Nozzle test looks good

Thanks.

 

[Roland Certified Tech]

Being that both white channels look like they’re firing perfectly, this looks like a feed calibration issue. Please perform the feed calibration on the media type you are running, you will find the instructions in the user manual.
then, make sure you send Versaworks properly under printer controls. Either put the number for feed calibration in and use custom settings or find the number, set it on the printer and use printer settings.

 

[RONIN]

Being that both white channels look like they’re firing perfectly, this looks like a feed calibration issue. Please perform the feed calibration on the media type you are running, you will find the instructions in the user manual.
then, make sure you send Versaworks properly under printer controls. Either put the number for feed calibration in and use custom settings or find the number, set it on the printer and use printer settings.

Hi

Thanks for replying back to me. I always do the adjustments on the printer itself and set Versaworks to use the printer feed settings. I would set the calibration correctly but noticed that they would drift slightly if the tests were repeated in succession. I have Roland care warranty in place and had an engineer visit me today. Changed out the pinch rollers and did a service mode adjustment. It's helped and looks much better now. However, the lines are still there to a small degree. He wasn't sure if this is as good as it gets on the LEC2 or not. I'm not sure if you may have an answer? I only recently acquired the machine from a dealer which was supposed to be fully refurbished so not really sure what baseline should be. If I print dark prints over it's fine, but light hues and white are a bit of a concern. I might just be looking for it now at this stage and it would just slip under the radar for most people.

 

[Roland Certified Tech]

You really should not have the banding that I was seeing in the pictures. Teach may replace the actual pinch rollers, but they really need to be looking at the pinch roller assemblies for cracks. A picture is attached.
This style of pinch roller assembly cracks easily if you are very rough with the pinch roller lever. Please be very gentle lifting and lowering the lever.
The printer is under warranty. You do need to get it fixed by Roland before your warranty is over. This should be fixable.

 

[Roland Certified Tech]

You can also try to minus the feed just a little bit extra to try and compensate for that gap.
Hopefully the tech did everything they were supposed to do: Checking the microdot test to make sure you really don’t have any head issues as they do not show up in the regular nozzle test, running feed aging and G-enc check.

 

[RONIN]

Thank you so much for your helpful advice. I'll take a look at the assembly with some care when I next go in and try the feed compensation you suggested. If it's still not 100 percent, I'll check with them about the other tests you suggested. Much appreciated.

 

[RONIN]

So I'm still having this issue unfortunately. If I print on HQ with HD white, I can get a decent result, but if I do 32p Artistic white HD I get some slight banding. Standard non HD white, has a lot of banding - not sure if that's just standard. Waiting to get some samples from someone else who also has an LEC2 to compare how their whites look. I'm not sure if this is show how the machine is. One thing I've noticed is that the feed calibration doesn't hold perfectly at the same value and needs some adjustment if you keep repeating the test. The engineer that came thinks I might need a new feed encoder and sensor.

Just wondering if I could get your opinion. If you look at tests.jpg, you'll see the many rows of calibration tests I've done. I've made a video showing the values changing as I pan up from the start of the first column on the right. Is that normal?

Also added some shots of what it looks like with colour over the white. If you zoom in you can see the banding. This is on 32p.

Thanks.

 

[Roland Certified Tech]

Did you check all 8 corners of the left and right pinch roller assemblies when the rollers are down and the middle assemblies removed from the printer?
I use a flashlight and a pick tool as the crack can be small. All 8 corners need to have no cracks. Just one crack in one of the eight corners can cause an issue with feed, although the usual issue is print/cut mis-alignment.
So, service level items need to be performed: cleaning feed encoder and sensor, feed aging, g-enc check.
Please have your tech do these items.
Also, you may need to have slack on the roll of material so it is not pulling from the roll of material. This may be your whole issue.
Is it a 30” or 54”? You may need to use the middle pinch rollers if you are not using them.
Good Day!

 

[dreko]

What kinds of material do you plan on printing on? What are you currently printing on?
I'd check to make sure the white inks are not expired. Also, check the printer head height. Try printing at the lower head height first, then the high position head height.
I think the suggestion of checking the feed/tweaking the feed makes sense as well

I take it the horizontal banding is only visible in white ink? No other ink colors?