Roland printers and Swampcooler warehouse

[ml4cs]

Hello,

I have 2 old Roland sp-540i that we have been running for a couple of years, they are like tanks and just keep going. Business has been good and we need to move to a larger space, my question is we have always had these in a climate-controlled space with AC. (we are in Las Vegas NV, so Hot and Dry). We have noticed and I don't know if it's a coincidence or not but when it would occasionally rain in the summer during monsoon season and humidity would jump into the 40% range (usually around 15% indoors) we would see really bad banding on larger images. Not totally sure if it was something else going on with the printer or the humidity but seemed to coincide more than a few times this past monsoon season.

My question is, is this an issue with humidity or am I just thinking there is something there that isn't? I am concerned as all the larger new spaces we have looked at used Swampcoolers to cool the warehouse spaces and I am worried about the humidity issue this could create and then the problem with the banding.

As obviously these are used all over the world in much more humid climates than one of the driest places on earth my, should I be concerned? is there something I should do to ensure I don't have this banding issue? or was it just a coincidence?

we are looking to upgrade the printers once we move as well, but may still keep these for small jobs.

 

[FrankW]

The printer manual should contain info about the suggested ranges of humidity and temperature. Of course issues with that can lead to print quality issues. Even the print media can be the problem.

 

[rjssigns]

Heat and humidity affect the media and the inks. Dot gain issues with inks are one issue. As Frank said the owners manual will have specifications for both.

Personally I watch the heat/humidity like a hawk and keep it in a tight range. It's a simple way to eliminate a variable.

 

[White Haus]

Humidity is not a bad thing in a print environment. If you're usually running 15% I'm surprised that's not giving you static etc. issues.

We keep our shop/print room as close to 50% as possible all year round.

 

[Solventinkjet]

As stated above, humidity and temp play a big role in pint quality and consistency. It's not only that but also huge jumps in humidity or temp in short amounts of time can also cause problems as you have seen. You're most likely already out of environmental specs seeing how 40% is a spike for you. In general these machines tend to require at least 35% humidity to work properly. That being said, different color profiles work better than others in certain environments as well. So for you I would say the most important part is keeping a consistent environment, and then find a profile that prints well in that environment.

 

[ml4cs]

Thanks for all the feedback, we have opted to find a space with HVAC, being that in the summer even with Swamp cooler would still be the upper 90's which just isn't doable

Haven't had issues with static in the low humidity, I think it really comes down to like a few of you said, finding a profile etc and if it maintains consistent temp/humidity then it will be ok