SP300 mis directed black

[JesperN]

Our small SP300v has started having some problems with the black/cyan head. It's only the black part of the head that has problems.

It is an annoying problem when we are printing on glossy material such as vinyl, where solid black areas ends up having visible lines of black. It's looks like banding created by the nozzles. The test-print shows the all black nozzles are working, but about half of them are slightly misdirected.

Since the problem has started, we just choosed to run jobs on glossy materials on one of our other rolands (one of the advantages of having several machines at our facility). But it has started to annoy me a bit, that we can't use our small but otherwise good and stable SP300 fully.

We routinely clean the printers every other week. And I tried several times to clean the heads on the SP300 extra well. I have also checked the dampes and cappings - and they are alle okay. The wipers has also been replaced. And I have run an unknown number of medium and powerfull cleans.

I have attached a scanned test-print. I hope some of you could give me some advice on what to do - if there is anything to do than replacing the head :-(.



/Jesper

 

[craigdavisdesign]

have tried calibrating the head for misalignment in bidirectional printing. sometimes mine gets off a bit and bands if this is not correct

 

[JesperN]

Thanks for the advice. But I have allready tried that :-(.
If I look at the test-print it looks more like that half of the black nozzles are firering at a different angle than the rest. Some of the black lines in the test-print are close to each other, than the rest of then the has equal distance between them.

I have also tried cleaning the head directly by gently pushing a soaked swap against the nozzle surface (not rubbing!). But that didnt change anything either...

/Jesper

 

[guillermo]

I have the same problem, but it shows only when I print in hight speed, if I print on standard mode it print perfect, so I print on standard mode, and in high speed when I do prints that I know people will not be looking at closer, I also clean the heads with a swab and gently but very gently and it works fine

 

[GTSTech_1]

You got alot of "Defelction", that why your getting darker lines in the black test print. I would soak the head (at least 1/2 hr), loosen up those clogged nozzles then run a couple of powerful cleanings. If you have improvement soak for a longer time.

My .02

 

[Ken]

I tried to load the print pattern you provided..it didn't come up for me....I also suggest parking the head in a pool of cleaning fluid at the capping station...repeat.
Good luck...Ken

 

[Ken]

You also did not say if you are using Roland ink?
Ken

 

[Pacific Coast Sign]

Your head is scratched. Printing in high quality will help "hide" the scratches and look much worse in standard an especially in high speed. No amount of cleaning will cure a damaged head. On a SP300 it's generally the black head to gets scratched first as it's the first head to come in contact. New heads are $875 each and takes about 1 hour to do a install, align, and service the printer.

 

[JesperN]

Just an update on our SP300 and the heads:

I came to the conclusion, after 3 attempts to flush the head with cleaning fluid, that it might be better (and cheaper comparing time with money) to replace the head.
But then my collegue came up with an idea: Why not swith the heads around, so that it is the head with misdirected nozzles that print Magenta/Yellow and good Magenta/Yellow head that is being used for Black/Blue.

A misdirected pattern in Yellow and Magenta will not be as easy to see as in Black.

I know that it will take some re-calibration of the heads, but I think that it is worth a try.
What do you think? Should we just order a new head, or should we give the head swap a try?

/Jesper

 

[Pacific Coast Sign]

Put the new head in... less issues, less trouble, plain and simple.