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Strange white dots on Black print only. HELP!!

stevetekk

New Member
Hi,
I have been pulling my hair out over this. Ok, so I have 2x soljet pro3 xc540 machines.
One machine runs bulk inks, the other runs carts. Both machines started doing this around the same time. But I figured out the spots are only coming from the black head!

These white dots of varying sizes appear over the prints, but not in the lighter colours. It seems it is anytime the black is used you will see the dots.

This started happening around a week ago, getting worse and worse. One machine is worse than the other. Again it appears it is only the black after doing countless tests today.
I have done powerful cleans etc etc even changed inks and still the same. I tried switching media to an old roll sitting and still the same, only in black.

SO basically after alot of research this issue perhaps points to static? Machines run different inks, so that kinda ruled that out. And changing media didnt help. Would this be the cause, has anyone seen this before?
I read about this thing called fisheyes, however surely that would affect all colours?

I looked closely at machines today, running high speed and high quality and to me its laying the ink down, but on way back a speck may appear. On way over again this speck may get larger! Almost like the ink is being lifted back up again, but again only the black!

If this was just happening to one machine I would suspect it could be a damper problem maybe, but both starting at the same time running different inks is very weird.

I did find a buildup of fiber like black in to the left of the 6 heads on one of the machines which I thought was fluff until I rubbed it in my fingers and it seemed to be black ink.

Todays develops:

Ok so I tried 3 different media, all doing the same thing. I raised temp to 50 degrees, still same. The 2 machines run different inks. I flushed machine A and put back in black, just the same. I have an electrician coming tomorrow to properly ground the machines. However it is only affecting the black, would this be the cause, static just affecting the black?

It almost looks like the machine is creating a small dot on way over, and on way back the dot can get larger.

Nozzle test is fine, a bit of deflection but nothing bad. These machines have been in full production printing for a good 5 months. And both started around the same time. Changing media etc didnt help so does this point to atmospheric change? I serviced machine A today and cleaned as much dust away as possible to no avail.

Any help would be so much appreciated thanks so much as this is doing my head in and no one can seem to come up with a solution or cause! It is so strange. Any help thanks alot!

Stephen
 

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Pauly

Printrade.com.au
Changing media, to what?
Have you tried coated or uncoated paper?

That looks like what paint does when there's silicone around.
 

0igo

New Member
Hi,
I have been pulling my hair out over this. Ok, so I have 2x soljet pro3 xc540 machines.
One machine runs bulk inks, the other runs carts. Both machines started doing this around the same time. But I figured out the spots are only coming from the black head!

These white dots of varying sizes appear over the prints, but not in the lighter colours. It seems it is anytime the black is used you will see the dots.

This started happening around a week ago, getting worse and worse. One machine is worse than the other. Again it appears it is only the black after doing countless tests today.
I have done powerful cleans etc etc even changed inks and still the same. I tried switching media to an old roll sitting and still the same, only in black.

SO basically after alot of research this issue perhaps points to static? Machines run different inks, so that kinda ruled that out. And changing media didnt help. Would this be the cause, has anyone seen this before?
I read about this thing called fisheyes, however surely that would affect all colours?

I looked closely at machines today, running high speed and high quality and to me its laying the ink down, but on way back a speck may appear. On way over again this speck may get larger! Almost like the ink is being lifted back up again, but again only the black!

If this was just happening to one machine I would suspect it could be a damper problem maybe, but both starting at the same time running different inks is very weird.

I did find a buildup of fiber like black in to the left of the 6 heads on one of the machines which I thought was fluff until I rubbed it in my fingers and it seemed to be black ink.

Todays develops:

Ok so I tried 3 different media, all doing the same thing. I raised temp to 50 degrees, still same. The 2 machines run different inks. I flushed machine A and put back in black, just the same. I have an electrician coming tomorrow to properly ground the machines. However it is only affecting the black, would this be the cause, static just affecting the black?

It almost looks like the machine is creating a small dot on way over, and on way back the dot can get larger.

Nozzle test is fine, a bit of deflection but nothing bad. These machines have been in full production printing for a good 5 months. And both started around the same time. Changing media etc didnt help so does this point to atmospheric change? I serviced machine A today and cleaned as much dust away as possible to no avail.

Any help would be so much appreciated thanks so much as this is doing my head in and no one can seem to come up with a solution or cause! It is so strange. Any help thanks alot!

Stephen

you have that cleaning fluid stuff left over in the tubes still. i fixed mine by printing an all black 3x10ft banner. literally all black just a waste of ink and material but worked.
 

Pauly

Printrade.com.au
you have that cleaning fluid stuff left over in the tubes still. i fixed mine by printing an all black 3x10ft banner. literally all black just a waste of ink and material but worked.

No way to manually flush the ink out of the head?
 

cmwpmm

New Member
Both machines at the same time seems strange, but I've seen that same thing happen on my machines when the temps are off. It's like it forms small bubbles in the ink that creates these white spots. I'd try playing around with your temps more and see if that fixes it.

As a side note, it looks like you're missing several nozzles. And is that true black, or rich black?
 

0igo

New Member
No way to manually flush the ink out of the head?

don't know how to do that, i just know i had those white dots and spent hours on the phone trying to contact sign warehouse and finally i gave up and just printed straight black. Try it on some old media and see if that helps and also run some long cleaning cycles.
 

Pauly

Printrade.com.au
don't know how to do that, i just know i had those white dots and spent hours on the phone trying to contact sign warehouse and finally i gave up and just printed straight black. Try it on some old media and see if that helps and also run some long cleaning cycles.

I'm not familiar with those printers. I use UV flat beds. Daily maintenance is purging the heads and cleaning every one to make sure every nozzle is firing correctly.

So naturally i would assume there a way to purge the heads. Saves you from wasting media. Doesn't seem like it though.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Out of curiosity..... are these OEM inks or third party ??

Also, did you get both machines around the same time and/or from the same distributor ??
 

stevetekk

New Member
Contamination in the ink / bulk cart system

Issue resolved! It turns out one of the other cartridges was contaminated. When I thought I was printing just a black bar, I actually wasn't due to the ICC etc.

Turned off the ICC and printed a 1 bit black bar and no dots.



It turns out one if not more than one of the other colours were contaminated with something that was reacting with the black ink causing 'solvent pop'. The black was wet and could not dry due to the reaction and the solvent beneath was trying to release whatever gasses it releases through wet ink causing the dots to appear 1-2 seconds after.



I suspect sillicon particles have got through one / many of the lines to create this issue. Replaced carts, flushed and the dots are getting fewer and further apart.



Thanks for all your help and I hope this helps someone else.



Stephen
 
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