A Digital Printing Network
Print Quality Issue - White spots in solid areas
Hi all,
I really appreciate all the great help here. :-)
I'm trying to print my urgent job despite the cartridge issue. Since cleaning the leak has not appeared yet and since Roland said its ok to print I'm giving it a try.
The solid ink areas appear mottled like there are little white specks in them. It is not dirt or dust. The speaks appear differently on every decal.
Is this what everyone here refers to as 'orange peel'?
My iphone seems to make this look worse than it really looks. I will be doming the decals so any imperfections will be amplified.
I'm using the profile they gave me with the vinyl which worked fine in the past. Maybe the media is too old?
Looking for a solution in the VS guide is says to increase the heat for better ink adhesion, but I cannot find what the default heater and dryer settings are nor what the maximum setting to be used is. It also says if its too hot the media may degrade. The tech had set my machine with a heater setting at 42 C and the dryer 47 C.
Any suggestions as to the issue?
Tags: Ink adhesion, Print quality, VS-540
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by irving donaldson on -
White spots - 2 possible causes maybe three
1 - fisheyes - oil or some deposits on media - wipe clean
2 - ink pooling - temp too low or wrong profile - ink is not drying fast enough and going to hang out with the other ink causing spots _ fix - ensure - printhead running entire length; proper profile; print unidirection
3 - calibration off - feeding too fast leaving spots (white) - if feed too slow overlap (dark)
Media can be too old - but I usually tell that by it falling off the roll - if that is not the case don't worry about that - machine too hot then the colors are off due to it drying before mixing. On clear it will cause blistering.
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Permalink Reply by Kimberley on -
Thanks for the suggestions Irving. Now I know what to look for in old media :-)
I checked the media but didn't see any spots or anything deposited.
I tried many profiles and changed the settings to
- unidirectional
- full width printing
I didn't know where to go to change the calibration to know if it was feeding to fast. Would this cause the banding issue I now have?
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Permalink Reply by Roland R. Irish III on -
To change your heat settings- go to PRINTER CONTROLS in Versaworks, down at the bottom it will say 'HEATER CONTROLS'. Under that is a pull down window, pull that down and you will see 'Use Default settings', Use Printer settings', and Use Custom Settings. That's the one you want. Pull that down and you will see your printer and dryer heat controls, default I think is 42 42. Kick them up if the ink is 'puddling' to 50 and 50 and see if that helps. If it makes a difference but isn't quite there, kick it up again 5 degrees at a time. Just run an inch or so of your design-don't waste material printing the whole thing over and over. After you get an inch printed, hit the pause control on the panel, then hold to cancel. Check the print, then make changes if needed.
Chances are, if that logo is done as a bitmap-it isn't a 'true' black. I run into all the time. Vector line art will always give you a 'pure' black.
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Permalink Reply by Kimberley on
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Thanks Roland. I was going into the machine itself to change the settings which is quite slow. I didn't realize the VersaWorks had a direct override there that I could adjust other than just selecting printer or profile settings.
I couldn't go up in increments by 5 degrees since the machine was already at 42. I did learn something new and discovered the max setting in Versaworks:
- Printer Heater 45c
- Dryer 50c
The max heater did resolve the white spots. :-) Now to figure out the banding...
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Permalink Reply by chip on -
I have seen this before and there can be a number of causes, In one case one of the women in the office was spraying perfume and some landed on the media even though it was a really fine mist it was enough to cause the problem, Another thing that will cause that is air freshener spray or furniture polish, the silicone or some other chemical in spray cans just gets everywhere and falls on everything.
Just my thoughts as I had almost the exact same print quality.
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Permalink Reply by Kimberley on
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Thanks for that tip Chip. I'll be aware of that in the future. :-)
Oh I just thought of something... right now I use a static free cloth or swiffer on the media to remove dust. Someone suggested it would be easier with compressed air. Do you think that would ruin the media?
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Permalink Reply by Kimberley on
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Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.
I spend the entire day trying various profiles and heater & dryer settings. Funny that the same media, settings and profiles no longer work since my printer was repair. I ended up trying several different kinds of artwork including my urgent job.
Here is sample of vector artwork with the heater & dryer at 42:
Here is sample with the settings increased - the heater at 45 & dryer at 50. I used the Roland Profile GCVP and printed in layered since I was using metallic gold:
Increasing the heater & dryer to the max solved the white spots. :-)
Once I finally got rid of those white spots by increasing the heat, I went back to my client's artwork. I now have a new issue banding. :-(
To try and solve this, I decided to print the Roland test print from VersaWorks and I see the banding in every colour except it seems for the yellow (and possibly black but hard to tell) - Funny the Gold heart didn't show any banding. It is easy to see in the Cyan and Magenta in the photos below:
Here is the nozzle test print. My test prints were always perfect until the captop issue. The tech let the print head dry out (trying to fix it took over a week).
Now my test print is always missing areas in the centre and top. After another tech visited I was told this would clear up after normal printing and cleaning. It has now been 5+ month and I cannot get it perfect again.
What would cause the banding in only a few colours?
Do I need to try something with the alignment that I read in several other posts?
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Permalink Reply by John H. on -
A lot of the answers your getting are from people that have much more experience than I do. I recently had a large sign job and it was printed on Arlon DPF using the GVCP profile max impact and it looked really bad on the single color Impact text, so I slowed the head speed down from 760 to 550 on the quality tab in versaworks, and it printed perfect for me. try that? I'm gonna try Rolands suggestion next time I have that problem and turn the heat up a little. Have you tried filling your cap-top with cleaning fluid to try and clean your printhead?
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Permalink Reply by chip on
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Those printheads are not too bad at all I've seen a lot worse, they are certainly not causing the banding, try to calibrate your media feed, It will show you how on the manual, I cant remember off the top of my head at the moment how to do it.
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Permalink Reply by Kimberley on
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I spent another few how on this last night. Today is my last day to get the job printed or I can't get them domed and sent out for Monday.
Hmmm... slowing the printer down didn't change anything. I tried the cleaning solution in the captop, now the print test looks even worse. I can't even get the print tests for calibration etc to print clearly. Arghhh!
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Permalink Reply by irving donaldson on
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Nozzles are not too bad but you do have some non-recoverable nozzles and some blocked ones. Remember the nozzle test is repeated so you can divide it in half and the top half is a repeat of the bottom half. You have some nozzle deflections and it looks as if somthing (media or clamp) road across your heads. The one on the right took most of the hit and damage. But there is no head problems.
So what causes banding - check your calibration - look in the manual and if you do not have download from our area. If the machine is feeding to fast you will have white banding for the ink coverage is spreading instead of overlapping - a 4 foot person would be 5 foot. If you have black or dark line banding then it is running to slow and a 6 foot person would be 5foot. So evaluate your lines and then check your calibration.
On using metallic and white ensure you are using correct profiles (MT) or PET and do not use them on regular prints, unless you want to waste ink you will not see on a print. Also choose the correct method and order of printing.
Oil from your hands or from a cloth can leave residure, which would cause ink pooling also.
Roland cleaning solution will not ruin your captop - there I said it - Roland cleaning solution is also a lubricant and is not like alcohol which will clean but deteriorate your rubber products (wipers and hoses). You can use alcohol to clean your stand or covers if you must.
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Permalink Reply by Kimberley on
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How is it possible to tell if the nozzle is non-recoverable?
I was told nothing was wrong with it. It only starting looking like that after the captop failed.
I've tried the calibration print test. The print is pretty crappy so hard to tell which I should choose.
Should I be going +ve or -ve to remove the banding and white gaps?
I tried the setting I thought was closest but didn't make a difference. Then I randomly increased the setting about 8 different times and see no difference at all. The Roland book say to pick the smallest gap and and overlap. Does that mean there needs to be a gap? Or should it overlap? The instructions and photos aren't very clear.
Today is the last day to fix this because I cannot possible mail this job for Monday and I will have to give my client their money back.
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