FrznFire07 217 Posted June 11, 2015 To any of the people on here who print wraps and/or large decals: when you do large scale gradients does everybody else get banding? We have a wrap we are doing now, that has a back ground image of green fading to white, and we have some banding in the print. its minor, but because it's a wrap you can see it if you're in the right light. we have installed wraps that other companies have printed and there's had banding as well, all be it minor, I'm just curious if this is typical of a large format printer or if there is something we can do to minimize it. We are using a Mutoh ValueJet 1324 with Genuine Mutoh Inks On 3M IJ180 v3 (controltac) with matching 3M gloss laminate. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dakotagrafx 7,297 Posted June 11, 2015 Post a nozzle check, that is usually where you find that answer Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FrznFire07 217 Posted June 11, 2015 nozzle check is totally good, i will send a picture, but nozzles are good Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mark-s 1,126 Posted June 11, 2015 Clean heads, if that doesn`t work might need new heads. mark-s Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dakotagrafx 7,297 Posted June 11, 2015 Only if nozzle check is perfect (not "good") then check head alignment. I have seen too many people say they have good heads that have deflection in reality Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FrznFire07 217 Posted June 12, 2015 ok here's my nozzle check, and a picture of the banding, its more evident in the lighter parts of the gradient. And I ONLY get banding when printing gradients. --- also just cleaned Heads, wipers and encoder strip. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dakotagrafx 7,297 Posted June 12, 2015 hard to see the yellow- is that printing ok? what type of printer Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FrznFire07 217 Posted June 15, 2015 yeah yellow is printing good, Mutoh Valuejet 1324 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dakotagrafx 7,297 Posted June 15, 2015 i'm out of ideas Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mb20music 760 Posted June 15, 2015 Hmmm, I see a break in the print test, is that the Magenta? I know if I get even one little break like that with my inkjet printer it will make my prints come out bad, it usually just takes one more head cleaning,.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FrznFire07 217 Posted June 15, 2015 mb20music, yea i noticed that too and have since cleaned the head again, usually for us one or two breaks in the nozzle check is hardly noticeable. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FrznFire07 217 Posted June 16, 2015 So to add to my list of problems with this wrap, now we are having color matching issues. we had to reprint a couple of the panels and the color's don't match. color by numbers is all exactly the same - RIP settings are the same, all Profiles are the same. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dakotagrafx 7,297 Posted June 16, 2015 So to add to my list of problems with this wrap, now we are having color matching issues. we had to reprint a couple of the panels and the color's don't match. color by numbers is all exactly the same - RIP settings are the same, all Profiles are the same. I had that before when I had to reload the computer - never before but after reloading the os and rip it was different from the stuff I printed before. printers are so much fun did you get the banding figured out so the next person knows what to look for? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FrznFire07 217 Posted June 16, 2015 sort of, first problem we believe came from converting panels to jpg. since we use flexi RIP it doesn't really work well with Illustrators effects and things, so typically i will jpeg my files before we rip them. we noticed after the fact the photoshop created some of the banding in the gradient when i jpeged files. so from now on we will print wraps mostly from illustrator files, but i'm still not sure what we will do when we have lots of effects in illustrator since we have to rasterize the files. at the very least we'll be using tiff now not jpg also in talking with other wrap companies we found that large scale gradients typically will have some amount of banding no matter what you do. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dakotagrafx 7,297 Posted June 16, 2015 back when I started I used flexi 7.6 RIP and hated life- never did get what I called grt prints from it - switched to versaworks and life was better. doesn't mutoh have their own rip? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FrznFire07 217 Posted June 16, 2015 no unfortunately mutoh pairs with flexi now, honestly its not horrible but i can see where versaworks would be better. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FrznFire07 217 Posted June 16, 2015 so we believe we found the problem. We need a new maintenance station. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites