Epson 9800 - Banding in 360 mode

[printmonger]

We have been printing Preps paginated proofs on our Epson 9800 in 360 dpi for about 18 months. All of a sudden, we get white banding beyween the 1" ink swathes. When we change to 720 dpi, they go away...and so does printing timely proofs. Anyone got any suggestions?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[PrePress Guru]

Re: Epson 9800 - Banding in 360 mode

Hi Mark,

From my experiences with the epson line, you need to run the head cleaning cycle a bunch of times.
If your epson has the super clean, all the better.

Be aware that your ink tanks need to be more than half full for the super clean to run.
It will also drain the tans very fast.

There is also 1 other option. I was at a clients shop the other day and they mentioned something to me.
They are running the 9800. Every 6 moths they get a tech in to service there 2 9800 and 1 4800.
He told them a great trick. Set the epson to the cutter replacement mode. This will move the head to the middle of the printer.
Look up into the right side of the printer where the head lives. You will see some rubber. squeegees. The wipe the print head and they get very dirty.
You should wipe them down with a long Q tip. This will remove the goop that accumulates. The goo also attracts dust which over time can scratch the nozzles. Once that happens, the print head has to be replaced.

I hope this helps.

Ian Mazursky

 

[wolfejim]

Re: Epson 9800 - Banding in 360 mode

Another factor you could look at is "paper feed adjustment."

On Epsons, Printing in grosser modes (eg. 360 x 360) will reveal banding that does not show in finer modes. It is akin to mowing a yard and either overlapping the rows (undersquare) or leaving a strip of un-mown grass between rows (oversquare). To correct for this one uses "Paper Feed Compensation". I always have to do this with Epson printers. If you have a professional RIP (eg. EFI ColorProof, Colorburst) this can be accomplished thru the RIP. There is also a way to do it thru the Epson control panel. The aim is to get an image to print "square". The best way to do this is to print a large outlined (to save ink) square. Measure the width and the length. They should be exact, if not, one must compensate for the difference.