z6100ps banding big time

[markamank]

Good morning to all, I have a hp 6100ps that we have purchased not too long ago and i am getting banding on my proofs on the print direction. I tried calibrating the print heads and changing the quality of the print and the banding still comes out on my proofs. Is there anything else I am missing here?? Also I can not get my PMS colors to print out correctly. I do not have an external rip and I do not intend on buying one. Hope you guys can help thanks a millions to all.

Mark

 

[Cory Smith]

is there an option on the driver to print a print head check? will tell you if you have a clogged nozzel

 

[jonkovach]

What kind of banding? Can you describe it, or post a picture?

 

[zoulas]

We had a banding problem on our Epson and it was caused by clogged print heads. I would run the maintenace routine and print head alignment.

 

[Eyal Gragir]

did you check if media advances properly during printing?it might also cause banding

 

[A.B Ula]

there many kinds of banding, mostly is the print head problem but theres another kind of banding which we call bi-directional banding occurs when u print single color background on matt paper.

the easiest way to avoid that is 2 things:
1- print on the highest quality and the banding will be reduced and will be minimally visible.
2- or switch the printer to unidirectional printing. so the head wont print back n forth. this option eliminate the bi-directional banding but will slower the speed.

good luck!

 

[meddington]

Good morning to all, I have a hp 6100ps that we have purchased not too long ago and i am getting banding on my proofs on the print direction. I tried calibrating the print heads and changing the quality of the print and the banding still comes out on my proofs. Is there anything else I am missing here??

You could simply change the printhead.they're a consumable in the HP printers.

Also I can not get my PMS colors to print out correctly. I do not have an external rip and I do not intend on buying one.

Than you should be prepared to tweak at the application level everytime. Rips really excel here.

 

[jonkovach]

Can we get pictures of the banding? There are a few different types of banding, and without seeing it, it is impossible to diagnose.

The z6100 bands when you print big blocks of color - who knows why. No one has ever been able to tell me why it happens, we just know it does.

 

[A.B Ula]

Can we get pictures of the banding? There are a few different types of banding, and without seeing it, it is impossible to diagnose.

The z6100 bands when you print big blocks of color - who knows why. No one has ever been able to tell me why it happens, we just know it does.

thats easy! the plotters print in bi-directional way, meaning the print head will be printing when it goes from right to left n from left to right. that cause changing in color gradations due to changing in the sequences the colors are sorted in the print head!

this process causes a bi-directional banding and will be visible especially when you print single color background on Matt Paper.

 

[Eyal Gragir]

Regardless of the real reason or source of problem. to eliminate the possibility of " left right" banding try printing in one direction and if problem dissapears then we can start asking why. if they do not dissapear check for inkjet head functionality- nozzles and alignments.
please whatever you do share results with us so that we can realy sort it out.
have a good day.
eg

 

[jonkovach]

I have never seen unidirectional printing solve any kid of banding. There are two different types of horizontal banding I am thinking of here.

One, if it is a blue background - it can alternate between blue and purple type colors.

Two, you can get actual light lights. This is NOT a printhead problem - I've been down that path countless times. I don't know what the solution is, but I know it is not printheads. Anyone who tells me otherwise, I will pay for their trip to my shop if they can solve it.

 

[Eyal Gragir]

back to media

back to media

well the single direction was just a test to do. if you did it and there was no change I must refer you back to media. If media advances differently along carriage travel you will get this banding. So try a better media that is well attached to the rolls of the machine and does not slip during media advance. You should also verify that dot gain is sufficient. This is how much area a single dot covers. You need a larger dot gain . Two alternatives: 1. change media, 2.change ink. The more coverage you get from a dot the better you are in hiding media position artifacts. Hence less color banding!
EG

 

[Yttrium]

Perhaps your banding issues are solved by now but here are a few more ideas.
We bought a Z6100 a few months ago and it is now up to full production. I've also had some problems with banding and have also found a few solutions.

1. Print the "print diagnostic image"-image. This will tell you if there are any faulty printheads. Clean the faulty printheads or simply change them to new ones if they remain faulty after cleaning. Cleaning is easily done with the cleaning kit provided with the machine.

2. Check the maintenance cartridge. This gets very dirty quite quickly. I've changed the cartridge with the status reading as little as 50%. This can solve the banding issue in itself.

3. The printer seems quite sensitive to what media is being used. I've found that the built in media profiles sometimes aren't suitable for non-HP medias. Our service technician recommends making profiles from scratch for problem medias. I've had big problems with e.g. 120 gr. matte coated paper. Personally I think the printer is more suited to "thicker" media qualities. 140 gr. paper and thicker works just fine. Also canvas and glossy paper qualities seem to work with less problems.

As for the PMS-issue I would (as has been mentioned earlier in this thread) strongly recommend getting a rip of some sort (we use Caldera). A rip would sort this issue out more or less automatically. Sure, a rip can be a big investment (though quite small compared to what the Z6100 costs) but if you run a lot of PMS-jobs it would definitely be worth it.

I hope this was to some help!