Horizontal Lines / Veritcal bars on prints using Ricoh Printer SG7100DN

[Lebowski]

Hi everyone,


I've just started experiencing horrible issues with any prints that contain colour. They now have white streaks or visible bars running through them. I've tried everything i can think of to resolve this but i'm getting the same result everytime.


I'm using a Ricoh SG7100DN Printer (almost 2 years old) with brand new sublimation inks (Sublijet-R extended cartridges from xpres.) that i only just replaced a few days ago. The issues started occurring just before i swapped the cartridges and prior to that has only ever occurred occasionally, was temporary and never this severe.


The horizontal lines seems to occur the most on prints using colour ink (most noticeable on blue inks) but the bars (which run vertically down the whole page on every colour are perfectly uni-formal and spaced about 5mm apart. I have attached pictures to show this.

I have tried, flushing the head and cleaning the heads multiple times, paper feed adjustment, nozzle check, de-condensation, adjusting the head position (which made a slight difference i think but still shows lines), changing the paper type from plain to inkjet paper, selecting different print qualities on the printer preferences, uni-directional printing enabled and disabled, putting the old cartridges back in, replacing the waste tank, leaving the printer off for a day, leaving it on but nothing using it for a day but nothing has resolved the issue. It's horrible as i can't sublimate anything with these lines as they transfer to the substrate. All tests on the printer check out fine, nozzle check and head adjustment seems fine yet as soon as i print anything with colours in it the problem shows up. Black prints without any lines or marks.

Hope you can help. I'm desperate.

.

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vB_ID:4026

IMG_5014.jpg (92.57 KiB) Viewed 12 times

vB_ID:4026

IMG_5014.jpg (92.57 KiB) Viewed 12 times

vB_ID:4026

IMG_5014.jpg (92.57 KiB) Viewed 12 times

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IMG_5014.jpg (92.57 KiB) Viewed 12 times

[UK Printed Mugs]

Our recent post on this should help resolve it:
http://www.dyesubforum.co.uk/vbforum/sh ... d-dithered

[Lebowski]

Our recent post on this should help resolve it:

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I've given it a clean with a lint free cloth as instructed and printed another test page. It seems a little clearer but there is still quite noticeable stripes on the print outs sadly. I have attach the ricoh test print page and also the piece i'm trying to print.

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[UK Printed Mugs]

It is no doubt the same issue and read my post further which says that I suggest you take the top cover off and use some alcohol fluid on lint free cloth to wipe fully a few times from side to side. Initially we only wiped gently using a cloth and the problem got better and then worse again until we really cleaned it.

[Lebowski]

Ahh ok, that's interesting. I did exactly the same, just with the cloth. I don't have any alcohol fluid, what exactly is that? Do you know where i might be able to purchase it from? Sorry if it's a silly question.

[UK Printed Mugs]

You could just try some glass cleaner firstly on a cloth. It is only a plastic strip. The other thing to do is call Sawgrass support.

[Lebowski]

That's great, thanks very much. So i've tried tried cleaning it again, this time with the glass cleaner and microfibre cloth and wow, much more dirt was removed this time round. The print does look slightly better but i can still see the lines, especially in the blue shades i can barely see any in the Red, Yellow, Orange and Pink colours. Mostly, Dark Blue, Light Blue and Green.

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[purpledragon]

dunno if you can do this with the printer in question but try soaking some tissue or paper towel in nail poish remver and place on the bed of the printer move the heads over the tissue paper then leave over night the fumes will release any clogs

[Justin]

Have you checked all your alignments? You're paying a hefty premium for your inks so make SG & Xpres work for their money, have you spoken to either yet?

[Lebowski]

Hi purpledragon, thanks for the help. It might be a little tricky with this printer, its the Ricoh SG7100DN and the space looks a little tight inside. How would you get the printer heads to move over the tissue paper out of curiosity? Do you mean manually push it? Do you think the banding is linked to a clog in this case? Thanks