Blurry Edges on HP Latex 360,365,570

Hello, I work at a vinyl distributor that also sells printed patterns using our own self-adhesive vinyl. Recently our files started to print blurred and grainy, but only on the edges. Having said that, this problem is consistent with four different printers, (a 360, a 365 and two 570s) all of which the printheads have been aligned religiously. The only possible explanations I can think of: A) The vinyl is curving on the sides, rubbing the printheads slightly or B) all of our printers' printing zones are seriously warped. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

No dear I dont have any idea about it.

Hi @karoshi41,

There are various possible solutions: • If you notice the variation in intensity near one side of the print, try rotating the image by 180 degrees before printing. This may solve the problem in some cases, as all the nozzles are refreshed whenever they enter the service station between passes. • Use your RIP to add lateral color bars on the side of the plot that is close to the ink supplies. The color bars are designed to exercise all the printhead nozzles, to prevent the problem from occurring. • Add lateral color bars to the image, manually, before printing. In this case, you can either use the standard colors or decide to include a particular color in which you have noticed the problem. The recommended width of each color bar is 3 mm.

If text, lines, or light solid areas are rough or blurred, try the following suggestions: • The printheads may be misaligned. This is likely if you have not aligned the printheads for a long time, or if there has been a substrate jam. Print the printhead alignment status plot, and align the printheads if necessary. • The optimizer printhead may have blocked nozzles. You can check this by printing the printhead status plot. • Water evaporates slowly from the ink in the unused nozzles, so the first drops of ink are ejected with lower velocity. This may happen, for example, in nozzles not used during a whole printed swath, causing the text or lines to be rough or blurred. • If a light area is close to the edge while printing on a thin substrate, ensure that the substrate is loaded with the substrate edge on a rib of the platen to avoid local blurring. Alternatively, try rotating the image so that the affected area is not at the edge of the substrate.

Hope this helps.