HP800 Horizontal Banding

Hi guys and girls!

Wondering if anyone can help me / throw out some suggestions on this horizontal banding issue i'm having on my HP800 before i call support in. This is being printed on 3M IJ180 10p_6c_140. Printheads are all within lifespan and fairly new. I've ran a printhead status plot and they're all firing fine. I've also ran a printhead alignment and they're all aligned fine.

I've tried looking into profile settings such as Print area temperature, advance factor and take up tension so which i've not has much success. Is there something i'm missing here/should be looking into. Printed the job on my HP570 on similar profiles and prints fine. So wondering if it's a profile problem more than hardware.

Ink densite? vacuum?

Any suggestions welcome

Regards Ben

Hi @Ben_JoyceDesign,

We suggest performing the next steps, and if you are still facing dark light zone banding for cast vinyl, we recommend increasing the passes to 14p_16p.

a. Nozzle Check

b. Printhead Alignment

c. Media Advance

The problem was actually the lubrication felt replacement.

The instructions do not include filling the reservoir with oil. This i can see being a problem with other users if the replacement instructions don't say anything about topping up the reservoir . So you may think the pad is there to just collect spare oil from the rail as the instructions mention cleaning and oiling the carriage rail, but not adding oil to the reservoir.

This needs to be added into the replacement instructions i feel.

Hi I have a similar banding issue. My lubrication felt is due to be replaced today so will see what happens. Thanks for the update Ben would never have thought to look at this.

#4 That's ok! Just a shame that the replacement instructions fail to mention adding lubricant to the reservoir, so that step is easily missed/not done can cause more headaches as it only mentions lubricating the carriage rail. The felt replacement and reservoir replacement can be a bit fiddly so just take your time!.

It did strike me as odd that HP's answer to banding was to just 'up the pass rate to 14 pass' which i know seems excessive, but now printing 8/10 pass and was the felt/reservoir that was the issue!

Hope it all goes well!

#4 Did the lubrication fix your issue? having pretty much identical issue...

Had a similar issue with banding and tried everything including increasing the pass to 14! Then I checked the carriage rod and lubrication. Problem appears to be solved and I'm back down to 6-8 passes. Totally agree HP needs to explain this better. I was only oiling the rod. It should also be included in the troubleshooting guide. My banding was just on the later part of the pass. I kept thinking it had to be a feed issue or something with the carriage but never thought to check the reservoir for lubricant until I saw this post. Thank you!