Printing Problem (Substrate)

Hi there everyone. I worked at the Print shop on a community college. We have an HP Latex 330.

Recently I was trying to print a banner on a substrate that we rarely use (13 oz. TopazFLX Gloss 54inx 164ft). At first I was having problems (I was getting grainny and wash out colors on my prints), but after I changed my media to PET film/Generic Polyester film I got sharp, rich colors, and smooth printing (no grainny areas). However when I sent my file to print, I got the same bad quality as before and I did not even change anything.

Why is that sometimes I get great quality with this substrate and sometimes I get grainny prints?

Is there any way to fix this?

I attached some pictures so you can see better my problem.

Solved! Go to Solution.

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Based on your posting, in my opinion you may be experiencing a phenomenon called Plastizicizer Migration. This can happen with PVC-based medias, and is most common with banner PVC. Over time, and aided by high storage temperatures, the plasticizers in the PVC banner media will seperate or migrate to the print surface of the media. When Latex ink encounters this plasticizer contaminated surface, the ink is not able to adhere well, and image quality is significantly degraded.

One way to easily test whether this is the case would be to mark an area with a marking pen, and then clean that area only using Isopropyl Alcohol and a clean cloth to clean the print surface in that area. Then print as normal, with part of the image being output into the cleaned area, and part outside of that area. If the area where the cleaning occurred looks good, and the other areas have the poor appearance, then you will have conclusively proven the source of the problem is plasticizer contamination on the media.

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Thank you so much! I did what you said and I did notice a big difference. So, I supposed I have to clean my substrate (and the size I need before printing) everytime. Oh well, at least we wont put those in the trash can.