Digital BW, The Print

OK, Sorry I joined this thread late but I hope I can help.  I had 
EXACTLY the same thing last week.  And,  I fixed it.

I had the microbanding, very fine, but visible to my eye, all nozzles 
firing.  I tried everything and then did a microbanding Google search 
and put everything I found into action!

Firstly, I don't know what printer you are using, but with hextone 
inks in my 1290, I found head alignment extremely difficult to 
judge.  I have done it many times before but I do now know that they 
were not right in the past.

If you have a CIS, are the cartridges located with little felt pads?  
If so, fold up a bit of card and push it between the two cartridges, 
not enough to jam in, but tight enough that it stops movement, I 
found that any knock or wiggle would throw the aligment out by miles, 
and it would also drift over time.  

Secondly raise your ink bottle by an inch and then run through 
the 'windex towel' cleaning method (I assume you know this).  Leave 
for ten minutes.

Set the height arm to one height that you will use, shifting up and 
down also threw my head alignment out.  I chose '-' and it works fine 
for all my papaers (up to 210gm anyway...).

Next re-do you head alignment, now this is critical, it took me 
HOURS.  Pick GOOD paper, and take a loupe (+lightbox if you have one) 
to screutinise the results.  I went through at least three 'realign' 
processes for both the colour and B&W alignments. The 'colour' boxes 
were what I found hardest to interpret, having now spent so much time 
on it I know what aligned heads look like, it is an almost continuous 
tone box and is NOT easy to get spot on.

After all this, my prints are perfect and the banding is gone.

If this doesn't work, you may have a feed problem, in which case 
there is another quicker solution.  Turn the high speed on.  This 
does affect the sharpness of you prints a little because the heads 
might not be perfectly aligned, but it does instantly (on mine 
anyway) get rid of the microbanding.  If all else fails, this will 
let you carry on printing, if not with perfect results though...


Hope this solves your woes, it did fix mine, let us know!

Steve.






> > Hey, all you helpful folks!
> > I'm into my first day with the new Piezotones (installed last 
night).
> > I'm getting very fine white banding in a regular visible 
pattern.  I
> > now get consistently good nozzle checks and have done several
> > alignments and gotten that looking pretty good.  However, the 
numbers
> > on the alignment checks have  fine white "dropped out" lines 
through
> > them one or sometimes two lines width.  The scattered dots I was
> > getting beside the alignment check lines are fewer and closer now.
> > Whazzup?  I think I may have been getting some of this banding 
before
> > the CIS change, but the alignment check numbers didn't have the 
white
> > lines through them with the old CIS (I found some old alignment 
check
> > sheets).    Any help much appreciated.
> > Chris
> 
> >
> I hope someone can help Chris with this printing question, 
certainly one of
> the purposes of the forum. But forgive me, Chris, for using this as 
an
> opportunity to suggest to the members of the forum an alternate 
source of
> help: the makers of our hardware, software and media.
> 
> When we go to the source (Epson, Inkjet Mall, etc.), they have a 
better idea
> of how extensive these problems are and where they need to make 
changes.
> Every call to their tech support is a "vote" for improvement.
> 
> When I go directly to the source, I usually get a helpful answer. 
Sometimes
> I get a replacement.
> 
> 
> Best,
> 
> Jim Klebau