Digital BW, The Print

Hi Peter.  I am not aware of which steps you have gone through to 
solve your microbanding issues, but I also use UT (and used VM before 
that) in a couple of 1290's which had, and often still do have 
microbanding issues.  BUT it can be removed, and although it takes a 
bit of effort, the results when the printers are printing cleanly are 
fantastic.  To give you an idea, I printed 110 double sided A3+ 
prints, using almost a full set of 110ml bottles and only at the end 
was I starting to see microbanding again.
If it helps, here are the common causes and steps that I have 
found/used :

1. Seems to be paper dependant.  I hardly ever (in fact don't think I 
ever have) see banding on Photorag, this is because the ink seems to 
spread a little more and hide it.  With much smoother papers such as 
Imajet Satin and Red River polar/premium there is minimal spread to 
the dots (this can be seen through a loupe if you're interested) and 
banding is more prevalent.  EAM is somewhere in the middle.

2. Clean the heads!  and I don't mean the Utility option.  I always 
got clean nozzles, but still saw banding, on some occasions quite 
heavy.  The answer is to use a folded up piece of lint free kitchen 
roll sprayed with Windowlean or another glass cleaner (not until it 
is soaked, just damp) - I actually use half a flash kitchen wipe. 
Fold it up until it is around 12mm wide, just enough to fit under the 
head in the small slot.  I often wrap a small piece of Sellotape 
around the ends so that the head doesn't get stuck as it goes over.  
Lift the head to the + position and with the printer off, release the 
park by turning the large toothed wheel on the LHS a small amount.  
Run the head gently over the paper by hand and lower it to 0.  Leave 
for a few second and then gently move it back to the park position.  
This cleans off the gunk that forms on the underside, which deflects 
the nozzles away from their intended path.  You know this is a 
problem when you see banding in your alignment patterns.

3. Move the head back to it's correct height position (I only use + 
for papers over 200gm, for EAM for example it is always in the 0 
position) Align the print heads with the utility software.  Use the 
correct paper to do this and if possible use a loupe and a lighbox to 
check the results.  If necessary do it twice, I know it takes time 
but it does make a difference.

4. On occasions it is only one colour that causes the problems.  
Print a 6 colour purge pattern (ie Cyan, light cyan, etc etc. - you 
can get these from the MIS site) and check whether the banding is 
still there.  If it is and in all colours, repeat steps above.  If it 
is only in one colour - and I see this most of the times I get a 
problem - raise that one bottle about half an inch (unless your using 
carts, in which case you may need to change them and repeat above 
steps again...) to increase the line pressure a little and print a 
few more purge pages.

5. Finally, after all of the above, try printing with and without 
high speed.  On the 1290, with aligned print heads the difference is 
minor, only really discernable through a loupe.  BUT that tiny 
difference sharpness which is caused by bi-directional printing can 
give big advantages for banding as they can mask each other on the 
two strokes.

I hope this helps.  Long winded, and I may be `teaching my 
grandmother to suck eggs' in which case I apologise.  The 1290 is a 
super workhorse.  The VM/UT solution very efficient and cost 
effective – don't give up on it just yet.
Let me know how you get on.

Kind regards

Steve


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "flabes23" 
<peter.bongard@t...> wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> Since my Epson 1290 has microbanding-issues with the MIS VM-inks 
that 
> I can't get rid of, I´m seriously thinking about buying the new HP 
> 7960. And opinions of which model is better (7960 versus 1290 with 
> MIS-inks)?
> 
> Regards
> 
> Peter