epson 3880 banding / vertical lines doesn't go away!

studioso

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Hello,


I've been printing with several 3880 for over 10 years now. from time to time narrow banding in the print direction appear, and usually cleaning the draining station, the squeegee and a few head cleaning cycles clear the issue.


right now however I'm stuck. can't get rid of these lines, very visible in dark areas.


-the lines are maybe 1/8" wide, in the direction that the paper travels, ie perpendicular to the movement of the head.


-I recently started using after market inks for the first time, as I was having trouble finding original inks locally in montreal. I'm using inkjetmall.


-i tried power cleaning, both through the printer as well as through software


- nozzle check comes out perfect.


-ran a few alignments, no difference.


-did that trick where you place a soaked paper towel under the head and "floss", a few times.


-I tried printing a set of straight colors to see if I can isolate the problematic ink. it looks like VM is banding badly, although in the portrait I was trying to print in the first place it gives me banding in gray areas, where I don't think there might be much VM? happens to be that VM is one of the colors I've already swapped with inkJetMAll and I had a bad leak from the cartridge...


I'm at a loss. I wasted who knows how much ink and paper on this, I would really appreciate if someone can get me unstuck here...


thank you
PS I only heard about this site for the 1st time from DPreview's forum today. I'm surprized I've never heard about it before and that google never suggested it to me in the past decade. all that to say I'm glad I found this place and grateful for everyone's willingness to share knowledge!
 

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stratman

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Welcome to the forum, studioso.

I am a Canon owner. I know just about nothing concerning Epsons. How's that for a confidence builder?

Still, a number of similarities can be shared between the two manufactures.

My first thought is if these scratches are tied to specific papers. What paper(s) is it that you see these scratches? Does this occur with all papers or just one or a few? Do the scratches run the entire length/width of the page, and, if not, are they usually found in the same location?

While this does not look like the typical head strike or paper curl issue, have you tried adjusting the Platen Gap to Wide or Wider?

Did this issue begin after you switched to the aftermarket ink?

I found a similar complaint as yours using Google and searching on "epson 3880 scratches on print", which I suggest you try for potentially other links to explore while waiting for someone knowledgeable to respond.

https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=44413
 

Ink stained Fingers

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does the banding pattern/occurence change if you print with a different quality setting ?
Could you please post a nozzle check with rather high resolution limited to those colors which mainly show the effect like magenta above ? Are you running Epson inks or 3rd party cartridges or do you do refill ? With which inks ?
 

Ink stained Fingers

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Does the appearance of the problem change if you do a printhead alignment ? Did you ever clean the coding strip, that plastic band running across the print path and passing through a sensor on the back side of the printhead carriage ?
 

studioso

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hello and thank you for all the suggestions and questions, I'll spend some time today going through the suggestions. I never even though about cleaning the coding strip, I would assume the head would self wipe on each pass by I'll try that.
How often do you replace dampers and clean printhead inkchannels?
I've had the printhead assembly replaced professionally probably in 2018 or 2017. of course that would be my last option solution, as it's pricey and will likely give me issues for using non original carts.


I'll work on all other suggestions today, thanks again
 

Flageborg

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I've had the printhead assembly replaced professionally probably in 2018 or 2017. of course that would be my last option solution, as it's pricey and will likely give me issues for using non original carts.

Ok......but have you considered changing the dampers yourself? and do the cleaning of printhead ink channels yourself?
 
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onlymonochrom

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I have a similar issue on a 4800. I posted about in on Quadtone RIP groups.io. Nozzle check is fine, but images have lines and purge calibration prints show Light Cyan channel having problems. My next step was to pop the head out and check/replace the damper.
 
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