Major banding with my Canon i960

[dosto233]

Hey everyone,

OK, heres the basic rundown of my dilema. I've got a Canon i960 that regardless of what image I print, what Photoshop settings I use and how the print head has been cleaned, its leaves banding (lines) on all my prints. So far i've tried the obvious methods most of us have probably read on the Neilslade.com site and in these forums, e.g. compressed air through the inlets and soaking the head in hot water. Now, some of this does seem to narrow the lines a bit on different prints but still hasn't gotten rid of them. Seems to have nothing to do with different colors; though the only place I don't see the lines are in the very deep black areas of the print. Do I need to keep cleaning the head repeatedly? since its seems almost everyone in these forums has had great luck with all the methods and almost never needed to replace a head. Absolutely any kind of help will do.

Using Canon i960, genuine Canon inks, and Canon Photo Paper Pro.

Brandon

 

[drc023]

Have you performed a nozzle check? If so, is there a random pattern of missing lines or entire blocks missing? Which colors are showing missing lines? Have you changed cartridges? It's possible that one (or more) isn't feeding the correct amount of ink. At this point you've done enough head cleanings.

 

[Grandad35]

If the nozzle check looks OK, do a print head alignment.

I know that this sounds strange, but I also remember someone reporting that changing the USB cable eliminated a banding problem.

If the problem persists, scan your nozzle check at 200 dpi, crop the image to just the nozzle test patterns and post it on the forum. (http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=36)

 

[RC]

Some of the banding problems are caused by a combination if printhead seals and cartridge design.

I was getting a huge banding problem using brand new cartridges, but when I switched to a different brand of empties, the problem went away.

O n examining the cartridges, I noticed that one brand had a longer exit nozzle than the other. This caused the printhead rubber washer or bushing, whatever one may call it, to be compressed. When switching to the different design cartridge, the exit nozzle would not press hard enough on the rubber washer, therefore allowing air to get in the print head.

For a while I stopped buying the shorter nozzle cartridges, but after a while I was having problems even the Canon cartridges.

I solved the problem by heating a cup of water to the boiling point, placing the rubber washers in the water for a couple of minutes and then running them under some cold water.

The hot water allows them to shrink back to their original shape, therefore working properly once again.

I have also purchased Formulabs printhead cleaner and use it extensively, and I am finding that the print head works even better.

Therefore when one is experiencing large banding, first check the printhead washers.

By the way by using these two different brand of cartridges intermittently, I can repeat the problem every time, and also correct the problem every time.

I hope this is of some help.

Robert.

 

[stephenfs]

What brand had the longer exit nozzles, if you don't mind my asking? I am about to buy more carts for refilling and I would prefer not to have this washer problem. I have an 8500, and I assume the washers are similar, although I haven't really paid attention to them before now.

Thanks for any feedback. I am new on this forum, but the amount of good info is amazing.

Stephen

 

[RC]

To Stephenfs:

The brand with the longer nozzles are AcuJet brand. They cost about double but I refill my empties from them about 30 times without any problems.

Robert

 

[hpnetserver]

The problem isn't in the washers. When an ink cartridge is inserted the ink inlet should come in contact with the felt inside the ink cartridge at the bottom of the exit hole. Ink should flow doward freely when the printhead is consuming ink from the bottom. If the ink flow is reduced for some reason, which causes banding, then if you do a cleaning cycle air will be sucked in through the gap between the washer and the cartridge especially if the washer isn't tightly pressed against the ink cartridge exit hole. When air gets in the problem is worsen. The root cause is really the reduced ink flow in the first place. It is the ink that does not work in conjunction with the cartridge. Toss the ink if I were you.