Nozzle checks on sawgrass 400 are bad every day

[its a new season]

Hi
I'm currently pulling my hair out with my sawgrass sg400. Everytime i print onto trupix paper the colour isnt solid, instead its as though its broken up into lines of shades of the same colour eg black will have a dark black line then a light black line and so on. The colour isnt solid at all!! Each time i do a nozzle check the first area (cyan) 1 always has feint lines at the bottom. My printer is left on for self-maintenance but this doesnt see to help, i'm having to do nozzle checks almost everyday and head cleans and my prints (subli jet hd ink) are just not what they should be.

Ive only had the printer since April gone, could it be the warm weather (

[UK Printed Mugs]

Won't be weather as our studio is high 20's these past few weeks and our SG400 is alive and kicking. Was the printer 2nd hand or new as of course your first port of call should be supplier?

[socialgiraffe]

There is something wrong with either the printer or the ink as this should not be happening.

Depending on where you purchased the printer and if you purchased the ink from the same place I would go back to them and ask for a completely new set up. I think Sawgrass cover the guarantee so it will not be any loss to them (although I could be wrong on that). Either way, if its a reputable supplier then you should not have any issue

[its a new season]

No brand new from MDP. I've been told by another group i'm in that i should print 'high quality' instead of 'speed' as that should get rid of the streaking/banding. To be fair i'm new to sub so i'm not printing a great deal each day really.

[its a new season]

Thanks for this, im going to try and print 'high quality' instead of 'speed' as ive been told that should get rid of the streaking/banding, i'm now wondering if my poor nozzle checks are to do with the fact that im new to sub and so im not using the printer much at the moment. It was purchased from MDP supplies

[socialgiraffe]

Aha, I made the assumption that you have installed everything correctly and are following the correct way of printing.

My first suggestion would be to go to the Sawgrass website, download the drivers, profile and instructions on how to print using the recommended settings that are set out in the instructions. MDP should have supplied of this to be honest.

[Starlord21]

Your nozzle check should be consistent regardless of what your settings are when coming to print an image. High quality will improve the image and is a good idea on hard substrates.

[InkExpress]

Your nozzle check should be consistent regardless of what your settings are when coming to print an image. High quality will improve the image and is a good idea on hard substrates.

Over a large print job the nozzles will deteriorate slightly if you leave the printer on a fast / economy setting especially on full colour images. The printing heads are micropezio on RICOH and Epson, they pulse to fire the nozzle, on fast / economy setting the nozzles are pulsing so fast to print at speed that the ink sometimes can;t get out the nozzle, this casues it to overheat and block up.

This is the reason we (and majority of other sub printer suppliers) always recommend the printer is set to a high quality print setting and either matte / gloss paper setting. This slows the printer down but allows it more time to apply the ink, this prevents the nozzles blocking up and allows for long print runs to be produced without issue.

Alex