Canon iFP8400 - Banding

[William Walker]

Hi

I have asked this question once before and the problem seemed to go away. Yesterday it came back with a vengeance!

The banding seems to show up in smooth, pastel areas as can be seen from the two examples.

I then made five prints of the Lions with with zero banding! As can be seen, there are no smooth, pastel areas in that photograph.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Many thanks

William

[mearussi]

How thick is your paper and what's your head height? The only time I've gotten anything that looks like that off of my ipf6400 was when the head was scratching the paper because of wrong settings. Try setting both your head height and vacuum to max and see if that helps.

[William Walker]

How thick is your paper and what's your head height? The only time I've gotten anything that looks like that off of my ipf6400 was when the head was scratching the paper because of wrong settings. Try setting both your head height and vacuum to max and see if that helps.

Hi

Thanks for the reply...keep in mind that I have used the same paper Canson Rag Photogrphique (310gsm) - with the identical settings - for a year now without incident. Also, as I said, I printed the Lion pics between the two banding examples is posted...

[stevenfr]

I would guess you need to clean the head or a new head is needed.

[stockjock]

Hi

I have asked this question once before and the problem seemed to go away. Yesterday it came back with a vengeance!

The banding seems to show up in smooth, pastel areas as can be seen from the two examples.

I then made five prints of the Lions with with zero banding! As can be seen, there are no smooth, pastel areas in that photograph.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Many thanks

William

I have only had this problem with my iPF8400 when I have used a new paper.  In that case there is an option in the Media Configuration Tool to have the printer automatically figure out paper tension and head height etc.. Even though you say it is the same paper it is possible a change in humidity or roll position might have changed things just enough to require you to reset that.  The next thing I would try would be a head cleaning A.  And then I would do a Service Nozzle Check to make sure the heads are really OK.  If they are still clogged you could do a Head Cleaning B but that uses a lot of ink.  I wouldn't start with replacing the print heads.  In my experience the printer always tells you to replace the print head before you see any signs of it in the print.

[William Walker]

I have only had this problem with my iPF8400 when I have used a new paper.  In that case there is an option in the Media Configuration Tool to have the printer automatically figure out paper tension and head height etc.. Even though you say it is the same paper it is possible a change in humidity or roll position might have changed things just enough to require you to reset that.  The next thing I would try would be a head cleaning A.  And then I would do a Service Nozzle Check to make sure the heads are really OK.  If they are still clogged you could do a Head Cleaning B but that uses a lot of ink.  I wouldn't start with replacing the print heads.  In my experience the printer always tells you to replace the print head before you see any signs of it in the print.

Many thanks! I will follow your advice... 

[Richard.Wills]

Can we assume that the banding is in the direction of the print head?
Run a nozzle check, and scan that - might be worth inverting the scan, and increasing contast, to help see missing bars / deflected ink spray. Scan the NC at 600ppi, no higher needed.
If you can see gaps / deflections, boot the printer into service mode, and have a look at the NC from there.
Then HC A.

Canson has a pretty good AM1 file for the rag photographique, but could be worth doing the manual configuration.

I've always run my Canons on service contracts, and have never run a head clean B - always a new pair of heads arriving the next morning, as soon as a HC A has failed to resolve problems.

Is your printer running more automated head cleans than usual?

[William Walker]

Can we assume that the banding is in the direction of the print head?
Run a nozzle check, and scan that - might be worth inverting the scan, and increasing contast, to help see missing bars / deflected ink spray. Scan the NC at 600ppi, no higher needed.
If you can see gaps / deflections, boot the printer into service mode, and have a look at the NC from there.
Then HC A.

Canson has a pretty good AM1 file for the rag photographique, but could be worth doing the manual configuration.

I've always run my Canons on service contracts, and have never run a head clean B - always a new pair of heads arriving the next morning, as soon as a HC A has failed to resolve problems.

Is your printer running more automated head cleans than usual?

Hi Richard

Thank you very much for your post! I followed your instructions and, after two head cleans, I tried again and the prints are perfect!

Thank you also to everyone else who offered advice! I appreciate it.

William

[Panagiotis]

ΙΜΟ it's not a blocked nozzle problem but a feed adjustment problem. Perform paper feed adjustment for the selected media type and/or decrease the printing speed by increasing the printing quality.