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Epson 4880 Ghosting Printing Issue

1880 Views 5 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  Print and Pray, 
Print and Pray
I started having printing issues with my Epson 4880 Neoflex printer. I have attached some images of what it looks like. The t-shirt isn't far away from the print head at all and the bed is leveled, so I know over-spray isn't the issue. Besides the ghosting problem, sometimes the letters come out curved, as you can see in the picture of the aqua t-shirt. I'm not sure what's causing this. No strange noises at all coming from the printer, it's working like normal other than the prints coming out like this. Any idea what could be causing this?

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N
Hi,

I assume that the print head is moving along text line - i.e left to right
of text - correct?

Looks like printer is moving whilst printing, how smooth is the movement
when printing? When not printing is the printer steady on base, can
you push it front/back without any noticeable slop in mechanical system?

Does the shaft rotate smoothly, nothing sticking? Looks like always
towards outer edge of print - head furthest away from capping station,
just about when printer is moved to next position?

Same issue on two-pass printing? Always happens of just randomly ?
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N
Just thinking further, when you watch it print, does printer move whilst
print head is ejecting ink? If this is the case, it can also be shaft
that moves printer mechanism front/back is dirty/sticky. Servo motor
is having a hard time keeping up with the movements. Take a look
at shaft and threaded nut that sits right underneath printer on the shaft.

You can clean shaft with soap/warm water and alcohol to clean shaft/nut
from dried ink/dust/etc. Do not use any petroleum based oils on shaft
it will damage threaded nut. A silicone type lubricant will work.
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Print and Pray
I didn't notice any odd movements but thank you! I'll keep that in mind if it happens again. I replaced the encoder strip and it fixed the issue. :)
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N
Nice job!

I was not sure which way head was moving in relation to images - it has to be either print head movement in x-axis or printer movement in
y-axis lol.

Encoder strips can "go bad" , often in one area. From images it looks
like there were several spots where your encoder lines may have been
damaged or blocked? It can be ink or something on fine lines which
can be removed with alcohol.

I would be curious to see how your old encoder strip looked?

Keep this up and you'll earn your Technician Certificate from All American :rolleyes:

Cheers!
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Print and Pray
Thank you! I already disposed of it but it did seem to have a few scratches here and there. And honestly I can't remember the last time it was replaced.
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