Eliminating Horizontal Banding in Prints

Horizontal lines in your DTF printers are one of the most common issues that printers face.

Yes, banding is the number one sign that your printhead is reaching the end of its working life, but let’s not panic just yet.

99% of the time horizontal banding is a quick fix, let’s go through the steps.

Before We Start

1. Make sure your inks are topped up
2. Check that your ink tank lids are loose. Air needs to be able to get in
3. Make sure your white ink circulation pump is completely OFF
4. Do a head clean
5. Print a nozzle check

Dead Easy Fix – Is your Film Roll too tight?

If your film has too much tension then your machine will struggle to feed correctly.

Turn the black dials on the side of the roll holder until the roll spins easily with just enough resistance to stop the film sagging.

Simple Fix – Is it a Calibration Problem?

If the nozzle check comes back fine, with zero or almost zero clogged nozzles, then there’s a good chance it’s a calibration issue.

We are going to check the base step. This determines how much film the printer feeds each line.

1. With your printer turned on, open up your Printer Manager Software
2. Click on the Calibrate button
3. Make sure the Base Step tab is highlighted
4. Click the Print Button to output the calibration bars
5. The printer will output a grid of lines, each column has a number. We want column 0 to have straight lines with the left half and the right half of the pattern lining up.
6. If column 0 doesn’t line up just enter the number of the column that does into the revise box on your screen.
7. Click the ‘=>’ to implement the adjustment.
8. Click Print to check the pattern again.
9. If column 0 doesn’t line up just enter the number of the column that does into the revise box on your screen. It’s quite common to need to loop through this a couple of times.
10. When you are happy, click ‘Save and Exit’ on your screen.

The Easiest Fix – Have you Been Running Your Machine Hard All Day or Spamming the Clean Button?

A phenomenon called Micro-bubbling or Ink Foaming is very common when machines are run non-stop for hour after hour, or the user has been spamming the clean button.

Basically, the rapid “push-pull” motion of the piezo elements can actually pull microscopic air bubbles out of the ink itself. 

Clean your machine down, as described here, give it a 30 min rest to let the bubbles dissipate, and then hopefully your machine will be back to normal function.

We always give our machines a clean down and a break at lunchtime, even if they are running perfectly. On a busy day, you should too. 

Your Nozzle check is showing clogs – Is Your Printer Dirty?

90% of the tech support queries we get are because customers have not been as regular with their cleaning as they should.

Yes, they all insist they’ve cleaned their machines to a bright sparkle, but then send through photos of the sorriest-looking ink-covered machines you can imagine.

Not cleaning your machine is how you break it.

Clean down your printer correctly and check your printheads are capping correctly. Let your machine sit with cleaning solution in it for a couple of hours, even better overnight.

Here’s how to clean your machine correctly with a video guide: https://www.dtf-printers.co.uk/how-to-clean-a-dtf-printer/

Is the Printer Struggling to Clean itself?

If the capping stations or wiper blade are damaged, or the waste ink pump has stopped working, then your machine will not be able to clean itself, and you’ll start to get lines in your print.

This video shows how to clean a machine, how the print heads should align with the capping stations, and how the wiper blade and capping stations should look. Please give it a watch: https://www.dtf-printers.co.uk/how-to-clean-a-dtf-printer/

1. Check your capping stations for ink buildup or damage. The rubber on the capping stations needs to be clean and unbroken to create the airtight seal needed.
2. Are your printheads lining up with and sitting in the capping stations? The video above shows how they should sit.
3. Is your wiper blade damaged, dirty or not making contact with the printheads when it cleans? The video above shows how a wiper blade should look. Crouch down and watch the cleaning cycle to ensure things are working as they should.
4. Are your waste ink motors working? This is easy to test. Move the print carriage to the left as you would when cleaning the machine down. Put some cleaning solution in the capping stations and do a head clean. Once complete, move the print carriage out of the way again and check the capping station. If there’s fluid in the capping station, then your waste ink pumps are not functioning.

Time To Start Swapping Parts

If you’ve tried everything above, then it’s time to swap parts. This is a normal part of owning a machine, although one that nobody enjoys.

Parts that you should swap, in the order you should swap them.

1. Dampers: These are cheap consumables that do wear out. It’s always worth swapping the dampers before swapping any other parts.
2. Ink Filters: These seldom wear out, but again, are cheap and easy to swap. It’s worth swapping them at the same time as your dampers if you are going to swap them.
3. Capping Station: These are also fairly cheap parts and simple to swap. It usually doesn’t hurt to swap them before going to the nuclear option of swapping the printhead.
4. Printheads: If all else has failed, then it’s time to swap the printhead. Printheads are consumable parts, but looking after your machine will extend printhead life significantly and save you huge amounts of cash.