HP Stitch S1000 User Guide - Page 233

Nozzle health Bad printhead health (clogged nozzles) can cause various defects, such as horizontal banding. See Check and clean the printheads on page 183. The check-and-clean process will check the printheads, recover the ones with clogged nozzles if possible, and replace the nozzles that are still clogged with healthy ones for printing. Substrate settings Substrate settings contain the system print parameters used by the printer for a given substrate. These parameters include: input and output tension, vacuum, drying temperature, and drying pressure. All these parameters can have a significant impact on print quality. For instance, insufficient drying temperature can cause bleeding. Generic substrates have predefined substrate settings that are not editable. But it is possible to clone generic substrates and change the settings of the cloned substrates, as explained in Edit a substrate preset on page 51. Substrate advance Wrong or inconsistent substrate advance can be the root cause of various print-quality defects, in particular horizontal banding. You can run the Pixart diagnostic test from the Print Care window, which will tell you whether the substrateadvance sensor is working correctly or not (dirty or damaged). If the sensor is dirty, see Clean the substrate-advance sensor on page 134. This should be done weekly in any case, as a part of routine maintenance. Even if the sensor is working correctly, the substrate may not be navigable, meaning that the sensor cannot see it properly (as in the case of transparent substrates or substrates with a very smooth backing layer). In such cases, the sensor disables itself automatically, and HP recommends an alternative method: see Substrateadvance calibration on page 97. Printhead alignment The concept and purpose of printhead alignment are explained in Printer calibration on page 88. Many printquality defects may be due to printhead misalignment. For instance, grain can be caused by wrong bidirectional alignment in the scan-axis direction. Also, horizontal banding can be caused by color misalignment in the printaxis direction. HP recommends automatic alignment: Automatic alignment procedure on page 89. However, if you prefer, you can choose manual alignment: Manual alignment procedure on page 90. To check the alignment, see Printhead alignment diagnostics plot on page 92. Print-quality troubleshooting Here is a list of the most common defects. For each of these defects, there are several potential root causes, which can be checked and solved by one or several of the methods mentioned above. Passes Ink Alignment Substrate advance Banding X X X Grain X X X Color X X Ink migration X Bleeding X Edge roughness, text quality X X X ENWW Print-quality troubleshooting 227