HP Latex 3000

6 Printer calibration
Align the printheads
Precise alignment between printheads is essential for color accuracy, smooth color transitions, and sharp
edges in graphical elements.
NOTE: You are recommended to align the printheads only when using a single-roll-to-roll configuration. In
particular, printhead alignment with dual rolls is not recommended.
Printhead alignment is recommended in these situations:
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After replacing or reseating a printhead.
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When a new substrate is loaded and the printhead-to-paper spacing changes significantly.
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When there are print-quality problems that could be caused by printhead misalignment.
To align the printheads, go to the Internal Print Server and select Printer > Printhead alignment. You can
select automatic or manual alignment.
Printhead alignment can be affected by wrinkles or other substrate deformations in the print zone.
Therefore, if the printer has recently been printing, you should wait for some minutes while it cools down.
Just in case, the printer advances the substrate before aligning the printheads.
Automatic alignment
Automatic alignment is a fully automated procedure that ensures optimal print quality in most cases. The
printer prints some patterns and scans them with the built-in line sensor.
This method is intended for smooth, high-quality substrates (including vinyl and banner substrates).
If the printheads have many defective nozzles, automatic alignment may not give good results.
Automatic alignment is an unattended process that takes approximately 8 minutes. It consumes printed
substrate of 43 cm width × 54 cm height (17 × 21.3 in).
Troubleshoot automatic alignment
Automatic printhead alignment may fail occasionally. In some cases, you may see the error message
Automatic Printhead Alignment is cancelled because of scanning errors. In other cases, there is no error
message but the print quality is not satisfactory. Here are some possible explanations.
●
There is some problem with substrate advance (see
Substrate-advance compensation on page 106).
After fixing any substrate-advance issue, retry automatic printhead alignment.
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You are using a highly-textured (some banners), non-white, or very reflective (some satinated offset)
substrate. Please use manual printhead alignment in these cases.
●
The substrate is wrinkled. Check that the substrate is correctly loaded with uniform tension. If
necessary, try adjusting substrate parameters such as tension or drying and curing temperatures. If the
ENWW Align the printheads 97