Xerox 700 DCP Percent of Black Output Quality Issues.

First, please excuse the large file size. It's really the only way to get the point across.



In the image above, you will see the bottom of four boxes.

Outlined in Red is the problem. The left two boxes are at 30% black, the right two are at 25% black. Yes, the scanner did not do a very good job, but hear me out.

The left, right and top edges on the actual print job are razor sharp on either percentage of black. The outline is 100% black and it is razor sharp as well, even on the bottom.

If you look closely you can see that the bottom edge of the non-stroked boxes are fuzzy.

I have been dealing with an engineer at Xerox who has replaced the following:

The Black and Cyan Lasers (ROSS?), the Black Drive Assembly, the entire developer assembly, and nearly every other component in the machine, except the print engine.

I'm to the point, where I believe if this machine can't provide me with a 2400X2400 DPI razor sharp 30% black box, it's going to have to be replaced.

The machine is finicky, requires constant adjustment and calibration depending on humidity, paper temperature, time of year, blah blah blah. The 700 EX Fiery, is okay as far as RIPs go, but I personally think it's under powered, and doesn't have enough RAM.

We have also suffered from the Adobe Print Engine change, where all of our Adobe Applications, now send PostScript Level 3 files to the Fiery, and the Fiery completely ignores the rasterization and attempts to print the individual layers instead of flattening everything before sending it to the 700's print engine, so any multi-layer object with effects when printed, show the frame, and print an off colored box around the effected text. It's quite annoying.

Has anyone else experienced this with the 700?

 

Haven't quite seen anything like this. Has he looked into the drums? Maybe Corona wires if the machine uses them. I'll be honest, Xerox is the only digital machines i haven't much experience with.

Your not close to printing out of the printable area, are you? This can cause a breakup in lower coverage..
Everything is 100 K black?

 

Well, the stroke outline is 100% K, the left two boxes are 30% K and the right two are 25% K, with no other colors added into the mix. The scanner needs calibration, that's why the scan came out a little blueish, and the overall solid coverage is better than it appears in the image above.

The machine is 12X18 full bleed capable, this sample is printed on an 8.5" X 11" sheet of 28# Hammermill text paper. And the fuzzy edge happens no matter how near or far from the edge. In this example, it is about 1.5" from the long edge of the paper.

The higher the percentage of black the less fuzzy that edge becomes. I'm going to do a couple of more samples, and photograph them, the scanner on our machines don't do a very good job. All four drums have been replaced, and the Corotron (corona wire), several times.



Taken with my phone's camera. Notice how the gradient box on the bottom goes from razor sharp on the right to fuzzy on the bottom left. While the top left stays sharp?

 

Very strange, on the gradient strip on the bottom, it seems as though the top is pretty sharp all the way through while the bottom starts to break up in the lower densities. This only happens with black? have you tried CMY in the same density levels?

Also, you said these are 8.5x11 sheets. Try rotating the lead edge, and see if the break up moves with the orientation change. If your running short side, switch to a long side lead edge. Maybe have two gradient strips as part of the experiment, one vertical and one horizontal

 

Your observation on the gradient strip is dead on. Yes, it is only with black (that I can see), the other colors do not seem to present this problem, and I've inspected them with a jeweler's loupe.

The paper orientation doesn't affect the problem or output. It is always on the trailing edge of percentages of black.

 

First of all make same tests on cyan only. The laser unit (RasterOutputSystem) has some common parts. However is good to clean Black_Cyan ROS Assy. What version of firmware the machine have ?

 

As I mentioned before, I have done the test sheets with all the colors, and Black is the only color I'm having a problem with. The black and cyan ROS has been changed twice and has made no difference in this problem.

The Cyan test sheet:

Again, this picture was taken with my cell phone, but cyan does not have the same problem.

As for the firmware in the machine, I have no idea, I am not a service technician. I only know what I do about the machine, because I have spent so much time (6 months) attempting to have this problem corrected by Xerox technicians and engineers.

 

If you print configuration report you will see firmware version.

 

The machine has an EX700 Fiery 8 Release 2 on it as the RIP.
The 700DCP it's self has the following:
Current System Software: 54.40.0
Controller ROM: 1.211.0
IOT ROM: 54.40.0
HCF ROM: 3.17.0
Finisher D ROM: 4.8.3
IFM ROM: 7.14.0
IIT ROM: 2.4.1
ADF ROM: 12.2.7
SJFIT: 3.0.12
SSMI: 1.11.0

Is that enough information for you?

 

Yes I think is enough.
Tell your tech to upgrade your system at firmware version 3.1 or upper version.
Why ?
You see in photos version of components and improvments for version 3.1.

 

A Level 3 Engineer is supposed to be on-site tomorrow, I'll mention it to him.

 

Well, here's the deal.
I have been told by the Engineers, that this "issue" is normal.
The explanation for the issues demonstrated in the above images is this:
The Fuji print engine in the 700, 700i, 800 and other similar models, lays different color toners at different angles. In this machine, it lays the black toner at such an angle that causes this trailing edge fuzziness. There's no fix, there's no way to change the angle Fuji designed the machine to lay the toner.

Even after patching all of the ROMs in the system to the latest version (including going to an "unsupported" beta version) the machine will never produce a clean trailing edge below 60% black toner density.

Personally, I feel that this machine or any others which suffer from this stupidly designed print engine should not be called a Press. Digital or otherwise.

I have chased this problem for over a year, and only now I find out that this 2400 X 2400 DPI printer can't create a 30% black trailing edge. It's unbelievable, and considering the price paid for this machine, I can't help but feel that the salesman mislead us, and over-sold the machine's capabilities.

Meanwhile, our much slower Xerox DocuColor 250, has better quality across the board, only at a much slower rate. I'm seriously considering pushing the 700 out the door, and replacing it with a 250/260 because quality takes a higher priority than speed. Now, if I could convince my 250 to duplex 80# or 100# stock, I would simply quit using the 700.

 

There is an service bulettin from 2011 -12-06 who say to install version 3.7MN System Software.
This version is the base software so ask your tech to do that.

 

the 1.230.0 is not the correct version upgrade. It will be at 1.211.7 with the v3.7 upgrade.

 

Milo ,it is a post four months ago.
I think he resolve the problem.

 

What was the resolution of the problem?

 

I dont know but usually nobody post here how the problem is resolved !

 

Yea, I understand people get busy once they're up and running again, but it's always helpful when people are kind enough to post how things worked out and if a resolution was found.