Xante Impressia - Quality issues on isolated part of print

[AlphaGraphics Knoxville]

Hello everyone. I am having a few issues with my Xante Impressia, and I was wondering if any technicians, operators, or other various people might be able to help me with my situation, or, in the very least, might be able to provide some insight.

We have a digital Xante Impressia that struggles to print proper coverage, but only on certain spots of the page. It does not matter what type of stock, although it is always an issue on com-10 envelopes. We have had this issue for quite a long time. We've had the machine for close to 2 years now, and this issue has persisted since roughly around that time. We have been mostly able to work around it, especially if the job is either low coverage, or if we need to send it out to a trade printer or other vendor.

We have tried changing all the drums kits, cleaned the glass layers overtop all the drums with the brush that comes with the printer, we have replaced the ITB and the fuser as well. we have replaced every consumable part that we can with that machine, and we have ran every color calibration and registration setting that the machine allows for. We have double-checked that the fuser is not on the "catalog" setting and we have checked for any forms of wear on the ITB, drums, fuser, etc, all of which are fine.

When we attempt to run com-10 envelopes as short-edge feed, we get creases in our envelope stock, no matter what fuser setting it has been set at, so we cannot run it SEF. We have tried running LEF, but with the flap facing towards from the printer, the gripper rollers, even when new, cannot grip the com-10 properly because the flap gets pinched between the top/bottom rollers and won't feed through the entry area. the only way we can run com-10's without force-feeding one at a time, is by running them with the flap facing away from the printer, which is the way that is advertised and recommended by other production operators and technicians.

Does anyone have a clue what this might be? More details and/or pictures can be uploaded upon request. Thank you all, and I appreciate your time.

 

[Kringle]

As far as the envelopes feeding, you have to buy "digital" envelopes. Out here on the west coast we get them from kelly paper. They have a more square flap rather than the old commercial rounded flap. Run the flap up and away from the feed wheels to print on the front of the envelope. You need to use those little stiff mylar strips that came with the machine to keep the flap closed when going through the feed wheels. I have 2 of these machines and they feed number 10s all day long with very few jams.... as long as they are digital flap. Seems weird feeding them that way, but it really seems to work well. Regular commercial flaps will always pop open after the fuser and hang up at that big turn before the exit. I think the envelope brand from kelly is "printmaster" but not sure?? KellyPaper.com if you're interested.

I can't speak for the uneven density in the print. That may honestly be a limitation of the printer. We only print envelopes with text and small logos and for the most part they seem to print and feed fairly well. We get the occasional issue with waste toning over the entire sheet that we haven't been able to solve. I'm guessing you've tried slowing down the printer to allow more time in the fuser? You may want to check that black impression (btb) roller that backs up where the impression is actually made between at the belt just below the fuser. You may also want to hard stop the machine during print and take a look at the image on the belt to see if you can see the pattern there. It might help you to figure out if your problem is on the belt or if it happens at image transfer. Also do the same and look at the sheet after the image transfer but before it has fully entered the fuser. One more thing to try is to print solids of pure colors CMYK to see if the issue happens in just one color or all 4.

Lastly you may try to go into the service tech settings and look around. Hold the UP and DOWN arrows at the same time for about 5 seconds. I remember there was a routine Xante had me do called "forced music" to solve a registration issue. I know I have gone in there and turned up the heat on the fuser so I can run number 10s on the fast speed of "envelope lite" while still getting a good fuse. (but don't tell Xante as I'm sure it'll void my warranty LOL)

Good thing....we were able to solve that annoying edge mark on the lead edge of the envelopes. It was caused by that goldish colored teflon coated plate at the entrance of the fuser. We took it off with a 5.5mm nut driver and filed that protruding tab down a bit and... BAM.... No more annoying marks. You can also move the screws to the outside slotted holes and move that plate a bit further away from the gap.

Best of luck!