u/Netsuno

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to track down a strange issue on my Flora PP2512UV (Konica Minolta 1024i 6pl heads).

As you can see in the attached photo, I'm getting horizontal bands (running in the same direction as the carriage movement, left to right). The bands are visible across multiple colors, but not equally on every color.

What's confusing is the inconsistency:

• Morning: prints were perfectly smooth with no visible banding.
• Later that same afternoon: the banding suddenly appeared.
• The next morning: the problem completely disappeared without changing any settings.

Nothing was intentionally changed between those prints.

Some additional information:

• Nozzle test looked normal.
• Bi-directional calibration had already been adjusted.
• The issue affects solid colors more than detailed graphics.
• It doesn't look like missing nozzles, but rather a density variation.
• The lines are perfectly parallel to the carriage travel direction.

Has anyone experienced something similar?

I'm wondering if this could be related to:

• Ink pressure fluctuations?
• Negative pressure instability?
• Head temperature?
• Encoder strip contamination?
• Carriage speed or servo issue?
• Static electricity?
• Something else entirely?

Since the issue disappeared by itself overnight, I'm leaning toward an environmental or mechanical cause rather than a permanent hardware failure.

Any ideas or troubleshooting suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!