Zig-Zag marks appearing on vinyl printed with latex.
Sinusoidal printing artifacts can occur on latex printed materials for two different reasons - one resulting from a slight head strike and one resulting from an effect caused by pinch rollers.
Begin by observing the size of the pinch rollers on your machine.
If the artifact is narrower than the pinch roller, then it is likely to have been caused by a slight head strike or rub. To manage this one must adjust media tension (if available), temperature, and vacuum. With all of these set correctly, the media will remain flat on the platen and will not rub on the bottom face of the carriage as it passes across the media.
If each occurrence of the artifact is aligned with a pinch roller and it is the same size as the pinch rollers then this is due to a surface effect on the material caused by the pinch rollers.
DreamScape Support has seen this in cases with specific HP latex machines in the 300 model series. If you are experiencing this problem you might consider switching to our enhanced High Performance Suede, Matte, Mystical or Canvas. The High Performance construction has been shown to minimize this problem.