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VP300 head issue?
My trusty VP seems to have developed a fault with the black head. All the other heads are firing fine. I’ve cleaned the heads manually, the wiper blades etc as well as performimg a couple of power cleans with no change. I always check the test print and it was working fine last week. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Jason
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17 Replies
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Just read David’s thread:
http://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=55757
How would I soak the black ink head? Is it just cleaning fluid on the sponge?
Should I soak it?
It seems to have improved a little bit, not much.
Thanks -
Try clamping the pipe that goes from the cap to the pump (use a clothes peg or freezer bag clamp thingy) then fill the cap with cleaning solution. Let the printer sit idle for a couple of hours then do a couple of powerful cleans.
To be honest with you, I doubt it’s anything to do with the cap or pump as they’re common to both black and cyan and your cyan is fine. I would look head or above, i.e damper, cartridge….
Stafford
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Also, are you getting a bit of light banding in your prints? I think your feed/x calibration could do with tweaking a tad 😉
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Thanks Stafford, not had issues with any banding. I’ve done a few extra normal cleans now as the power cleans just seemed to be dumping enormous amounts of ink with no effect.
The print is better with the black, I’ll look at soaking the black head for a few hours today. I have been away for a few days, left the machine on but perhaps a few of the nozzles are blocked.
Thanks
Jason
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as Stafford says feed looks out.
if you do manage to recover the head let me know, about every 3 years my black has gone like that and never been able to cure it with out replacing it.
just waited tilll it was really affecting the output then new one.
tried just about every thing the other 5 colours are still fine just the black -
Thanks both, I’ll play about with my feed but I have never had printing problems onto Metamark which is the only vinyl we use. Head soaking now, I have maintenance cover but I’m assuming it does not cover the price of a new head?
I soaked it for an hour and tried it again with no change really, but it is printing at an acceptable level. I’ll try soaking it everyday for a couple of hours to see if it helps, will keep you informed.
Jason
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It depends who you have cover with as to whether the head will be covered or not. Who do you use?
Depending on how confident you’re feeling, you could try back flushing the head (take the damper out, put a syringe on it and pull air back up through the head) but obviously you would be doing so at your own risk. Otherwise, it might be time for a new printhead.
I hope you got my email earlier? I did reply but I was in a bad reception area and it said it had sent but couldn’t see it in my sent items. Let me know if I can help.
Stafford
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Thanks Stafford, sorry didn’t receive an email. I wouldn’t want to back flush as it may invalidate my cover. I have cover with AD Young who have been very helpful today. The cover was transferred from Tech 8 and I assumed after confirming with them that heads were covered, apparently not, and in all fairness to ADYoung they have covered like for like and can arrange for an engineer to visit and change the head Tuesday if required. It’s printing okay and as long as we have no large sections of black no banding occurs.
On a side note I am again very disappointed in the service from Tech 8, they really left us high and dry and now I find out I do not have cover for the heads after paying for cover for the last 4 years with no call outs.
I’ll have the head changed and AD Young offer a package to cover heads so I will move to that when I renew. The cost of the replacement heads is £540+VAT
Jason
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That’s a fair price for the heads from AD Young actually. I don’t think I’d be able to supply at any less than that price, certainly not if that includes fitting!!
Why would the head not be covered? Is it a contract or warranty that Tech-8 have sold you?
I’ll look for my sent email again and try and forward it to you again….
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Hi Stafford, yes it includes fitting. Apparently the Tech 8 contracts only covered accidental damage.
I’ve looked through my old contract and it is not very specific. I took what I was told by Tech 8 as being correct, guess that will teach me.
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Hmmmmm, very strange. Give me a call if you need to discuss it all 😉
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Just an update, rang this morning, engineer coming tomorrow to recover or replace the head. Upgraded my cover to cover two heads per year from next month. Fantastic service from AD Young , very impressed so far, will wait and see what happens tomorrow.
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Just an update. Engineer visited, very professional, black head changed. Stafford, you were right, heads need calibrating. Completed manually, capping stations replaced. Excellent all round. I have now upgraded my cover to cover two heads per year.
Can’t recommend AD Young enough, helpful supportive and on the ball, as you can tell I’m impressed. The machine now prints better than when it was new.
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proper job
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Thanks Chris, forget to say thanks for your input. He was on the ball and had spotted it before I mentioned it.
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Excellent news!! I’m glad you’ve got it sorted now. Hopefully you’ll be trouble free for some time to come now….
Stafford
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Thanks Stafford, in all firness with this machine, once in almost 7 years is good going. Can’t fault the Roland purely on that.
Thanks for your advice.
jason
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