can anyone tell me why my jv3 wont print any ink?

[David Rowland]

hi, on the JV3, if ink will not come into the heads from the ink cartridge then it needs assistance. There is a "Fill Up ink" menu item which forces the machine to suck ink through the head from the carts, alternativly you attach a syring to the pumping part (under the print head area normally) and suck the ink through the tubes and print head. Kinda kick starting the ink but be gentle.

Cant speak about jv2 im afraid but the JV3 is bladder driven like hospital bladder for blood, based on gravity feed and suction.

[wesley]

hi again,

thanks fot the syringe trick, but unfortunately it still dosn’t work 🙁

the only thing i can narrow it down to now is the nozzles, the only problem i have there is i have taken them out but theres no part numbers on them. If anyone knows what these are or can let e know of some compatable ones that would be so much appreciated.

Thanks again mate for your help so far.

[wesley]

right when i try to do the syringe thingy, the ink just gets sucked back into the cartridge so the pipes still remain empty.

any sugestions

[Adam McGuire]

That sounds like the ink that is being drawn down the tubes by your syringe isn’t being replaced by air in the ink tank….Is there some kind of bleed system? I know some older HP plotters had a hand pump to prime the heads.

Not much help I’m afraid!

Adam

[wesley]

no there is’t a bledding system not that i can see anyways, does sound like the ink isn’t being replaced by air. cant see what i need to do

[Shane Drew]

quote wesley:

no there is’t a bleeding system not that i can see anyways, does sound like the ink isn’t being replaced by air. cant see what i need to do

In all seriousness, I’d suggest you call a technician. You could be looking at perished seals which will let air in. Heaps of opportunity for failure not being used for 2 years.

Bite the bullet and give a technician a call. Short term pain in the hip pocket, but long term gain for ones sanity 😕

[wesley]

its not has simple has that, i seriously cant afford to pay for one, like i said im a student, the average wage for a student working part time isn’t enough to cover the costs for a technician, it cant be a serious problem surely, everything works fine except no ink going through the nozzles, theres a cartridge at one end which i just bought (brand new) replaced all six, then theres some pipes leading to the the head, tbh theres more complications on building a pc than there seems to be on this printer, and thats straight forward.

[David Rowland]

again, I dont know the design of that Mimaki, but the JV3 is simple, the pipes come off the carts and then goes into a damper where they placed on top of the print heads. If ink goes back to the cartridges then there is air getting in the pipes through the seal or the cartridge seal. Under the capping station is a series of pumps that suck the ink thru as needed and the peizo’s in the print head squirt the ink to the print surface, so it works like a bladder.

If ink goes backwards, then air is replacing ink in the tubes, its coming in from somewhere, also when u syring it u hear a gash of leaking air, you will hear some anyway, just there be some more.

[wesley]

thanks for that, sounds like the jv2 and jv3 are very similar on the concepts of how they work, works exactly has u discribed anyways.

[wesley]

inkis not getting back in untill i take the syringe off, the second i do the ink sucks its way back down into the cartridges

[David Rowland]

is this in all the carts? and are you taking the ink all the way to the carts… if we unscrew the pipe connected to the damper, the ink starts making its way back to the cartridge and you have to be quick when changing dampers… the damper somehow stops the flowback of the ink once full.

[wesley]

thanks again mate for the help.

yeah its in all the carts i get the same proble, i was doing it further up the pipe, not where the damper joins, i will try it this way, i think thesuppliesshop.co.uk have the print head kit anyways incase this needs replacing.

cheers again everyone

[wesley]

hello again,

still no joy, i have been in touch with a company, but there not familier with the mimaki printers, he can supply me with the print heads that are the same has the epson 9000, but where both not sure if the print heads are near the nozzles, he seems to think the carts sit in the print heads, but i was thinking the print heads are what the dampers sit in. has the jv3 is similar in build i was just wondering if someone could help please.

regards

[wesley]

got my new print heads to day and all prints fine, well at least it did for 10 mins, now i get a problem where it shunts when it goes into the capping assy and makes a error "err 41 motor", which normally would mean the cover is not closed, has the cover is closed it cant be that, also i moved the print heads to the middle of the printer, switched it back on with the cover open, if i pressed enter it reported the lid has been open, i then shut the lid and pressed enter, the heads then returned to thecappling assy and shunted again.

does anyone have any idea what this error means?????

[David Rowland]

is the capping assembly in good line with the print heads?

What I mean is a JV3 will run the head down to the capping station which then pushes the capping to seal to the heads, however if the head doesn’t move freely then it will error with capping station problems.

I going to send you a PM a mo… you can read it at the top of this forum.