Changing an SP300 print head, Advice needed please?

[Myriam Garrido]

They’re not too difficult Steve. Just be methodical and patient. The alignment is more of a pain than than fitting the head itself especially poking about between cables on the head fixing screws !

There’s a process of releasing the screws slightly to make adjustments and then re tightening them again.

Be mindful when fitting a new damper ensuring it’s fits squarely onto the manifold spike since these are delicate and can break easily.

Several videos around on youtube etc.
I hope this is of some help

[Joe Killeen]

Hi Steve
I have changed a good few not too hard, just take your time.
I might still have some manuals on it, if I find them I will post here.
Joe

[Steve Morgan]

Thanks for the advice, I’ve been given a manual for the machine so I’ll take a look in a couple of days. I’ve no need to hurry

Steve

[Steve Morgan]

Thanks everyone for the advice, after a bit of messing around recently one of the heads has virtually failed completely so It’ll have to be changed. First task is therefore is to buy a new one, I think I want a genuine part and wipers etc at the same time. Can anyone recommend a reliable supplier in the UK please?

Thanks

[Kevin Mahoney]

Josero are a good reliable outfit

[Steve Morgan]

Thanks, the best I’ve found so far is in Germany and the cost, €550, suggests that it isn’t genuine.

[Kevin Mahoney]

Genuine Roland from Josero, about £500 if I remember correctly

[Steve Morgan]

Thanks for the replies. Longish story cut shorter; I’ve resolved the original issue but now have what I am reliably informed is a capping problem to resolve. Someone has kindly sent me the engineers manual for my machine and it doesn’t look like a particularly awkward job to replace the caps although at first look I haven’t seen how to perform the ‘cap height adjustment’. I’m sure someone will have done this replacement – is it tricky?

Thanks in advance

Steve

[Kevin Mahoney]

Really simple fix, but take care when releasing the cap clips, there are two pen springs in there for tensioning the cap. They nearly always end up going down the hole in the centre of the capping station & takes bloody ages to fish them out again. Lift them out really slowly & don’t drop the springs! You will need the tube tool to wind the caps down in order to move the heads to the side

[David Rogers]

These are DX4 heads aren’t they?

Pretty sturdy although a pain to get cleared out and firing right.

If it’s not totally shot think about doing an extended manual soak and flush with flush solvent.

Amazing what you can resurrect for £70-£80 from digiprint supplies".

[Steve Morgan]

Thanks David and everyone, I gave the head a bit of a soaking session over a couple of days and I was quite surprised that it went from virtually completely blocked to practically clear, another overnight soak should resolve that, I’ve just got to change the caps and wipers now and all should be perfect again – I hope.

I had thought to get my old Roland engineer in to do the work and give the machine a once over at the same time but despite his offer to do the work with me free issuing the parts his secretary seems to have now declined that on the basis that I might not be getting genuine Roland spares – he must have plenty of work.

Steve

[Steve Morgan]

Just an update, thanks for the help again. I’ve now changed caps and wipers and all is nearly working perfectly. Just one little niggle is the black head which whilst firing all over, the test print shows a lot of deflection, so I’ll do another head soak. I’m not convinced that my head soak the other day was done correctly can someone explain the best sequence of operations for me please?

Thanks, Steve

[David Rogers]

Head soaks can be done by filling up the capping stations if you can pinch the drain pipes and do a manual wind down / wind up.

Alternatively, for the brave / stupid…push the carriage to the maintenance area, pull off the offending dampers and using an IMMACULATELY clean syringe and solvent resistant tubing (with damper ideally), first gently push out the remaining ink using air then push clean flush / cleaning solvent into the head VERY SLOWLY until it runs clear…more braveness and you can increase the pressure to give a spray pattern and see blocks and deflections…therein lies the risk if you over pressurise. Also pulling BACK up can lift any particles …but you’ll need another set of tubing and syringes to not cross contaminate.

All VERY slow and gentle.

[Steve Morgan]

Thanks David, I think I’ll go with the manual wind up and down, I’m not brave, and stupid? well I don’t agree with my wife :smiles:

[Steve Morgan]

This, I think, is the final update on my need for help. The machine is now working quite well although a head soak repeat failed to change the many deflections on the black head, however having printed a couple of picture tests and a small sign the difference isn’t really apparent. I’m going to leave it as it is now.

I used Josero as recommended for the parts and I was very impressed with their service.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

Steve