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Half of magenta print head not firing?
Afternoon all,
So after the last time you lot helped me out with my roland I’m back again!
I noticed this morning my reds were more "orange" than red so i stopped the print and ran a test print, Most of one half was not firing, so i investigated a little further and the drain tube was blocked causing a buildup.
So I cleared the drain tube and did a quick head soak to clear any blockage, it drains properly but now fires worse, a full half of the test pattern for magenta is missing (bar one nozzle)
I thought perhaps the cartridge was empty and it had not flagged up so i changed it but still nothing!, could there be air in the lines, there does seem to be ink getting there.
Thanks
Graham -
11 Replies
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Hi Graham,
Excuse me asking a stupid question but have you tried a couple of deep head cleans?
Andy
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I have tried a few medium cleans as well as a couple of deep cleans, if anything it seemed to get worse each time.
Strange as one half is perfect and the other is missing!
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Sounds like an air leak at the cartridge, had this before on my Roland.
Regards
Russell.
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I’ve had this mate.
Check your ink levels. I’d bet that you are showing a magenta that is showing one little bit of ink left on the screen.
What I’ve found is that sometimes the ink is out but doesn’t show up. Try changing out the lowest magenta with a new cartridge.
It’s something to do with the sensors on the ink cartridges sometimes being faulty.
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Both cartridges are almost full, one was replaced on friday and the other yesterday.
I put the head in soak overnight which helped a tiny amount, a few nozzles fired, faintly.
Im going to assume the buildup from the blockage has really clogged them and will need to try another few soaks.
Although a light magenta ran out mid way through a cleaning cycle earlier and i don’t have a replacement so it will have to wait until tomorrow at least..doh!
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I suggest fitting a new magenta damper. Also clean the capping station and check it’s making a good seal against the head. All else fails, replace the plastic headcap manifold (it contains a final stage very fine filter that can get blocked or restricted).
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Well i manged to get that half of the print head going eventually.
Now the other half has gone and done the same thing! And every time i clean it and get it going again it just fails and stops firing a few minutes into a print.
any ideas? roland are next to useless.
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You don’t mention which printer you have, but the fundamental problem will be the same whichever machine you have. I would be very surprised if it were anything to do with the damper – if that were faulty you would normally get the ink through but it would keep dropping out. (now I’ve said that it will be the damper 😳 !)
What I would suggest is the cause is that there is no vacuum when the pump is cleaning. This is normally because of one or more of the below:
1) Faulty pump/split pump pipe. There are two types of pump that Roland use. The old type have two sets of white tubing. The new type of pump has black tubing. The old pumps fail much more regularly than the new. You can usually see if the pump has failed as there is ink visible in the pump mechanism.
2) Faulty cap top. There is a valve on the cap top that can fail and all you pump will do is pull through fresh air on the faulty cap top.
3) Misalignment. The heads are not quire in the correct position to give a good seal and heads cleans do not have the required suction to pull it through.
It’s pretty basic plumbing in reality.
So to fix it:
1). Visibly examine the pump – have you got the old type or the new ?
If it is the old type swap the pipe that goes to the magenta head with another one and do a powerful clean – is the magenta now working ? If so the pump is at fault and needs replacing. You can use the new type of pump ( £70) but you will need an adapter kit for it (from £20 depending on model).2) Get a syringe (decent size) from your local drug dealer and connect to the pipe coming from the cap top. Gently, but firmly try to pull the ink through – is it coming through or is there no pressure and you are just pulling air through. Then the fault is point 2 or 3. Trying pushing the head a little to the right or left – does the ink come through now ?If so you need to re-align the head to the capping station. The procedure for this is different depending on the machine.
3) Replace cap top (£33)
It could also be a failed seal on the print head, or the whole head may have ruptured but you will need an engineer for that and it is pretty rare.
Hope this helps.
Mike
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My problem after cleaning was that the drain tube was empty so it was not getting any "suction", filling it with cleaning fluid so it had something to suck on did the trick.
I do seem to be having to keep an eye on it though as nozzle seem to regularly dry up, which does suggest a seal is at fault somewhere?
Ive noticed the head carrier indeed does not line up correctly with the capping station though. how do i adjust this? It’s an XC-540 by the way.
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Hi Graham
I had the exact same problem on my VP540. Half the magenta wouldn’t fire, and it got worse after each clean. It turned out to be a faulty cap top – stopping the ink being drawn through when cleaning. Replaced the cap, and problem solved!
Cheers
Q -
It’s not quite the same on mine, it tends to be fine from day to day, a few nozzles will dry up if left a few days unused though that’s no big problem.
Main problem is that during a large run half of it will just stop until cleaned again.
I will need to see about replacing the cap top though if anybody knows how to set the alignment for the capping station it would be most appreciated?
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