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Help please.. Mutoh ValueJet 1304 problems printing
Hello, please please can someone help me?
I have a Mutoh ValueJet 1304 which I have owned from new since October last year. It is used at least every other day and tonight in between jobs it has started playing up on me.
It was working fine earlier this evening and producing perfect results, however, I loaded a new roll of vinyl onto the printer, did a nozzle check as per usual to make sure that everything was good and noticed that a couple of large drops of ink had been splattered onto the vinyl. Thinking nothing of it I did a quick clean of the wipers and the seal around the capping station. Only one big problem, now everythig I print is contaminated with black lines, as you can see in the print below:
I’ve tried numerous times to clean the print head, all with no luck. And now when I do a nozzle check there are faint black lines appearing within the different colours.
I am lost as to what is wrong. I don’t know but I am worried that the capping station might be blocked up as I have just noticed that no ink is draining into the waste fluid tank when i do a head clean. But I don’t understand how it can print perfectly all night and then suddenly decide to block. I could be totally wrong, but do you think this could be the cause?
I’m obviously a little concerned about this as I have a number of my biggest jobs to date that need to be completed by the end of this week.
I would be very very grateful for any advice that you might be able to give me?
Many thanks,
(a sad and tired) Oliver.
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4 Replies
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If the capping station is blocked you may have some waste ink sucking back into your heads. I would try the following…
– First things first, check the image you are printing has been pre-flighted correctly and does not contain a blend that is going to cause issues for your RIP. From the photo you have posted, maybe im wrong, but it looks more to me like a RIP rendering problem?? But it could be hard to see from this end, perhaps rasterise the image and try re-printing it just to be sure, if not, try below.
– Check the head themselves (under) and clean gently with a lint free wipe and some suitable solvent to ensure nothing is blocked or gooey underneath
– Double check there is no crap on your edge protectors for the media, static wipers on the head or other spots that you may not have looked where the head passes over. These can sometimes gather fine threads or other waste and wipe it over the head on each pass. The problem with this is it doesnt matter how often you clean your heads or capping station, it will always contaminate your heads if your not looking in the right place for the problem.
– Clear the blockage in your capping station and ensure your waste bottle is not full. This may also include problems with pumps etc. But unless your machine is making odd noises in your cleaning cycle, this is not likely the case. But definitely check out if your waste lines are blocked.
– If the above is all clear, I would print an image of 20,20,20,20 (CMYK) with a confidence bar along the side and it should clear out any waste ink that may have been sucked back into the head by mistake. You should be able to see the strips in the confidence bar and once they are gone you can stop the print.I doesnt sound like a major problem to me, but let us know once you have solved the problem, I would be keen to know how it was resolved.
Hope that helps.
Cheers.
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Hi Pauly, Many thanks for your reply.
The image I’m printing is the exact same image that was printing 100% perfectly before I changed the roll of vinyl. I’ve just checked the heads again and given them a wipe, there’s nothing obviously worng there. The other areas that the head passes across are all clean too.
Do you have any suggestions as to how I should be clearing the blockage in the capping station? The more I think about it, the more I think that this is where my problem lies! The main waste lines appear to be clear, are there any hidden inside the machine that I should check?
Many many thanks for you help, fingers crossed I’ll be able to get this sorted.
Cheers, Oliver.
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I’m not sure about the lines to be honest, but it is generally fairly straight forward I believe. And they dont often block, especially on a machine thats has been used regularly. Could be a pump problem?
I would definitely be printing that band of colour as discussed in case there is a bit of waste ink that’s been sucked back into your lines. Printing should push it out if this is the case, but that said, it should be leaving fairly promptly if your cleaning system is purging properly??
If you have only had the machine for a short while (oct 08?), bite the bullet and call a tech,it will still be under warranty by the sound of it, chances are someone with technical experience could sort this out over the phone anyway???
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Oliver
Did you ever get your problem solved? We have the exact same problem too. I’m almost certain it is a faulty pump but are curious if your situation was solved by replacing it.
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