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Mimaki JV3 – Is it time to replace one of my printheads?
Hi all!
I’ve bees struggling for a while now with my cyan head. There are a few nozzles that often get clogged (about every 0,5 – 1 m of printing) and I have to do a head cleaning to get them all firing again. Also even after a 10 min head-wash the thin lines in the test print is kind of fuzzy and not as sharp as from the other heads. Is there any other solution than to replace the black/cyan head? Can it be caused by ink starvation? The machine is 3,5 yrs old and running Marabu bulk ink.
Thanks,
Niklas -
8 Replies
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Fuzzy print could indicate the pins are not firing straight. I had this with my black head last week. A new head fixed the problem.
Ink starvation would cause a more severe ‘miss’ in firing the heads, and would result from no ink, rather than a blocked pin or fuzzy printing.
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i’m guessing Marabu bulk ink is the ink in a bottle type and not the normal ‘bloody expensive’ cartridges. I’ve always been told never to stray away from the proper mimaki cartridges or the service contract would be seriously void. don’t know what your situiation is, but that’s what i was told by mimaki.
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Speak to your service guy about an ultrasonic clean on the heads, this is a fairly easy process and should work a treat if the head is not damaged and just blocked with crappy inks. It also sounds like a clean of the lines, new dampeners etc wouldn’t go astray either.
Good luck!
Cheers.
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quote lee smith:i’m guessing Marabu bulk ink is the ink in a bottle type and not the normal ‘bloody expensive’ cartridges. I’ve always been told never to stray away from the proper mimaki cartridges or the service contract would be seriously void. don’t know what your situiation is, but that’s what i was told by mimaki.
robert horne group have just given me a price of £75.00 per cartridge !
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actually i have the fuzzyness at the moment… however I also have random spraying from the head when it is not supposed to be printing, also is a head that had 2 weeks use, seems to be a bad one in my case.
Fuzzy can be linked with pumps, if you can test print and then test print after a fill up ink and the print looks better, then it is air/ink flow related. -
We had fuzziness on our Grenadier a couple of weeks ago – I don’t know if the Mimaki is the same but our problem was caused because we hadn’t changed the rubber wipers recently
…..so instead of wiping the head, it was causing an ink build up at the back of the heads which wasn’t obvious unless you looked from the rear of the machine
Replaced the rubber wipers & gave the heads a good manual clean with the swabs & all was fine again
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yep.. thats ink drying under it, blocking the holes… can be a annoying.
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Clean the wiper when you do routine cleanings on the printheads, capping station, brief disway wash, etc., etc…
Eventually all wipers begin to warp (perhaps 1-3 months depending on usage). That is when it needs to go. I wipe the actual wiper blade and the housing station it rests in when not being used.
I learned the hard way what can happen when the machine is not cleaned regularly. The print head carriage actually stuck to the capping station and jumped when enough current broke it loose. This caused a Y-motor error and the screws that hold the capping station in place (3) actually struck my yellow printhead permanently damaging it. I thought a head strike did this but later realized that it came from the collision of capping station & print head. This scenario occurred twice and cost me two printheads…..
Jeff
EA
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