-
Nozzles Drying up over night
Hi Everyone.
Im basically looking for a bit of suggestions as to how to handle a problem that i am having with my machine.
I have an HP8000s.
For the past month or 2 we have been having the problem of nozzles missing after longer periods of not printing.
For instance, we would stop printing at about 3 pm Friday do all our maintenance for the weekend and leave it sat and sun. Come in on Monday morning, do a nozzle check and find sometime all nozzles completely missing. After strong PH recoveries we would sometimes get it up and running. On one occasion the head was completely blocked and we had to call a technician out which is also a problem because all back up support is 400km away in South Africa.
The tech came and had to put a cloth in a special acetone type liquid to recover the head. This worked and we put it down to a bad batch of inks which i never believed.After purchasing humidifiers and hygrometers and thermometers as we thought it could be humidity.
I have still been having the problem and we have taken it up with the supplier. Subsequently on wed last week we replaced the capping station. Thinking that it may not be capping properly. On Thursday morning all nozzles were fine, On Friday morning all was fine still. On Sat all was fine. Printed a 5mt PVC on sat did my maintenance. I have come in this morning. And i had all nozzles missing again!!!!! After 1 normal and 2 Strong recoveries they are back now.
This has really become irritating now as i am wasting a lot more ink than i should be. My supplier says that they have not had this problem before with this type of machine and they have come to a bit of a blank. I spoke to management this morning and they have said that they are busy discussing what to do next. I was worried about one thing that i noticed on the capping station which looked a bit bent so i ended up being put through to a technician. This guy is a bit of an arrogant idiot. I explained my concern and he pretty much ruled it out. He wanted to find out my humidity and my temperature which i told him was 40% and 20.9 degrees.
he then said maybe it the viscosity of the ink because 20.9 is a bit low. Now this is where i get very irritated. recommended is between 15 and 25 now he is saying because im 4 degrees down its a problem.
To me this is a load of rubbish because if the ink is that sensitive then it is crap ink as far as i am concerned.
What do you think i should do about this problem. because it is really getting me down i cannot live with this machine with this problem happening every day or every second day.
Sorry for thee long post but this was the best i could explain it.
-
27 Replies
-
i dont have a HP but this is one of the reasons why I got annoyed with Maintenance helplines, when you get that cut off feeling and they not really helping you out and you end up becoming engineers yourself.
What you described above sounds like an air leak (between capping and heads (dirt)) or pipes down into the damper ink filter. After your headclean you seem to be able to operate but ink should not go back in idle time. Then again, I guess your machine is pumping every 30minutes or so when idle?
I dont have HP but JV3
-
it is supposed to do automatic cleans but it i dont hear it every 30 mins though.
Can you explain dampers to me?
Also what kind of range of temp and humidity are you running at
-
the machine is still under warrantee as well. So i have claim on head and all parts. Thats why i want to get them to replace as much as needed if you know what i mean.
I also think it is air leaking somewhere. Im not tot sure what dampers are really. IM also not too sure if my machine has dampers
-
Sounds like the heads aren’t being capped correctly. Or the there’s something wrong with the auto-clean function? Dampers are the ink filters/reservoir’s connected between ink lines and head. Are you running a full solvent ink?
-
yes it is HP mild solvent equivalent to mimaki inks i would say.
-
in one word capping station, i could be wrong but don’t think so
regards
alan flynn -
quote alan flynn:in one word capping stationThat’s two words Alan. 😀
-
but we have put a new capping station in???
-
hello all
sorry john, you are correct, English has never been my strong point
dane have you alined it correctly
regards
Alan Flynn -
the tech says it is lined up fine??? im not too sure how to do it. I was just wondering how often do these machines do automatic cleans. Because i have never heard the machine do a clean when in standby. Do you hear the pumps at certain intervals or what.
It could be that it is not doing auto head cleans??
Unfortunately i cannot see the back of the heads so i dont know if the carriage is lined perfectly. It could have an air gap at the back??
-
hi dave do you hear your machine pumping every 30mins. because i have never heard mine.
The tech says that it only does auto clean 8 hours after the last print is this true
-
jv3 is designed to wake up every 30minutes for 1 minute of pumping…
im sure another user knows what to do, or alan might -
My JV3 automatically wakes up around every 1 hour and does about a 10 second spit and pump. That’s different to the proper auto-clean cycle though, which can be set to 4, 8, 12 hourly, or once a day. I set mine to a 12 hour cycle.
If the capping station is setup correctly (and the pumps are working) then it could be that auto-clean isn’t functioning properly. I’m surprised you need to sort this out yourself when you have a payed technician to do it for you and the unit is still under warranty.
-
the problem is the only technical support is 400km away in south africa.
For instance i printed yesterday at about 5:00pm left it last night minimum temperature over night went down to 20.5 degrees C got in this morning and i had all nozzles on all colours missing.
my suppliers are on their way this morning
-
what im really looking to find out is.
If the tech says there is nothing he can do and i must just live with it. I want to know is this something that i must accept. And just live with. Or must i say to them that this machine is a dud so to say and they must replace it completely.
I dont know what recourse i have on the HP. I dont feel that this is something that i must just accept and live with.
-
The technician says you have to live with ink dried in the heads? That surely isn’t right. If he says there’s nothing wrong with the printer then why did he replace the capping station in an effort to fix it?
Something doesn’t sound right. Are you leaving the printer connected to power while it’s left unattended over the weekends? Or are you switching it off at the wall when it’s not in use?
-
Hi Dane,
I’ve been watching this thread with interest .. and have been wondering all along whether the cleaning/flushing cycle can be turned off or altered from the front panel .. via the menu perhaps.
I downloaded a manual, and found this …
quote :WARNING! The printer has an internal clock which allows it to automatically wash the
printheads, flushing some ink through the printheads, which keeps the printheads in good
condition. The printer automatically washes the printheads regularly after the last printing
process. If the printer is switched Off for a long period, this process does not happen. If the ink
does not flow through the printheads from time to time, the ink will dry inside the nozzles, reaching
a point where it is impossible to recover them and the printheads will fail. This will mean an
expensive printhead replacement.
Automatic maintenance and cleaning will not be performed if you turn off the printer on the front
panel or leave it without media loaded.
The printer power switch on the rear of the printer should
only be used when the printer is turned off to move it, to connect it to a computer, or to install or
maintain printer parts.So according to that .. it cant be turned off at the front … and some media needs to remain loaded … for it to go through the process.
Couldn’t find any reference as to how often it is supposed to happen though.
Hopefully your maintainence man will have sorted things out by now anyway.
Regards, Roger
-
nice find roger… the jv3 can be turned off on the front but wakes… the real power can never be turned off
-
thanks for your help guys.
The maintenance guy has just left.
He has reseated the print heads just in case and also realigned the capping stations just to be sure.
At the moment the printer is in a room which has two external walls in it. He thinks that my temperature is fluctuating too much. Overnight the temp goes down to between 19 & 20 and during the day up to about 24 – 27 inside the room. I have a digital thermometer and these are the readings i have been getting.
He thinks that due to these temperature changes my viscosity of the ink is changing all the time hence when i come in in the morning my nozzles are drying up. I do hear his point and i am going to make all the changes necessary to solve it. The inks and the head are located about 1mt away form the external wall. Also this wall does get afternoon sun. Then at night it gets cold. Although there is a aircon it may not be keeping as level as it should. We are going to get a new aircon that can be automatic where if the heater needs to come on then it does automatically. this will hopefully keep a very stable temperature. We are also going to insulate the walls with calite.
In some ways i can see his sense but in others i disagree. The manual says that operating temperature must be between 15 and 30 degrees which i have been. So im saying in my mind i am doing things to the manual recommendation but maybe the fluctuation of 6 degrees in the space of 24 hours does change the ink viscosity????
But then again does ink viscosity clog up the heads?? Surely not./ Surely it is air that drys up the heads. or high temperature.
I have asked him about the auto ink spits as you may call it and he says not way the machine does a auto maintenance 8 hours after the last print and i would never be here at that time.
BUt still i have never heard the machine pump automatically. And according to the manual it says it does regular ink spits??
I think i want to call HP support in the States and ask them.
I really want to get to the bottom of this.
-
by the way my printer is always on and it always has media loaded. as per manufacturers recommendation.
-
Hi Dane,
All sounds a little hard to believe .. that the machine is so fussy … but check out this page … you are not alone.
http://h41186.www4.hp.com/country/us/en … seq=639449
Hopefully you should find some answers in there, or at least help you make up your mind about the aircon set up.
Even more info here ..
http://kujoa.de/HP%20Designjet%208000s.html
Good luck. 😀
Regards, Roger
-
quote DaneRead:He thinks that my temperature is fluctuating too much. Overnight the temp goes down to between 19 & 20 and during the day up to about 24 – 27 inside the room.
That’s bullshit. A printer that can’t live with a ten degree range is next to useless.
We make no special provision for our JV3, and that’s next to an outside wall too, and never get any problems such as you describe.
-
Hey Roger, from what I read on those forums I wouldn’t touch one of those printers with a 10ft pole. Sorry DaneRead 😕
John, my JV3 is the same. Temperature changes effecting media maybe, but never the printer.
-
You’re right Bill, looks like the only way you could get any value out of one is to run it 7 days a week .. and have shares in the consumables supplies 🙂
Too bad if your work slows down, or you take a long weekend!
-
hi everyone
i have put a new aircon in to regulate the temperature.
I am also moving the ink area on the machine away from an outside wall.
He did adjust the carriage alignment so maybe that will also help.
I have had it for 2 days now and i havent had any nozzles out. will have to see what happens this weekend.
-
well done also looks like the HP has some design faults
i know of one other member who has i think a seiko which uses HP heads, this was posted here and he ended up with tempreture related problems.
After reading the website, I was unaware of the HP head ‘warming up’ before printing, this is not the case in an Epson head so this maybe the difference. -
hi everyone
just to give you an update.
Since the tech came i have no had a problem with the heads drying up. He did make some adjustments to the capping station and said that i must try and keep my temp more constant.
I took thier advice and installed a new aircon that keeps the temp above 20 at night.
I think that i also have come to the bottom of the problem.
I was coming in every morning and immediately doing a nozzle test print. This is where i think i was going wrong. I was not even trying to print a job. As i always thought i must check the nozzles first. What i have now been doing is just sending my first job straight away.
Before the first print every morning the machine does a normal PH recovery this i think clears up the nozzles before printing as there has been old ink sitting in the head the whole night.
What i was doing by printing a nozzle test i was warming the print head then it tried to do the nozzle check. This was drying up the old ink in the head before printing and so subsequently the nozzles where drying up. Instead you should do a normal clean before printing every morning this will put new fresh ink into the head and printing the whole day as normal.
I have had no more problems and the machine is printing great.
Its amazing that the the tech did not think of this and also that because the head warms up it can cause such a problem with old ink in the head.
I cannot think of any other reason than this.
Im just so happy that i am printing as normal now.
Log in to reply.