Replacing a print head – help required please?

[Stafford Cox]

Hi Mark. They’re actually not that expensive compared to other machines. Plus, think about the sort of money those printheads have made you over the past x amount of time.

The printheads aren’t actually that difficult to replace really, it’s just getting the calibrations set correctly that can be a pain. Although having said that, they’re a lot easier on a Roland / Uniform than they are on Mimaki printers of a similar age. The single most important thing to remember when taking the risk of doing it yourself is MAKE SURE YOU DISCHARGE THE PRINTER BEFORE DISCONNECTING ANYTHING!!! Otherwise, you do run the risk of making the job a LOT more expensive. It can and does happen.

Best of luck
Stafford

[Mark A Brown]

Thank you Stafford for you help.

Whats all this HEAD RANK number thing all about. The flex cable goes to the head so it should know which head is what. Or am I missing something.

I have a PDF engineers manual for my machine and reading it carefully, it makes it sound more harder than it should be, like pumping ink from the lines I must be reading it up side down lol

[Stafford Cox]

Each head has a unique head ID/rank. I’m unsure of the exact reason for it to be perfectly honest, some say it’s to do with fine tuning voltages supplied to the head so they fire at the correct time, I’m not so sure as I once bought a load of IDless heads and they all worked beautifully!!

Anyway, ID’s aren’t the most important thing to remember. Discharging the printer is!!

[Mark A Brown]

Stafford,

How much are your heads?

[Stafford Cox]

We only sell genuine parts and buy all of our heads from Roland UK and sell at Roland list price. Currently they’re around £740 + VAT each.

[Mark A Brown]

aren’t Roland heads still Epson not Roland. What did I buy the other year for £460 from Digiprint Supplies?

[Stafford Cox]

quote Mark A Brown:

aren’t Roland heads still Epson not Roland. What did I buy the other year for £460 from Digiprint Supplies?

I have no idea what you bought from Digiprint Supplies the other year 😀 , but I know they sell printheads a lot cheaper than we do. However, have you ever tried to return a faulty one to them?

The printheads are all made by Epson, these are DX4’s to be precise. However, I am led to believe there are different grades of DX printhead and I feel much happier using genuine Roland parts from Roland. Digi do some cracking deals and I have / still do use them for some parts, but wherever I can, I use genuine Roland / Mimaki / Mutoh.

[Mark A Brown]

for £300 less, I think I’ll take the chance seeing it is the same head made by Epson as Roland use in there machines.

[Stafford Cox]

I wasn’t suggesting you shouldn’t, and I certainly wasn’t suggesting you buy from me as I’d get thrown off the forum for such behaviour 😀 .

Digiprint generally give a very good service and the prices make it very difficult not to use them.

[Chris Wool]

Listening to what you have to say or ask I would recommend you call a engineer in as I have a feeling it could cost you a lot more.

[Kevin Flowers]

quote Stafford Cox:

quote Mark A Brown:

aren’t Roland heads still Epson not Roland. What did I buy the other year for £460 from Digiprint Supplies?

I have no idea what you bought from Digiprint Supplies the other year 😀 , but I know they sell printheads a lot cheaper than we do. However, have you ever tried to return a faulty one to them?

Staffford
i have used Digi Print alot over the years and did have a dodgy head from them, upon complaining about it a new one was sent out and i returned the other one to them i will say this was within a very short period of time from purchase

I would get engineer in then watch and learn then if its a job you need to do again you will hopefully have a better idea. You can cause a lot more damage if you get it wrong with some circuit boards in the region of £1000

Kev

[Mark A Brown]

Hey, I never had to replace the head after all. I bought a new set up cap tops. and dampers and this gizmo to flush fluid through the head, its a large damper with a syringe attached to it. all nozzle firing now and no deflection either. had a feeling the head was still ok. pheeeew that 500 quid saved

[Kevin Flowers]

Glad you got it sorted, word of caution never get any liquid on the head circuits iit will blow the head straight off and maybe the board. Perhaps post a pic of the tool you purchased to remedy the problem.

Kev

[Stafford Cox]

quote Kevin Flowers:

Staffford
i have used Digi Print alot over the years and did have a dodgy head from them, upon complaining about it a new one was sent out and i returned the other one to them i will say this was within a very short period of time from purchase

Kev

Hi Kev. I just reread this post and it sounds like I’m having a pop at Digi. That’s certainly not how it was meant to come across. If I did want to have a moan about them, I’d do it directly with them 😀

I’m glad you got it sorted Mark, I hope it lasts you many years to dome.

Stafford

[Mark A Brown]

Hi Kev,

This is the link to the item I used to clean the head through.

http://www.digiprint-supplies.com/dx4-h … g-kit.html

Mark

[Mark A Brown]

Thanks Stafford