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Symptoms of a duff printhead?
Our trusty OKI has suddenly sprung a problem. Speaking to an engineer today over the phone they’ve suggested it’s the printhead.
I had a printhead fail on our Epson, when it went, no amount of cleaning, priming would help. Where the OKI is intermittent.
Printing a full roll yesterday, about 10m in, the magenta drops out.
Cancel the job, do a nozzle test and theres almost no nozzles firing, check the ink and theres plenty in the bag.
Perform a clean, and all come back. Continue printing, and alls ok. Then again it drops out, same again.
Been similar today.
I remember having a similar issue in the past where if the bag wasnt fitted correctly it would do the same thing, reluctantly I’ve put a new ink in the machine.
I’m not convinced it is the head? Air getting into the system? Capping station not sealing fully?
Quite happy to get an engineer out, and check it over, but a bit dubious of replacing a head when it could be something simple.
Any one experienced similar?
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6 Replies
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Air leak on a damper seal or a cracked manifold spigot can cause this.
(Air getting in the back of the head)
Change the damper first and visually inspect the manifold…or give it a gentle wiggle and look for a crack at the base.
D
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Thought it would be something less serious.
The machines seems popular in the states, found a forum there where someone has the same issue. Sounds like an o ring, on the ink line to the head has perished and drawing air into the damper.
Will have a look tomorrow morning
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I’m surprised the engineer suggested it was the printhead straight away rather then go over the less expensive and more obvious options. Is he just a rubbish engineer or could he have had an ulterior motive I wonder?
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My thoughts exactly Phil, you’d at least come out prepared to swap a head, but go over the thing first. Not just turn round and say it’s the head.
Check the O ring, and tightened up the pipes to the heads, just priming the ink system now.
Did a test print knowing there was air in the system, and it had the same result we had yesterday.
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So then, after much commotion managed to get ink back through the line.
Few test prints done no issue, printed a few live jobs, no issue.
Still not received the quote from the engineer, so I could have been 1 day already without a machine.
Might change the caps as they’ve never been done, and wont harm it.
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Left the machine overnight, turned it on this morning and would you look at that.
Cost, some ink, and a few quid in the swear jar.
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