why do i have blocks of colour missing on test print?

[David Rowland]

sounds random

1: Cables pushed all the way home above the heads
2: Did you get any ink/fluids on the print circuit board?
3: O-ring nuts on the damper into the head sufficiently tight?

Sorry for being vague, im struggling with your explanation

1: We are talking ONLY the black here dropping out?
2: Is it always the same blocks?
3: So if you ran a print, the first 30cm of print would be missing and the rest prints?

[Kevin Flowers]

Hi
don’t know the history of the machine but could be a dirty encoder strip or a broken ribbon cable

Kev

[Martin Williams]

hi,
machine is 14 months old had new pump 4 new heads new mainboard & slider board about 4 months ago installed by hybrid.
i have double checked ribbon cables and tried 8 new ones with same effect Not sure what the encoder strip is. put all new dampers on too. if it was an o ring wouldn’t all the test prints be the same.
martin

[Peter Normington]

what happened to the 2year warranty that hybrid give?

Peter

[David Rowland]

well u seem to know what your doing….
its a process of elimination…
the encoder strip is that clear strip behind the print head that the light reads, if its dirty the printer will not be correct in alignment. But it doesn’t sound like that, more to do with something not tight or little loose.

You just said you replaced the head, which means you have to take the cables off, so I presuming that.

[Karl Williams]

Martin,
Stop panicking mate. Like Peter says, It’s in warranty so get someone out.
Or have you done something to void it?

[Karl Williams]

Sounds to me like the damper’s empty.

[Martin Williams]

hi,
i’m now using bulk inks as i had a big fallout with hybrid when they left me down for 3 weeks with the engineer leaving the machine a week without power that resulted in new print heads
martin

[Martin Williams]

hi,
i’ve been down a week now waiting for a print head to arrive and used nearly a roll of vinyl in test prints and today decided to move the test print over to the left in not to waste more vinyl and every test print i do between 300mm-1370mm is perfect then i do one in 1st 30cm and i might get left black not fire on next the right black and perhaps half of the magenta,the next could be a chunk out of the black some out of the magenta and a block of yellow out,i move over to the left again and perfect. its like something is telling it not to print properly on the first 30cm

[Jeffrey Wons]

OK, Here it comes,

If you have sections of a given printhead that aren’t firing, they are either clogged or damaged, period….. Damage to the actual sensitive under side can happen while someone is handling it or while in transit. Any type of head strike can take out a few nozzles permanently. Head cleanings with only wash the ink through the damaged channels that were bent upon earlier contact at some point.

From your initial post, it sounds like that.

Compensation is always an optional to achieve the end result. Actually each of our printers is in our own custom area with environmental dynamics constantly at play. If that means changing things around, that may be the only option until a solution is provided. And your new adjustments may be a part of the configuration which is what color printing comes down to anyway. ICC profiles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Each Color Printing System has its own Differences……

Jeff Wons
USA

[Bill McMurtry]

Hi Martin, sounds like you have a very strange problem. From what I gather, test prints are showing nozzles out in the first 30cm from origin but show all nozzles firing beyond that point and up to maximum print width. Very odd.

I suggest you could switch off the machine, take off the plastic carriage cover (2 screws), and manually slide the carriage out and along the platen while observing if any cables, ink lines, dampers, etc., move while the carriage slides. It could be that the cables are moving around and failing as the carriage moves beyond a certain point. I assume this has only been a problem since the new printheads were fitted, or does it also have anything to do with changes made when installing the bulk ink system?

[Martin Williams]

Hi Bill,
We have been running for a good few months on bulk inks with no problems. The problem must have started before we changed the printhead as we were only doing the test print on the 1st 30cm and that was showing nozzles out and didn’t change very much when the new printhead was installed. It wasn’t till much later we moved the test print over to the left to save on vinyl and discovered it printed perfectly.
We had the heads on and off that many times we ended up changing the dampers, o rings, print head ribbon cables, 1 head and even tried a new printhead adaptor. We swapped the printhead positions around and back again and nothing worked. In the end we got to complacent when putting the head carriage back on and blew the mainboard.
We have an engineer coming tomorrow with a new main board so will be very interesting to see if we still have the same problem.

[Bill McMurtry]

Sounds like you’re having a bad run with it mate. I would also ask the tech to test the long flat ribbon cable that runs through the plastic guide chain with the ink lines.

[Martin Williams]

Hi Bill,
Had a nightmare few weeks but discovered the insurance policy we thought had ended was still running so we are insured.
New board has sorted it out tech had come across it once before and said was something gone on mainboard. Just got 3 heads with a few jets out on each which will hopefully clear with a bit of running.
Are you still happy with the jetbest inks you are using. I emailed Vivi last night mentioned your name (you must be on free ink for life by now from them) i was very impressed with prices of ink and parts and thinking of giving them a go when up and running properly again.

[Bill McMurtry]

Hi Martin, good to hear you have your machine sorted.

Yes, still very happy with my Jetbest ink setup – haven’t had any problems with it whatsoever. I’m close to ordering another 12 litres. Thanks for mentioning my name to Vivi. While Jetbest keep supplying such great ink and excellent customer service I’m happy to pass on my recommendations and praise to anyone. As for getting ink for free, I have the next best thing! I’m more than happy paying such a comparatively low price for their faultless product 😀

[Berkay]

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