XC-540 Head soak

[Russell Huffer]

You need the Roland tool to wind down the capping station, looks like a hollow bar with one end flatterned slightly.

Switch off power and clamp tubes going to waste bottle, there is a hole underneath the printer inline with capping station, the tool gos in here and allows you to unwind the capping station, once this is unwound you can move the head to one side manually.
I used to use solvent flush just stick a big syringe with a needle on into a solvent flush cartridge and draw out, fill up capping stations and return head to capping position, now wind up the capping station gently with the tool and leave overnight.

In the morning remove clamps and switch on.

Regards

Russell.

[Graham Dungavel]

Thanks for the quick reply Russell.

Where can I get the tool from and how much are they usually? Can something else not be used?

What do you use to clamp the lines? would large bulldog clips work?

Thanks again
Graham

[Shane Drew]

Graham, seems unusual that the heads would clog that badly in a weekend, especially eco inks.

Are you sure your pump lines aren’t blocked from the capping station, or to the waste?

I’ve had one of my machines for 5 years and I’ve never had to soak a head, let alone 2 heads.

If the heads still show a blockage, it could be the foam pad that wipes the head is too dirty

Hope that helps

[Graham Dungavel]

Yes i agree it does seem odd, perhaps something has got trapped and caused them not to seal correctly?

I don’t think there are blockages in the lines as there is still ink coming through, from a visual inspection there doesn’t seem to be.

the foam pad is quite dirty, however i am not sure when it was last changed, certainly not in the last 6 months? Is it possible they have picked up some crap from the pad which has caused a blockage?

[Shane Drew]

quote Graham Dungavel:

the foam pad is quite dirty, however i am not sure when it was last changed, certainly not in the last 6 months? Is it possible they have picked up some crap from the pad which has caused a blockage?

Change the pad and you may be surprised at the result.

I had a technician out the other day as I was concerned my black head needed changing as it was missing a lot of pins and was not printing very clean. The guy cleaned the heads with a cotton swab soaked in flushing fluid, changed the pad, and then ran a head clean, the results were amazing. the head came back to about 98%.

he reckons a pad should be changed every 6 months regardless of how dirty it is. Only about $10 so not expensive.

Its worth a try Graham.

[Graham Dungavel]

Alright thanks for the help.

I am waiting to hear from Roland’s tech support to see what they say.

I think the best bet here would be to soak the heads and change the pad then.

I will need to see about getting a hold of this tool off Roland then I suppose!

Graham

[Graham Dungavel]

The tool and cleaning fluid etc will be getting ordered up soon so i can give this a go.

Any recommendations on what to use to clamp the drain pipes?

[Chris Wool]

hi shane what pad a we talking about please

chris

[Graham Dungavel]

I assumed the big white one next to the wipers?

[Chris Wool]

if its the big one 60mm ish sq then it should NEVER touch the heads. it is not a wiper its to collect the ink waist. from what they call mist flushing.
on every pass the heads print in to the pad to insure that there is no drying ink in the head nozzle. from non printing colours.

as your pumps should be the new type i don’t know whether you need to clamp the tubes or not.

chris

[Graham Dungavel]

Oh, After re-reading the post he must of meant the wipers.

I have a fresh set of wipers for it, I will be replacing them after I clean the heads.

[Chris Wool]

if they are roland wipers they are double sided

rubber side towards you, felt side away from you.

chris

[Graham Dungavel]

yep that’s the ones.

I think they were changed about 6 months ago, before the previous operator left, will get them changed then.

[Shane Drew]

quote Chris Wool:

if its the big one 60mm ish sq then it should NEVER touch the heads. it is not a wiper its to collect the ink waist. from what they call mist flushing.
on every pass the heads print in to the pad to insure that there is no drying ink in the head nozzle. from non printing colours.

as your pumps should be the new type i don’t know whether you need to clamp the tubes or not.

chris

That is true Chris, I probably didn’t explain myself properly. I meant to say it could be the foam pad that wipes the head because it is too dirty

If the white pad is dirty and hard, it can build up to touch the heads as the gap is minimal.

Also, if the pad is not able to absorb the sprayed ink, it will effectively bounce back up and re coat the head, which could lead to ink drops in your print if the build up is too high.

Thanks for the clarification mate… it was late and I was tired. That is my excuse for now until I think of a better one. 😳

[Lee Attewell]

Couple of quickies…

Have you taken out the cartridges to see if they’ve got ink in them first? instead of doing something that might give you more grief than it saves you, have you run multiple head cleans? Don’t do the major head clean, just do two or three light cleans. This might save you ink (I was told it takes five small head cleans to use as much ink as one major ink clean).

See if this makes any difference.

[Graham Dungavel]

Yes the cartridges have ink in and have run multiple head cleans, they did help but not enough, still had severe banding.

The head are soaking as we speak so i will let you know how i get on.

[Graham Dungavel]

Head soak worked a treat!

Wipers also replaced and gave the full machine a good clean.

[Shane Drew]

great news….