Few missing printer nozzles, advice please?

[James Boden]

Hi Daniel,

I’d try a head soak on this. If you search youtube or the forum you should find the info you need.

[Chris Wilson Chris Wilson]

Yea head soak it then a few powerful cleans and then a normal clean. That should blast it it.. hopefully

[Daniel Evans]

Thanks guys

How long would you recommend for a head soak?

I just watched a video and they said anywhere from 20 minutes to 24 hours?

[Joe Killeen Killeen]

Hi Dan
You could get this head cleaner kit from Digiprint Supplies works a treat and simple to use.
I haven’t replaced a head since I got one about three years ago, before that I was replacing a head or two a year.
Around every two to three months I give the printer a good clean and a quick head wash.
Joe

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[Daniel Evans]

Joe

When you say a good clean, what do you do exactly?

I like the idea of the head wash kit.

[Joe Killeen Killeen]

Hi Dan
Just do a maintenance clean, wipers, cap tops and all the area around there, blow out dust with air. Pinch rollers, platin gets a small build up of glue (print a good bit of high tac vinyl) only takes about 30 minutes if done regularly.
Joe

[Myriam Garrido]

The head cleaning kit from Digiprint I’d avoid personally. The internals of a DX head are really delicate and you can easily damage it beyond repair if too much pressure is applied (product of experience as we’ve used one of these before !) Roland don’t recommend that one is used either.

They can and do work but they are a bit of a gamble.

[David Rogers]

I use the head wash kit as required when a few missing nozzles just won’t go away.

Our older, yet trusty JV3 can now be stripped, cleaned and reassembled in half an hour…another 10-15 minutes to pull/prime the ink through the heads…and away you go.

Beauty of these old Mimaki machines is the entire head assembly comes off as a unit so it goes back in perfect alignment.

As ever, take care not to crack the manifold spigots when putting the kits damper on and off.

And absolutely make sure than the cleaning solution is pushed through the damper’s filter in one direction only…no drawing it up and pushing back through!!! Any contamination of ink or fluid will result in blocked nozzles.

More often than not, a few flushes, or about 10cc per bank is what I use…getting a nice droplet pattern / spray then moving on.

Can be done in situ for other printers, just make sure not to get fluid everywhere.

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[Daniel Evans]

Thank you. I’ll keep this in mind for the future but at the moment I don’t think I want to risk it.

I’ve put some cleaning fluid in the capping station yesterday and I’ll go back in today to see if that cleared up.

[Stafford Cox Stafford Cox]

Dan, do NOT get one of those flushing kits for your machine. Your VS has a DX7 head, not a DX4 as pictured. You won’t get that damper inside your printhead. Best thing for you to do on your printer is a choke clean (CL clean I think it’s called from memory). If that doesn’t fix it you’ll probably need a damper replacing next. Let me know if you want me to come and do that as I think you have a maintenance contract with us don’t you?

[Daniel Evans]

Thanks Stafford. How do I do a choke clean? Can’t see that on my menu anywhere and I checked twice.

[Stafford Cox Stafford Cox]

Remind me. Is your VS or VSi? VS has a manual choke valve and VSi has automatic.

[Daniel Evans]

Vsi

[Stafford Cox Stafford Cox]

quote Daniel Evans:

Vsi

Go to Sub Menu, Ink Control and Light Choke CL.

[Daniel Evans]

Thanks Stafford, that’s done nothing, still have those 5 missing nozzles and a number of deflected nozzels on Cyan.

The thing is, if you do a manual clean I have issues with the first magenta and Cyan with missing nozzels and then they come back after I leave it maybe half hour or do a few cleans.

Could Cyan be down to the damper then?

[Chris Wilson Chris Wilson]

Watch your not getting cleaning fluid in the capping station. I had that for a few mornings in a row. Missing nozzles and then after sorting a few things out they would come back. Eventually penny dropped.

Doesn’t help with your missing ones.
If it was the dampers I would of though more would go.. but am no engineer. I would also imagine it would move around.

I would think it is a tiny blockage on those nozzles.
Someone I know since sold a machine with missing nozzles at a knock down price. He dropped it off to the guy and after its journey they had all come back.

[Stafford Cox Stafford Cox]

quote Daniel Evans:

Could Cyan be down to the damper then?

Entirely possible. I think it needs somebody to have a look