Stafford Cox
Forum Replies Created
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I’ve got a couple of customers with CJV300. Good machines but I much prefer the 150.
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[emoji1303]
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This is sad news. I hope James is coping OK considering.
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Have you tried just going over the 4th marker with a black pen? Failing that, just tell Finecut to look for the first 2 or 3 markers…
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What inks and heater settings are you using?
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Wow!! £180k!!??
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Can you post a picture of the problem? I should be able to tell you which calibration to run from that.
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Hi Adam, I certainly am available but I’m not allowed to leave my details or reply to PM’s. I can help you on here though if it helps?
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I’ve been watching this machine for a while now and it looks fantastic!! I’m so glad Mimaki have got behind this as they do make a cracking machine.
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Personally, I wouldn’t use IPA. I don’t think it’s aggressive enough. I would use whichever head cleaning solution that corresponds to your inks and good quality swabs.
As for the choke clean, I guess you need to make your own decision on it. I rate it as it closes the cartridge valves off and uses the pump to build up pressure before releasing the valves and wallops a load of ink through. It does use more ink than a clean but compared to the price of a head, it’s minimal. Entirely up to you. Chris has much more day to day experience with the VS than me as he lives with one every day, I just repair them when they go wrong. Which isn’t that often you’ll be pleased to hear.
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Yeah, it is tricky. It doesn’t look too bad to be honest. I’ve certainly seen worse. Have you manually cleaned the surface with a swab and cleaning solution? Also, I’m pretty sure you can do a choke clean on the VS, have you tried that?
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Thanks Iain, glad to help.
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Ok, first thing to do is take a picture of the surface of the printhead to see if there are any signs of physical damage. My guess is not as it’s on one channel that’s affected.
In terms of getting a head replaced, there are always ways to avoid labour charges such as converting to alternative inks or taking out a contract on it. But let’s see if we can sort it free on here first.
Stafford.
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Nice to speak to you today Iain, about 2 minutes of upload remaining…
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You can take an image of the CD and use it as a pretend drive in Windows (it even assigns a drive letter to it in My Computer). Unfortunately I’m not allowed to give out my contact details or reply to PMs or I’d send you it.
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I have an ISO image of Finceut 8. I just mount that as a virtual drive. I just got a new laptop with no CD drive so had to do this only yesterday.
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Ah, right. Well if he needs anything, he can always post on here or get in touch.
Stafford.
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What’s wrong with it? You might not need an engineer if I can help you on here…
Stafford.
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Well that LOOK to be mechanically aligned so I would suggest the BIAS adjust doesn’t need to be altered although all 4 heads show signs of deflections, maybe you have an electrical fault with the cyan head? Have you tried printing at different resolutions? Ie production instead of quality etc.?
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Definitely head alignments. Has it had a knock? Can you post a picture of the nozzle test? I might be able to tell you which head and which alignment.
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It’s hall 17 & 18 Derek. Floor plan attached.
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Yeah, sorry Chris., we’re going off topic.
Hugh, feel free to start another topic about the Ricoh and I’ll answer any question there.
We’re on stand D14 and I’ll be there for the duration.
Stafford
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It is a rear loading machine Hugh and we’ll have a 7 colour version on our stand so come and see. There aren’t loads of videos of it but the machine will speak for itself against the HP.
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Valuejets need to have the maintenance assy replaced every 12 months (according to Mutoh. I recommend every 18-24 months personally). The error message you’re getting is the wiper assy all gunked up, this is part of the maintenance assy.
If you’re going away for a couple of weeks, either flush it out as suggested (I can document doing that if needs be) or block off the pump and cap and leave it soaking in flush if your handy with a screwdriver and a bulldog clip.
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I would try running a lower temperature. Looks to me like the media is cockling causing different heights in the media.
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Are you definitely set on a print and cut? If you’re busy then a separate printer and cutter is much more efficient that print ‘or’ cut.
I love Roland machines but not convinced by the TruVIS, Mimaki are great but not keen on the 300, Mutoh are OK but don’t last as long as the other 2. Not a fan of the HP latex since the Ricoh came about, Seiko/OKI are cracking but expensive.
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I’ll be there all blimmin’ week!! Buildup, exhibiting and breakdown.
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Blimey! Good to hear from you Mark 🙂
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I’m not sure what state the machine is in to warrant purchasing all that lot but it seems excessive to me. Plus you’re doubling up on cap tops.
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Most likely the media going from extreme cold over night, straight onto your heaters which causes the media to cockle. It gives you high and low points in the media which causes exactly that pattern. Keep the media warm (ish) over night or put a lot less heat into the media when printing and it should run through straight.
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This varies so much between media’s and RIP’s. Theoretically there is no such thing as a generic profile that will print everything. In practice there are a few good all rounders that give satisfactory results on many media’s.
Which RIP are you using? The problem with printing grey is that most RIP’s will try to produce it with 4 colours. You could try turning off ICC profiling all together (it will over ink and other colours will likely not match) or use a ‘mono print’, depending on which RIP you’re using. If you’re using Rasterlink, you might be stuck with what you’ve got.
Stafford.
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UPG in Aylesford in Kent and Spot In Displays in Stanley near Durham both use Ricoh latex white and are producing excellent results on optically clear.
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Can you post any pictures of the problem? It might be easier to diagnose if we can see the results.
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It’s going to be a case of swapping things around to try and move the fault. For example, try swapping the head cables at the carriage board end. Obviously at your own risk. You could make things worse. Who’s the tech you’ve had in there? Is he reputable?
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quote Derek Heron:hi stafford
seemingly you have to buy ink from the dealer who sold you the machine granthams cannot sell to me
ime awaiting a call from hybridDerek
Ah, OK. I think there is a clause though if you’re having problems with a particular dealer and don’t want to use them. I know their machine sales works like that anyway.
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No probs, say hi for me 🙂
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Hi Derek. Have you tried Granthams? They’re always my first choice of genuine Mimaki resellers.
Stafford
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The JFX is a cracking machine but there are others out there for less money.
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If it’s both blacks I’d look at the M6 valve at the cartridge end. Black faults aren’t often a cap fault as they’re the 2 middle channels and in the middle of the cap.
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What parts are you after, Steff? Our engineers hold a lot of the regular service stuff and might be able to help. Roland are generally good at supplying parts, I guess you’ve been unlikely this time.
Stafford
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Hi Brian. Has the machine been moved at all lately? There’s a small flex cable that goes from the mainboard to the control panel that has a tendency to remove itself.
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The Razor Hale in the form you’d recognise it is the latest incarnation to some of the other Azon UV products out there. There are a few scattered about but previous UK dealers perhaps weren’t as able as us, hence Azon being very selective who became the new distributor. Add to that that the newer UV inks are rock solid and you’ve got a pretty top notch unit. Plus a support team to back it up of course 😉
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You’re welcome 😀
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Sorry Paul, I’m out of the office again and not seeing another Roland for a couple of days. I’ll have a look when I can.
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This is what I mean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TOrBfnyCx8
I know it’s an SP but I’m pretty sure the mechanism on an XJ works in a similar way.
Stafford
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I’ll try and get a video when I’m in the office later…
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Hi Grant. We’re the sole UK distributor for all Azon printers. I don’t want to do a sales pitch on here but what questions do you have? We also work on Mimaki UJF and Roland LEC machines and chose to sell Azon for good reason.
Stafford
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Yeah, it most definitely would. I have a customer who was about 15mm out over a meter!! Apparently lots of other dealers couldn’t sort it over the last 12 months and then I swan in and do it in 10 minutes. They must have thought I was either a God or gonad 😀
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There’s a calibration on the Mutoh xx24 called PF adjust. I can’t remember exactly where it is but it’s something like setup / user type / dist adj. You need to run the initial test (I’d run a minimum of 500mm), measure it and then input the value and run the confirmation test.
That should do it.
Stafford.
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Have you run the ‘limit and cutter down position’? Also, if you take the left side maintenance cover off, that will make it retract. Might be a hint?
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Looks electrical to me. Maybe an FPC cable? You could try swapping head cables and see if the colour moves? I’d be interested to know what it is though, keep us posted.
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Does this help?
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Every engineer who visits will suggest you buy from him Steff [emoji16] Do your own research and find somebody you feel you can trust. There are some good guys out there, and some bad, too.
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It is a wiper error. Most likely the wiper sensor but also non genuine wipers can cause the wiper motor to strain when pulling against the scraper, maybe it’s the motor. I would either strip the wiper assembly down and clean it all out and replace the wipers and scraper with genuine Roland ones or arrange for somebody reputable to visit and do it all for you.
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Granthams are a good bunch but any reputable Roland parts dealer will help. Digiprint do also sell genuine ones too.
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Not exactly a super car but this is the Japanese police version of my Mitsubishi GTO…
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Genuine ones are rubber one side and felt on the other. Anything else is non genuine. I would recommend genuine ones at about £11 each (from memory). The felt side helps absorb the excess ink taken from the head. The non genuine ones prefer to flick that ink around make a mess.
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Looks to me like an electrical fault on head 2. Could be slider or cable fault but most likely head I’d say. Is it a Pro? XF/XJ?
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It shouldn’t damage anything but make sure the white channel is working properly before doing it, otherwise one of the 2 CMYK channels (I forget which now) will show up as banding when printing.
Also, it’s definitely faster in 2 x CMYK mode but not twice the speed. Probably closer to half as fast again in my opinion.
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I suppose if the register marks have been printed badly on a dirty or faulty encoder strip then that would make sense. Apologies if I misread that.
Also remember the tolerances on these machines are accurate to 1mm in a meter.
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Totally agree on the warmth thing. However the machine doesn’t use the linear encoder strip when cutting, only when printing. When it’s cutting it only uses the encoder on the bottom of the scan motor.
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Have a look at this….
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Ok. Print and cut alignment, try loading some media and giving the front of it a pull. If the media pulls easier from one side then it could be that the pinch roller housing itself has a small fracture in it. Not a job for the faint hearted but I can now do it in a couple of hours having done a few.
Heat does cause a problem at this time of year, and the answer is to keep the room and media warm even when you’re not running the machine. The operating temp for these printers is around 20-30 degrees and the media is seriously affected by the cold too. Try getting an ambient temperature reading. Many modern machines (or more specifically the heads installed in them) won’t let you print until the ambient temperature is 14 degrees.
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What’s your problem Mariusz? Maybe I can help on here…
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Do you know Tom Gent, ex Perfect Colours service manager? He’s pretty good with them, I can pass your details to him if it helps?
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Plotters are all very similar, it’s the software that really makes them sing. I’m going to be biased toward Graphtec FC and Cutting Master of course but the Mimaki CG-FX and Finecut are excellent!! I’d be very hard pushed to choose between the two. The Summa and SCC are still good but would be 3rd place in my opinion.
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+1 for Metamark. We used some of theirs at a show recently.
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Typical, I was working on a JFX in Hampshire on Thursday/Friday. What’s wrong with it? Maybe we can fix it on here?
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Hi Susan.
I believe the sub tanks on those machines have a magnetic float/sensor. The do have a tendency to stick every one in a while. I would suggest either replacing the sub tank or emoting and refilling it which I think you can do with individual channels from the maintenance menu.
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Most RIP’s will try and produce a gray using CMY & K channels still. I find the best way to get a pure grayscale varies from RIP to RIP. I’m not sure how to do it in Versaworks but essentially you need to disable the ICC profiles entirely. It will probably overink and other colours won’t be corrected so we’ll but for that B&W photo you’re trying to output, it should do the job. Shiraz for example has Mono print as an option. Rasterlink (and Onyx I believe) have Spot colour replacement which can do a similar thing. Maybe Versaworks Dual will have more control?
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You’ll probably find there is a scratch or mark on the strip then. The sensor only reads a small area of the strip so you could try positioning the entire encoder sensor and bracket assembly slightly higher or lower on the slotted part of the the carriage chassis so it reads a different part of the strip. Might get you out of trouble until the new one arrives.
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Error 08 has 3 different flavours. SENSOR / DIR / COUNT. In either case, separate the print and cut carriages from the index head and set the index head to the middle and then power on. This should do some sort of NVRAM reset. If it still fails, remove the encoder strip and inspect it for damage. Give it a clean with some warm water on a soft cloth or very worst case some IPA. Once cleaned, clean it again because often, cleaning it will just move the dirt and ink residue along the strip and make it worse. If it’s still no better, replace the strip.
That’s what I’d do anyway.
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For what printer? Most manufacturers supply both sizes.
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I was working on Essex and didn’t see the red sky like that. But it was eerily dark. Apparently it wasn’t just the Sahara sand but smoke from over Portugal too? Interesting comment about the asteroid Phill.
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Thanks for the kind offer Shaun, I’m actually sorted now. I appreciate the offer though 🙂
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Thanks guys.
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Thanks guys. I didn’t know Impact sold them individually but that would make sense for them.
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Derek, I did reply to your post but seems to have gone missing.
Steff, can you post up some pictures and details of the fault you’ve got and I’ll see if I can help on here. I’m quite shocked you’ve had to replace all of your ink lines, I can’t think what sort of fault would warrant that.
Stafford.
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Redneck heater controls, like it 😀
We buy the majority of our Mutoh stuff from Colourgen, which has its fair share of over pricing and shipping woes.
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They should last more than that Steff. I assume you’re using genuine Roland ones of course? I’ve known generic ones to last no more than hours before.
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The cutting function doesn’t use the encoder strip, it uses only the disk encoder on the bottom of the scan motor. The encoder strip is used only when printing. I would replace the pinch rollers first as they are a consumable item and are fairly cheap (remember the outer rollers are different to the inner ones as they’re conical and need to be installed the correct way round). Then try the pinch roller assy which is a pig to replace the first couple of times. If not, maybe the cut cable?
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This is certainly a strange one. And I’d have suspected the new board too but maybe it’s the heater controller board (different to the relay board) or cable? Worst case, mainboard? I’d start with the cable the goes from the relay board to controller board.
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Second for Art Systems but I’d guess they’re a similar price.
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There’s a heater controller board under the front platen which is prone to failure. Most likely one of the relays has packed up. You can replace the individual relay from memory but I’ve only ever just replaced the board.
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Yes, the encoder sensor is on the back of the head assembly. Remember the encoder on a Mutoh is called a T-fence, just to confuse people.
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Hi Paul, sorry to see you’re still struggling. From memory, they should both run at the same time (assuming you are selecting to fill 1&2 of course). Those pump motors rarely fail so I would try swapping the supply cable over from one to the other and see if the motor that wasn’t spinning now spins. I hope that makes sense?
Stafford.
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I’d still start with cap.
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Have a look at the pin that drops to unlock the head. That can cause motor and encoder errors.
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I’ll check on our 1324 tomorrow but I’m pretty sure you can’t specify the cleaning interval on Mutoh. The power button the control panel is just a sub power so works as a standby more than an off.
Cleaning around the head should be done as often as possible. Preferably daily. Including the wiper.
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I think I can safely say I work for Atlantic in Harlow, it’s quite common knowledge now.
I can’t offer my services on here but I can offer free advice as long as it contributes to the knowledge base of the forum.
Because the CJV locks the print and/or cut carriage depending on which one it’s not currently using, you should be able to just move it quite safely within reason. However I would always recommend emptying the machine completely and allowing a reputable company to move it and the decommission it. And preferably to provide correct training on the printer and RIP once set up.
Post up with any more questions you’ve got and I’ll reply when I can.
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CJV30 is only just 1 generation old. The head locks automatically on the CJV to an extent so assuming it’s being kept level I would just use that. There are carry handles for it that come with machine but not essential.
You can do an info print on it and determine how many shots the head has done and the square meterage etc. Even how many carts of each colour it has done.
Personally, I would recommend emptying the ink line too but not essential. Form that point it can be washed out and you can fill it with whoevers ink you choose. This is something some companies offer free of charge if you swap to their inks 🙂
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No probs. Post up again if you have any more questions.
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I agree that a nozzle or two shouldn’t make a difference to the print quality, particularly when using the wave technology that Mutoh does. The maintenance assembly is a consumable item that should be replaced every 12 months although I think that’s a little excessive. 18-24 months is fine and all the Mutoh’s I look after are testament to that.
I like how the current owner boasts that he carries out his daily maintenance every week!! 😀
Also, I would buy a used Mutoh 1614 over a used HP latex any day.
Stafford
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Yeah, I see your point about the heads for low use. That does make sense. The heads for our latex machine are expensive. Very expensive. But we’ve never had to replace one yet as the ink is water based and unlikely to clog. With the automatic cleaning and durable heads it means you need to do something quite special to damage them, even when using white ink.
Please don’t think this is a sales post though, just be aware that HP aren’t the only company that sell latex printers. We have new and ex demo Ricoh latex and used Mimaki latex in stock currently.
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I would look at running costs. HP latex printer require printheads and cleaners to be replaced frequently, they also have an optimiser channel and require massive heat to cure the ink. I think I’m right in thinking you need a 16A single phase power supply to run it because of the heater too. There are alternative latex machines available that run much lower temperatures, no optimiser and have fixed printheads.
Let me know if you need any more information on new or used alternatives.
Stafford.
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Thanks Jon. You were using ES3 before too weren’t you? Most of our Mimaki’s were running SS2/21 previously.
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If your printer is still under warranty I’d stick to OEM. They are more expensive but if you have a fault with the printer they will sort it out for you but won’t touch it if you’re using ink without the Hybrid ‘lets do more’ logo on them.
Once the warranty is over, I don’t know why you’d still use OEM ink. We have people who use our ink and the cost saving will more than pay for a years maintenance contract and the quality is at least equal to OEM.