Agfa Anapurna MW - Full Ink Drain & Flushing Procedure

[GrafexDesigns]

I've recently acquired an Agfa Anapurna MW. I'm a newbie to UV flatbed/hybrids but have been running a sign shop for many years. When I bought it last month the printheads seemed to be in good working condition from the test prints we did (except white which has been shut off). We did the "long term" shutdown procedure but not 100% that we did it correctly. It had to sit in storage covered and wrapped for 4 weeks while we moved to a new location and got proper power requirements setup. I've got it printing but am having a lot of banding and the black only works sometimes. I've made vast improvements in the last couple days from the first prints however I've gotten to a point where they aren't really getting better.

I suspect that the ink in the machine is pretty old so I'm thinking it is a combination of sitting for a month and these old inks. I've ordered 5 liters of Nazdar 7001 UV maintenance solutions and am thinking I should completely drain what is in there and flush completely with maintenance fluid and replace with the newer 7470 inks. Does anyone know the best way to completely drain one of these machines? It doesn't really explain this procedure in the manual.

I'm looking for advice on whether this is a good idea or if there is something else I can try first that might get it going before I invest all the time in draining it and money on all new inks. Perhaps there is something else I am missing. I am very open to ideas. I'd like to get this thing up and running as soon as possible. He also had the white ink option shut off but there is still white ink in the stirring canister. I'd like to get these printheads going as well if possible. Any advice? Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[Madams]

Are there 3 way valves on top of the print heads? Should be on the solution bar if it does. Is there a solution tank along with the inks?

 

[klmiller611]

I cannot really address the white option, but I have an Anapurna Mv machine. I've never had mine shut down for that long, but it has gone over 7-10 days without any special prep. Perhaps I've been lucky, but the procedure for long term parking would be totally flush the heads until clear solution is coming out, shut that off, doing two heads at a time, that leaves solution in the heads. Once complete, then park the head on the capping station. Now, I have zero background on white, but I'd suspect that since pigment is involved in the ink, it has totally settled out over the four weeks, and may be an issue in and of itself, as it needs to be stirred frequently, from my understanding. Did you have the instructions for flushing from the Agfa manual?

If the ink is old, yes, I think I'd change it out, as well as the filters. I've not heard of the Nazdar maintenance solution, I'd be curious about that. My machine is coming up 8 years old this December, and naturally, no longer prints like a new machine. I considered changing over to the Nazdar inks a few years ago, during my slow December, but got a bit gun shy after talking with another shop who had all kinds of issues. This is my only printer, I cannot have it down for weeks at a time. I started the process earlier the next fall, but never got an email response on my inquiry about pricing. So, I am still using the Agfa inks.

Best
Ken

 

[GrafexDesigns]

I cannot really address the white option, but I have an Anapurna Mv machine. I've never had mine shut down for that long, but it has gone over 7-10 days without any special prep. Perhaps I've been lucky, but the procedure for long term parking would be totally flush the heads until clear solution is coming out, shut that off, doing two heads at a time, that leaves solution in the heads. Once complete, then park the head on the capping station. Now, I have zero background on white, but I'd suspect that since pigment is involved in the ink, it has totally settled out over the four weeks, and may be an issue in and of itself, as it needs to be stirred frequently, from my understanding. Did you have the instructions for flushing from the Agfa manual?

If the ink is old, yes, I think I'd change it out, as well as the filters. I've not heard of the Nazdar maintenance solution, I'd be curious about that. My machine is coming up 8 years old this December, and naturally, no longer prints like a new machine. I considered changing over to the Nazdar inks a few years ago, during my slow December, but got a bit gun shy after talking with another shop who had all kinds of issues. This is my only printer, I cannot have it down for weeks at a time. I started the process earlier the next fall, but never got an email response on my inquiry about pricing. So, I am still using the Agfa inks.

Best
Ken

Ok, thank you Ken! So I'm reading through the operator manual and trying to figure out how to do the solution flush. It says to push onto the "Flush button" on the back of carriage. Where is this flush button? Ive opened the back panel and only see two small white buttons, one labeled color and one labeled white. When I press on the color one it looks like its performing a purge. I don't get any solution coming out. Am I missing where this magic flush button is located?

Madams-Yes the printheads are attached to the valves along the front and there is a solution valve and tank along with the rest of the inks

 

[klmiller611]

Ok, thank you Ken! So I'm reading through the operator manual and trying to figure out how to do the solution flush. It says to push onto the "Flush button" on the back of carriage. Where is this flush button? Ive opened the back panel and only see two small white buttons, one labeled color and one labeled white. When I press on the color one it looks like its performing a purge. I don't get any solution coming out. Am I missing where this magic flush button is located?

Madams-Yes the printheads are attached to the valves along the front and there is a solution valve and tank along with the rest of the inks

If it is set up like mine (which I think it is) all valves are set to solution when the machine is off, except for the far right hand valve which is set to ink. Otherwise, all the ink drains out of the heads, and if the power is off, there is no pumping going on to replace which will set up, and not make you a happy person.

Have the vacuum pressure like you normally want it to operate (.38-.46 depending on your elevation) higher elevation is higher numbers.

Turn all valves to ink, then turn down the left two (K and C), then turn down the far right to the solution, that should cause almost immediate dripping from those two heads, but possibly not.

Go to the back of the back panel on the carriage, and push the little button marked color, which will purge the color faster on those two heads. Push only a few seconds at a time until you are coming out with clear flushing solution, then go back, turn the two valves back up, and move to the next two, etc. etc.

Obviously, the white has a separate flush valve, so I cannot address that.

It may take multiple pushes to get to clear flushing solution.

I would take photos, but I cannot get photos from my camera to this computer to show you what I am looking at

Best
Ken

 

[GrafexDesigns]

Copy, this is sort of what I've been trying to do. So the color button located on the back of the carriage behind the door will push solution through if the valves are set to solution? Last night I seemed to have developed a new problem which Im hoping is an easy fix. The solution does not seem to be filling up the sub tank. The "s" on the screen stays being a lower case and after hitting the pause button for it to refill the motor under the ink tank turns on but I am not getting a flow of solution up to the sub tank. I've confirmed that there is indeed a good amount of cleaning solution in the tank, that the motor is turning but it doesn't seem to be getting to the ink tank filters below because when I take the little white cap off nothing comes out. I even went as far as to remove the ink filter and still no solution flow. This was not happening the previous day and the symptoms only began after I refilled the solution tank. Could this be caused by an air pressure thing or from air being in the lines? From what I gather this is before the air pressure system comes into play but I could be wrong. The solution ink tank would seem to be the most unlikely to become clogged but I guess that could be a possibility? Do you have any insight into this issue?

I have 5 liters of UV maintenance solution on the way and I might try to use a syringe to get solution up into the heads again because at the moment I'm only getting air to flow out of the heads when the solution valves are being activated like in your instructions above. Does the solution ink system need to be primed somehow to get suction so that the motor can pump the fluid?

 

[klmiller611]

Copy, this is sort of what I've been trying to do. So the color button located on the back of the carriage behind the door will push solution through if the valves are set to solution?
Correct.

Last night I seemed to have developed a new problem which Im hoping is an easy fix. The solution does not seem to be filling up the sub tank. The "s" on the screen stays being a lower case and after hitting the pause button for it to refill the motor under the ink tank turns on but I am not getting a flow of solution up to the sub tank.

You can manually pump any ink or fluid with the button on the side of the machine near the tanks. I have an issue with the light magenta and magenta lines, they have some tiny holes and leak ink into the chain carrier, and sometimes, if I am printing something with a lot of that color, need an occasional manual pump or three to keep enough ink in the tank. The lines are set to be replaced, but need the machine down long enough to do it. You can hear the small pump run, but it may have failed. You can order replacements from digiprint-supplies if needed, I highly recommend them for parts, even overseas, it is quick shipping and delivery.

I've confirmed that there is indeed a good amount of cleaning solution in the tank, that the motor is turning but it doesn't seem to be getting to the ink tank filters below because when I take the little white cap off nothing comes out. I even went as far as to remove the ink filter and still no solution flow. This was not happening the previous day and the symptoms only began after I refilled the solution tank. Could this be caused by an air pressure thing or from air being in the lines? From what I gather this is before the air pressure system comes into play but I could be wrong. The solution ink tank would seem to be the most unlikely to become clogged but I guess that could be a possibility? Do you have any insight into this issue?

Other than what I said above, I cannot think of anything other than possible clogged line. The solution has never been an issue with mine.

I have 5 liters of UV maintenance solution on the way and I might try to use a syringe to get solution up into the heads again because at the moment I'm only getting air to flow out of the heads when the solution valves are being activated like in your instructions above. Does the solution ink system need to be primed somehow to get suction so that the motor can pump the fluid?

Good question, I think you have to manually pump the ink through the filter, but have never had call to do so.

Responses are in the body of the quote, sorry.

Ken

 

[Andy D]

A couple of things... I'm not familiar with your model, I had a Annapurna M2050I...
and when I lost my white heads, parking and soaking the heads in denatured alcohol over the
weekend (per the tech's suggestion) worked like a charm. Secondly, the G5 inks from Agfa worked great in our printer, not sure about Nazdar.

 

[GrafexDesigns]

A couple of things... I'm not familiar with your model, I had a Annapurna M2050I...
and when I lost my white heads, parking and soaking the heads in denatured alcohol over the
weekend (per the tech's suggestion) worked like a charm. Secondly, the G5 inks from Agfa worked great in our printer, not sure about Nazdar.

Hey Andy, thank you for that suggestion. I am going to try to do this over this upcoming weekend. Can you let me know how you did that? Did you take the heads completely out of the machine? or did you park the whole shuttle in some sort of tray or was it the capping station? Let me know I'd really like to give that a shot..

 

[GrafexDesigns]

Good question, I think you have to manually pump the ink through the filter, but have never had call to do so.

Responses are in the body of the quote, sorry.

Ken

Hey Ken,
Turns out it the motor went bad. After a lengthy process of elimination I was lucky and found a brand new motor in the box that he gave me with his collection of spare parts and swapped the motor out. It wasn't easy and still have to snake the electrical through the cord protector but it solved the solution pumping problem. Getting solution back up into the heads has definitely helped with my test prints but I need to do more to get them back to 100%. Any suggestions for clogged printheads? I think I may try the denatured alcohol method that Andy spoke about this weekend.

 

[akkuma]

I've recently acquired an Agfa Anapurna MW. I'm a newbie to UV flatbed/hybrids but have been running a sign shop for many years. When I bought it last month the printheads seemed to be in good working condition from the test prints we did (except white which has been shut off). We did the "long term" shutdown procedure but not 100% that we did it correctly. It had to sit in storage covered and wrapped for 4 weeks while we moved to a new location and got proper power requirements setup. I've got it printing but am having a lot of banding and the black only works sometimes. I've made vast improvements in the last couple days from the first prints however I've gotten to a point where they aren't really getting better.

I suspect that the ink in the machine is pretty old so I'm thinking it is a combination of sitting for a month and these old inks. I've ordered 5 liters of Nazdar 7001 UV maintenance solutions and am thinking I should completely drain what is in there and flush completely with maintenance fluid and replace with the newer 7470 inks. Does anyone know the best way to completely drain one of these machines? It doesn't really explain this procedure in the manual.

I'm looking for advice on whether this is a good idea or if there is something else I can try first that might get it going before I invest all the time in draining it and money on all new inks. Perhaps there is something else I am missing. I am very open to ideas. I'd like to get this thing up and running as soon as possible. He also had the white ink option shut off but there is still white ink in the stirring canister. I'd like to get these printheads going as well if possible. Any advice? Thank you in advance for any help.

I run an Anapurna M2540. I've had white heads start to band after a few years. Turned out since white heads are separate from the color on the three-way valve bar (which I flush once a week,) the individual valves for white clogged up and wouldn't even push flush and needed to be replaced. I've also had banding from white after valve replacement and figured I had air in the line somewhere that came in during replacement. It took a bit to get rid of it, but I would do my regular purge during start-up and then release the miniscus for around 30-40 seconds on white heads and let them drip. The banding went away immediately for that day but returned the next. After doing this over a couple weeks I no longer have any missing nozzles during prime tests.

 

[Little Linda]

Ok, thank you Ken! So I'm reading through the operator manual and trying to figure out how to do the solution flush. It says to push onto the "Flush button" on the back of carriage. Where is this flush button? Ive opened the back panel and only see two small white buttons, one labeled color and one labeled white. When I press on the color one it looks like its performing a purge. I don't get any solution coming out. Am I missing where this magic flush button is located?

Madams-Yes the printheads are attached to the valves along the front and there is a solution valve and tank along with the rest of the inks

This is all I have back there…no buttons though. Can someone help me with this?