Air in ink system on 3xx's - 5xx's

[Ezek0]

Hello everyone.

I'm starting to see a lot of 3rd generation latex printers lately with air in the ink system that its starting to worrying me.

As far as I know this mostly happens on the replace ink cartridges process. After this, the air reaches the printhead damaging it, making it impossible to print with the machine because of huge banding. I always tell the costumers to printh the PH health status plot and 100% of the times the bad PH matches the ink colour cartridge that has recently being replaced.

I solve this problem by just purging with a syringe the colour in matters and that makes the trick. But it's starting to become a pain, specially when I'm having a busy week.

I wanted to know if has anyone had this issue with your printers.
It would really help me to get some feedback from other regions to see if this is only happening in my region (western europe) or is it worldwide.
Thank you all so much.

 

[balstestrat]

No problems for us.

 

[Ezek0]

No problems for us.

Thanks for the feedback

 

[jtiii]

Hello everyone.

I'm starting to see a lot of 3rd generation latex printers lately with air in the ink system that its starting to worrying me.

As far as I know this mostly happens on the replace ink cartridges process. After this, the air reaches the printhead damaging it, making it impossible to print with the machine because of huge banding. I always tell the costumers to printh the PH health status plot and 100% of the times the bad PH matches the ink colour cartridge that has recently being replaced.

I solve this problem by just purging with a syringe the colour in matters and that makes the trick. But it's starting to become a pain, specially when I'm having a busy week.

I wanted to know if has anyone had this issue with your printers.
It would really help me to get some feedback from other regions to see if this is only happening in my region (western europe) or is it worldwide.
Thank you all so much.

Ezek I have a 315 and I need to get expired ink out of the LC and LM lines - is there anything you can point me to that explains how to use a syringe to draw the ink out?
p.s. I have thankfully not experienced the air problem that you're having - at least not yet!

 

[Peter Martins]

It's an interesting question

We refill cartridges using a peristaltic pump. We overfill then a day later after standing pull out the air and excess ink.

We now have changed as I think air gets mixed with Ink and desolves.

A small amount of Air in the cartridge may not be do serious as it will always be as a bubble and above the exit port when fitted in the printer.

Even when empty there is about 10 to 20ml ink in the bag.

However dissolved air is more concerning.
When warmed the ink will release this, and over time the head will fill with air, causing print quality issues.

We now fill using a process which does not agitate the Ink reducing the amount of air mixing with the ink.

All this is based on little or no evidence and I don't have the lab or time to prove it, but I prefer to remove the theoretical risk.

Some inks carts can be warmed to degass before shipping.

But latex ink is heat sensitive I don't know if it should be heated to degass it. So I don't.

Interesting how complicated a simple process gets when your chasing high quality.

 

[jimmmi]

Ezek I have a 315 and I need to get expired ink out of the LC and LM lines - is there anything you can point me to that explains how to use a syringe to draw the ink out?
p.s. I have thankfully not experienced the air problem that you're having - at least not yet!

Whats the problem with expired inks. 5/7 of my inks are expired and i print perfectly fine

 

[jtiii]

Whats the problem with expired inks. 5/7 of my inks are expired and i print perfectly fine

My LC and LM were VERY expired and my grays started getting all mottled and color shifting.

 

[jimmmi]

My LC and LM were VERY expired and my grays started getting all mottled and color shifting.

Very expired like how much?

 

[Ezek0]

My LC and LM were VERY expired and my grays started getting all mottled and color shifting.

Often times I find grey colour variation caused by LM-LC printhead in bad condition, I solve this problem by just changing the printhead with a new one. I would start by changing the printhead with a new one instead of purging the expired ink.
If you still want to keep going on the purging process I can guide you with the service manual instructions.

Please take a moment to read all the steps BEFORE starting the process.

First you need to shut down the printer to boot it up in diagnostic mode:

After you booted in diagnostic mode, you will see a menu with many options. Follow this steps:

Ignore the "CAUTION" box and step 1. Go straight to step 2.
In step 5 you are being asked if the ink tubes have air, select or press YES.

You will need a syringe like the one in the image, otherwise you will not be able to continue with the purging process.

After the timer goes off and the screen tells you to remove the syringe, be ready with a towel to cover the syringe tip in case of ink leakage. Also, ignore the "tip", this is for an older printer.

When you have reeched step 16 the printer will automatically reboot. Congrats, you have finished.
If you have any question, please ask me before getting into this procedure.

 

[jtiii]

Very expired like how much?

Sorry, not sure - I already got rid of them

 

[jtiii]

Often times I find grey colour variation caused by LM-LC printhead in bad condition, I solve this problem by just changing the printhead with a new one. I would start by changing the printhead with a new one instead of purging the expired ink.
If you still want to keep going on the purging process I can guide you with the service manual instructions.

Please take a moment to read all the steps BEFORE starting the process.

First you need to shut down the printer to boot it up in diagnostic mode:


After you booted in diagnostic mode, you will see a menu with many options. Follow this steps:





Ignore the "CAUTION" box and step 1. Go straight to step 2.
In step 5 you are being asked if the ink tubes have air, select or press YES.

You will need a syringe like the one in the image, otherwise you will not be able to continue with the purging process.




After the timer goes off and the screen tells you to remove the syringe, be ready with a towel to cover the syringe tip in case of ink leakage. Also, ignore the "tip", this is for an older printer.

When you have reeched step 16 the printer will automatically reboot. Congrats, you have finished.
If you have any question, please ask me before getting into this procedure.

Thanks very much for the info! I went ahead and ordered a new printhead. Also, how do I find a syringe like that?

 

[Ezek0]

Thanks very much for the info! I went ahead and ordered a new printhead. Also, how do I find a syringe like that?

Sorry for missing this question, I went on vacation and forgot about this post. Mhm, I'm not sure where you can find a similar syringe, HP includes them with the replacement parts. You should find some luck on a hardware store.

Btw, how did the new printhead went? Did it solved the issue? I hope so! Doing the purge procedure for the first time can be confusing.

 

[jtiii]

Sorry for missing this question, I went on vacation and forgot about this post. Mhm, I'm not sure where you can find a similar syringe, HP includes them with the replacement parts. You should find some luck on a hardware store.

Btw, how did the new printhead went? Did it solved the issue? I hope so! Doing the purge procedure for the first time can be confusing.

I did replace the ink and print LcLm over and over until I had purged the lines, then replaced the printheads. This mostly solved the problem. Unfortunately the material I'm working on doesn't come wide enough for the HP to print the calibration print on so there's still a color shift - it's just within what I consider acceptable.
Thanks again for your help!