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Bad head, bad test print, good quality prints!?!?!

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Elwood Kinder

New Member
A rather cryptic title, but... We have a JV33-130 that is giving us fits! We recently replaced the head on another 8 year old machine with similar issues and were thinking this 10 year old printer must have caught the same illness. With the entire top 1/4 block of the right side magenta and cyan test prints missing, it shows that the head is severely clogged. Obviously, since the machine is 10 years old and still running original head, we take great care of our machines. We have tried everything including damper replacement, cap top & wiper replacement, countless cleanings, ink fills and nozzle wash cycles (even 4 overnight soaks) with very little results. This brings us to my real question... With the entire section missing in so many test prints, the printer is actually still printing very well. We use this particular printer nearly primarily for banners but still print on vinyl and PVC on occasion. Our other printer that we just swapped heads out on had an issue with nearly all of one magenta missing and the quality was horrible! I am not complaining but why are we not seeing severe banding or fogging like the other printer? Honestly, I don't really understand how the dual redundant print cartridges and dual print heads work. We run the OEM ink cartridges with (2) ea. magenta, yellow, cyan and blacks. I know the newer printers have the nozzle recovery system that will bypass bad nozzles if needed. Just not sure why we are not seeing poor quality prints?
 
Solventinkjet

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Post a picture of the nozzle check and output. Basically you should be seeing banding but you might be printing at a high pass count. The higher the pass count, the less apparent banding will be. I bet if you used a 4 pass profile on high speed it would band like crazy. Let's see the nozzle check. Maybe there is a clue in there!
 
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Elwood Kinder

New Member
Solventinkjet said:
Post a picture of the nozzle check and output. Basically you should be seeing banding but you might be printing at a high pass count. The higher the pass count, the less apparent banding will be. I bet if you used a 4 pass profile on high speed it would band like crazy. Let's see the nozzle check. Maybe there is a clue in there!
Click to expand...
I will take a photo and post when I return to work tomorrow. Here's the rub... I am printing at 4 pass bi-directional fast speed! Virtually no banding whatsoever!
 
Dasdesignguy

Dasdesignguy

Production Manager/Field Service Tech
When you replace print heads do you check the head voltages, do you do all of the alignments etc?
 
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Elwood Kinder

New Member
IMG_20210816_191444567.jpg
Print on PVC
 
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Elwood Kinder

New Member
It is nearly impossible to get a good photo but the top right 7-8 blocks of magenta, cyan, yellow and sometimes even black are missing entirely. Or the yellow will print in place of the black at the top. The vertical lines are also wavey at the top of the colors. The head looks fine to the naked eye (viewed with an inspection mirror). No visible scratches or leaking.
 
Solventinkjet

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Elwood Kinder said:
I have never replaced a head. I hear the process is fairly simple but the adjustments are very difficult and require precision.
Click to expand...

The alignments aren't too bad on this machine. There is one physical alignment, "Head Slant" which is just making sure the head is parallel with the platen. You print a pattern and adjust based on what you see. The adjustment is a little lever on the side of the head carriage. Usually it's not too out of whack when replacing a head.

Then you just do the drop position alignments. With these alignment you just print a pattern and then input into the machine the number of the pattern that looks the best. The pattern prints two lines 80 times in a row but moves one of the lines closer to the other each time it prints. You pick the one where the two lines are right on top of each other. and then just input that number into the printer. I've had 1000's of customers install their own heads. If you buy from us we'll help you over the phone if you get stuck.

I''d say run it until it starts looking bad. Might as well milk it for what it's worth!
 
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