Bad Printhead Test

[Willy]

I'm looking at a used Roland VP-300. When he did a demo for me, I noticed a slight banding on the black. Seller did a test print on heads and black wasn't uniform like the rest of the colors. Seller did several maintenance cleanings and head cleanings and black print test was still bad. Seller said that this has been going on for a while. Seller printed out door signs so banding isn't noticeable. Seller uses Eco Sol ink.
Can this problem be fixed or will it need a new printhead? Is a printhead easy to replace? How much do they cost?
Thank You in advance for your help

 

[Drip Dry]

The print head is not necessarily bad, but probably needs to be replaced if you want to get rid of the banding entirely. I think it only happens when your printing an entire black field. You can make it somewhat better by printing in high resolution mode for those types of prints. For the most part, prints will look fine.
There are 2 heads... each have 2 colors. So when you change one head, your changing 2 colors. I think the price nowadays are about 1200. for the one head. They usually add 600. for the second head. The techs recommend you change both.
If the price is right, and there's nothing else wrong with it, I would consider buying it. Depends how bad the black prints would determine whether you replace it now or you get a few years from it.
Maybe you can work something in the price over it.

EDIT: just noticed it's a SP-30... you might consider holding out for a wider machine. The 30" is great for getting started, but your going to wish you had a wider machine very soon.

 

[Willy]

I can pick up vp 30 up for 7500.00. I was told that this printer has 4 printheads. When i got the demo, seller had printer set in med setting on ink

 

[Drip Dry]

Not sure if the price is good or not. But yes, it is a 4 print head machine.
Maybe my terminology is wrong but, there are 2 ink nozzles
in each head. (2 different colors in 1 housing)
So, if you have a problem with black and need to change it, then you automatically change the cyan as well (not sure if that's the color with the black)
Sorry that I'm making it sound harder then it really is.

 

[cdiesel]

Bad test prints can usually be fixed. What it takes to fix can take any of many things, including auto cleaning, manual cleaning, wipers, cap tops, dampers, and of course a new head(s). The heads are about $1200 installed with new dampers. FWIW, 7500 sounds WAY high for that machine used.

 

[stillhasdust]

There are 4 heads in a VP, one for each color. jtrube is refering to the setup of an SP. The cost of a head is $995 plus about $35 each damper and roughly an hour of labor to put in. You will be able to print with nozzles missing in the test print and still have your prints come out nice in standard mode. You can attempt to try many cleaning methods to clear up the missing black nozzles. Also $7,500 for a VP-300 is a decent price considering they sell new for around $15k. Also the missing nozzles may not be what is causing the banding. You can try to adjust the bi directional settings as well. Either way I wouldnt let the missing nozzles turn you away from that deal unless the black is completely messed up. You would have to provide pics for everyone to judge how bad it really is.

 

[Willy]

Thank you for everyones input. I've decided to buy a brand new SP-300. Being brand to this type of technology, I fill walking into this without any training and issues to boot is not a good thing