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Clogged head?

32bantum

32bantum

New Member
This has been beaten to death I know. i have searched the forums and can't find the answer. We had a storm here last week and before it hit I unplugged everything in the shop and the office. It was 4 days before I got back out to the shop.

I have a mutoh falcon 48. I fired up the printer and ran a manual clean then a nozzle check. Light magenta and black were very light so I did a strong clean. Now nothing for those two colors. I broke the printer down and started checking lines and the capping station. I tried to pull ink thru the waste ink lines and nothing. I pulled the lines off from the capping station and replaced them. Got ink flow from one but not the other. If I move the head off the capping station I get no resistance. Park the head and one of them will not pull anything, sirenge just tries to go back to when I pulled it. It's like it's completely clogged. I see ink flow to the waste bottle on the one thats clear but nothing on the other.

Clogged head? What next? Thanks for any help.
 
32bantum

32bantum

New Member
I have filled the capping stastion with cleaner and parked the head over the cap. Anything else I shoud do?
 
heyskull

heyskull

New Member
Have patience (I know it's hard when you need the printer up and running)
I have found soaking with head cleaner and making sure after 4 hours that it has got enough cleaning fluid in.
Normally after a weekend this should be all back and running.
You are doing the right thing. It just takes time.
SC
 
32bantum

32bantum

New Member
I have been checking on the printer yesterday and now am not able to pull from the waste tank to the capping station at all on the head I suspect is clogged. Even when the head is not parked on the cap. Before I started soaking the head I could pull from it if the head was not parked. The other head is printing fine. Missing Light magenta black and light cyan.
 
MachServTech

MachServTech

New Member
If you are not comfortable removing the heads just give a technician a call. Some dealer and factory techs will want you to replace the printheads. Independent techs may be able to recover the printheads for you without replacement. In my experience there is usually a capping station clog that accompanies this kind of issue as well.

How I would fix this:

Disassemble carriage and remove offending printheads, placing them in ultrasonic bath with solvent then flush with syringe (gently).

Disassemble capping station and replace caps and pumps as needed, cleaning as I go.

Reassemble

Perform mechanical alignments on cappping station and printheads.

Perform electronic and bi-di alignments.

Watch printer print like it was new :wink:
 
32bantum

32bantum

New Member
Just replaced pump and capping station about a month ago. Everything printed fine up until about a week ago. I am going to take the capping station out again today and check for clogged line to the waste tank. If that does not help I will order a new capping station and head.
 
Compilla

Compilla

New Member
32bantum said:
Just replaced pump and capping station about a month ago. Everything printed fine up until about a week ago. I am going to take the capping station out again today and check for clogged line to the waste tank. If that does not help I will order a new capping station and head.
Click to expand...

Make sure you replace the Dampers if you put a new head
 
SlightlyChilled

SlightlyChilled

New Member
If you just replaced the capping station and are going to do it again Ill take the one you are taking out. I maybe new here but I don't think that's your problem. I could be wrong. If the head is off the station can you pull air or is it hard to pull? If you pull freely then there is no clog or a hole on the drain line..... If I am wrong please someone tell me I'm just going with flow logic.
 
Last edited:
R

randya

New Member
It is very doubtful that replacing a month old MS is going to fix this.

Pull a syringe and make sure that the caps are sealing and that all the tubing is correct.
If you cant pull a vacuum, then that is your problem.

After insuring that you have a good seal:
Do head soaking with a clean room cloth.
If you dont start recovering nozzles, then you are looking at head replacement.
 
32bantum

32bantum

New Member
Back to printing!! I tore the printer down again today. I pushed cleaning fluid into the the capping station from the drain them pulled it out several times then pushed cleaning fluid into the pump and out several times and got little chunks that looked like dried ink chips. I had replaced pump and capping station about a month ago. Oddly enough after pulling the gunk out of the pump I was able to get an ink pull through the waste tank drain, Several cleans and 1 powerfull clean I have almost all the nozzles back. I am going to do a couple of cleans this afternoon when I get back to the shop but all appears to be good again. I appreciate everyones help!!
 
32bantum

32bantum

New Member
Printed almost 20 ft of 3651 last night and everything looks clean and crisp. Still haven't put the covers back on the the printer yet. Thanks for all the input!! 101 and it's users are awesome!!!
 
MachServTech

MachServTech

New Member
32bantum said:
Printed almost 20 ft of 3651 last night and everything looks clean and crisp. Still haven't put the covers back on the the printer yet. Thanks for all the input!! 101 and it's users are awesome!!!
Click to expand...

Just for our info what kind of ink are you using?
 
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