Suggestions Cross contamination SP-300V

[Jim Hill]

trying to figure out why the yellow damper is getting magenta in it.
I have replaced the dampers a few times along with New Roland cap tops.
My printer is sitting perfectly level. I have always used Roland Inks.

One question when I replace the damper I always pull the ink through the hole on the bottom where it conects to the manifold nipple. Should I be pulling from the hose on the cap tops with the heads parked in place.

Also wondering if the capping station is now working properly.

Jim

 

[Solventinkjet]

If the cap top is OEM it should be fine. I have had issues with after market ones though. It sounds like possible the pump/tubes are partially clogged and causing the cap top not drain as quickly as it should. That would cause the contamination. You can usually just flush the tubes through the pump and clear any clogs out.

If that doesn't end up being the cause, you might have an air leak in the yellow line that is just slow enough that it doesn't empty out but pulls ink up into the yellow side. Usually that would be a bad damper but since you have changed them multiple times it could be a bad o-ring or sometimes even the ink tube constricts from the o-ring being on there for so long and lets air in. Usually I just cut the tip of the ink line off and re-install the damper.

Other than that, a head can become damaged internally which will create cross-contamination and it can't be fixed. You can test this out by flushing the head with cleaning solution. If you push it in one side and it comes out the other at any point, it's cooked.

 

[Joe House]

I've seen this with cap tops in poor condition (allowing wicking of ink across the channels) and having a full (or near full) magenta cartridge and an empty (or nearly empty) yellow cartridge. The difference in the height of the fluid in the cartridges causes a siphon effect. If the cap tops are fresh, then this usually doesn't happen.

Good Luck

 

[player]

The machine level is important. Some say if you have a full cart on one channel and a near empty cart on the other it can help with the wicking into the wrong head.

When I got a VP-540i this issue went away as it has 4 heads. Both channels in each head are the same colour.

 

[Jim Hill]

It took me some time but I have finally fixed the cross contamination problem.

I changed the damper and replaced it along with the rubber O ring for damper. I also cut off a short section of the tubing before installing the new O ring.
I pulled ink into damper with a tapered syringe from the bottom of the damper.

New Roland cap top along with a good cleaning of the scrapper and the wipers.

Next I noticed ink being held in the magenta and yellow cap top so I removed the hose under the cap top at the Y connection and out came the ink.
I changed everything from the drain tank, hoses, and ever the Y connector.

Next I removed the ink pump and even thought it looked fine I took the whole thing apart and flushed the lines out good.

The ink pump is such a simple thing to work on and there really is not a great deal that can go wrong with it other then the motor.

Once I had everything back together I have no more problems with cross contamination and the tests prints look very good.

When you have a problem with cross contamination it really takes a lot of time to simply check all many small parts that can be the reason for the problem.

For such an expensive printer it's amassing to me how much trouble one small air leak can cause and stop everything from working correctly.

Jim