EFI Rastek H650

[Korey]

We have a Rastek H650 that we have had for roughly 9 months. We have had nothing but problems and none of the 3 techs that have been here have been able to completely solve the problem. We are currently wasting tons of time and money trying to get jobs out the door to our customers. We are having to pause the printing every 5" or so in order to avoid color dropping out, lines, etc. The latest tech that was here had conversations with Rastek and they believe that we need new printheads which is ridiculous because it has not had enough run time to have them be warn out. Has anyone else had similar issues?

 

[threeputt]

Gosh, Korey, don't know a thing about Rastek but if the machine is giving acceptable quality for 5" I wouldn't think it had anything to do with defective heads.

Sounds more like a supply problem to those heads. Sorry to hear of your troubles, dude. I'm of no help.

 

[Korey]

Gosh, Korey, don't know a thing about Rastek but if the machine is giving acceptable quality for 5" I wouldn't think it had anything to do with defective heads.

Sounds more like a supply problem to those heads. Sorry to hear of your troubles, dude. I'm of no help.

This is what we are thinking as well...for some reason we can't seem to get all the techs to agree with us. It's almost like the ink supply isn't staying full enough so it drops out. Not that the print is perfect before we pause it but at least it is somewhat acceptable.

Does anyone have any ideas as far as how to test the supply to the heads?

 

[drive]

i have an H700. How often are you bleeding the lines from the printhead (to remove air)

 

[JS]

Rastek 650

I just had my Rastek 650 installed yesterday. I asked my tech about your situation and he agreed it is not print heads. He's thinking somthing in the vacuum line or pump. I would say the printer in under warranty and I would demand they arrive immediatly and repair it until it works as it should. I bought mine as a demo and they had it for a year. He never saw that kind of issue. They seem to be pretty honest about it.

 

[drive]

Our H700 was a demo model. It had zip ties clamping the ink lines together and all kinds of good stuff to boot. Even after replacing all the clamps I still bleed the lines each day before use. A little air is leeching into the lines and will cause partial head drop outs about 6"-12" into a print. ....and if you get alot of overspray despite static elimination bars, static spray cleaners yada yada yada, make sure they didn't put the head carriage on crooked. It'll save you alot of headaches!

 

[Korey]

I just had my Rastek 650 installed yesterday. I asked my tech about your situation and he agreed it is not print heads. He's thinking somthing in the vacuum line or pump. I would say the printer in under warranty and I would demand they arrive immediatly and repair it until it works as it should. I bought mine as a demo and they had it for a year. He never saw that kind of issue. They seem to be pretty honest about it.

We have tried and tried to get an actual Rastek technian in here but to no avail. We have only had our dealer techs in here.

Just yesterday our computer froze up and wouldn't even turn on. This is a new computer, they sent us a replacement because the old one kept crashing on us. Now this morning the computer works fine and loads up all the programs and everything.

 

[pstrwks]

Hi I Run a Rastek H650 in South Africa - It's just out of warranty - Despite some lamp issues (ink not curing), expired ink and lamp power issues the printer has been great. I have been more disappointed in the Fiery XF software than in the printer. The length correction does not seem to work and the file does not process.

Today however I am experiencing a fine overspray problem. I have adjusted Water temperature, voltages and media, but the overspray remains. Any ideas?

 

[HaroldDesign]

Hi I Run a Rastek H650 in South Africa - It's just out of warranty - Despite some lamp issues (ink not curing), expired ink and lamp power issues the printer has been great. I have been more disappointed in the Fiery XF software than in the printer. The length correction does not seem to work and the file does not process.

Today however I am experiencing a fine overspray problem. I have adjusted Water temperature, voltages and media, but the overspray remains. Any ideas?

I haven't run one of those, but when I ran a Vutek that sort of symptom would happen when the head height was off or the electrostatic bars needed cleaning.

 

[pstrwks]

Seems to be temperature related. Ambient temperature seem to be too high raising the ink temperature and reduces the viscosity and results in this fine overspray. Increased vacuum and lowering ink preset temperature seems to help, might have to install air cons after all. so much for the improved economy. I'll keep trying.

 

[drive]

What substrates are you printing on?

 

[NitroTech]

We have a Rastek H650 that we have had for roughly 9 months. We have had nothing but problems and none of the 3 techs that have been here have been able to completely solve the problem. We are currently wasting tons of time and money trying to get jobs out the door to our customers. We are having to pause the printing every 5" or so in order to avoid color dropping out, lines, etc. The latest tech that was here had conversations with Rastek and they believe that we need new printheads which is ridiculous because it has not had enough run time to have them be warn out. Has anyone else had similar issues?

I run an H650 and have experienced the same problem. It would print for about 5" and then there would be serious magenta dropout. The problem was air in the head, after I opened the line form the printhead and purged the air, it printed good again.

 

[JoshMarten]

There could be one of three things affecting your printing, two have been mentioned, but as a Rastek dealer, I agree with them:
1- air in lines - see if you can purge
2- vacuum leak or pump problem - check lines and fit
3 - ink level - how is the level in the bottle that keeps dropping out? How old is the ink? try exchanging it and see what happens. make sure the ink line pickup is not sucking air due to low ink level.

I sent Rastek a message service with a link to this thread. I don't know about the status of your service agreement or your dealers agreement with Rastek, our printers get serviced directly by Rastek, but many dealers do not. Perhaps it will help.