Epson DX4 Print Heads - Are they all the same?

[Graphics2u]

Many printers have used these print heads (JV3, Rockhopper II, Falcon II, Toucan LT, and many Rolands as well). You can buy these heads from many online suppliers or through you printers manufacturer. They all have a head rank which needs input into your printer. My question is are these head ranks compatible accross various printers?

For instance can you buy a head from an online source that's not specificly a Mimaki head or a Mutoh head or a Roland head and use that same head rank on any of those printers that it's installed into?

I thought this was the case. However after coming accross a interesting blog at http://www.digiprint-supplies.com/blog/ I read the following:

Electrically – This is the voltage that is applied to the head to force out the droplets on grand format printers it is normally as a voltage reference which is adjusted by a potentiometer on a head board, however on large format it is by entering a head rank number which not only sets the voltage but various other items such as drop size, firing rate etc. It is on these units it becomes difficult to determine which numbers actually change the voltage, because the crystal characteristics change by increasing the voltage you can sometimes improve the quality but changing the numbers randomly can cause problems like nozzle drop out and deflection. These heads are manufactured with the head rank for optimum quality for a given printer and should therefore be replaced when quality starts to fall away normally with blocked nozzles that cannot be cleaned, leading to deflection or no output.

Does anyone have knowledge about this?

Thanks

 

[Rat_Fink]

I have used an epson head in my Mutoh Falcoln Jr that I found thru an online supplier. The price was much lower than if I had purchased thru a Mutoh dealer or authorized repair. I had no problems at all.

 

[Jack Knight1979]

I stopped buying heads from my roland dealer as they are trying to sell them for a grand now.

You still need to buy them for the proper machine. Each head ranking is different for each brand machine. I bought a mimaki head once and the ranking was totally different.

You can run the head with a different ranking, but I will never do that.

So at the end of the day buy the head for your machine from an online seller and you save about 50% over the cost of your authorized dealer.

 

[Graphics2u]

You still need to buy them for the proper machine. Each head ranking is different for each brand machine. I bought a mimaki head once and the ranking was totally different.
.

That's what I was wondering. I have been told by a online supplier that the head rankings were the same and it didn't matter what machine you put them in as long as you enter the Ranking that comes with the head.

Not sure but I think that's giving me some issues.

 

[Jim Hancock]

The head rank setting is determined by the print head manufacturer. It is a fine tuning of the voltage setting to account for variations in the characteristics of the print head nozzles in each head. When you enter the head rank numbers in your printer, you are telling the printer what the voltage needs to be for that particular print head. The voltage (i.e. head rank) of a particular print head will be the same regardless of which printer it is going in, Roland, Mimaki, Epson, etc. The head rank is different on every print head, as each head has slightly different characteristics. So, a print head purchased from a Roland dealer could be used in a Mimaki. If someone knows differently, please let me know, as I am a tech and have been doing this for a number of years with no issues. That being said, I would disagree with this statement "These heads are manufactured with the head rank for optimum quality for a given printer".

 

[Graphics2u]

The head rank setting is determined by the print head manufacturer. It is a fine tuning of the voltage setting to account for variations in the characteristics of the print head nozzles in each head. When you enter the head rank numbers in your printer, you are telling the printer what the voltage needs to be for that particular print head. The voltage (i.e. head rank) of a particular print head will be the same regardless of which printer it is going in, Roland, Mimaki, Epson, etc. The head rank is different on every print head, as each head has slightly different characteristics. So, a print head purchased from a Roland dealer could be used in a Mimaki. If someone knows differently, please let me know, as I am a tech and have been doing this for a number of years with no issues. That being said, I would disagree with this statement "These heads are manufactured with the head rank for optimum quality for a given printer".

That's what I've always been told told also Jim. And then I read that comment and it got me wondering. It would be nice to hear from a Tech on it.

 

[Jim Hancock]

I am a Tech, Roland certified on the older ProII and VersaCAMM's, though I don't work for a Roland dealer anymore... Started out back in the day repairing Radar, Communication and Navigation systems in the Navy for 6 years, fixing boards rather than replacing them. Now, I'll try my hand on any printer I can get a service manual for, Epson, Canon, Mutoh, Roland, Mimaki, etc...

Think about it, Epson bench testing people probably have no idea whether that DX4 head is going in a Roland, a Mutoh or a Mimaki. The printhead has to work correctly and print right or they couldn't sell them. IMHO...

 

[Graphics2u]

please let me know, as I am a tech

Oops! Sorry, I must have totally missed that in previous post. Thanks for the input.

 

[Jack Knight1979]

Epson makes all the heads. You can install any dx4 head in any machine, but I won't be putting a mimaki ranked head in my Roland. I want the proprietary Roland ranking on my head.

If someone had a conversion program to take a mimaki head and give you Roland ranking I would use it, but not worth putting a head in with different ranking.

 

[suncoastsignshop]

We have a DX4 Head from an Afga machine that we paid $400 for, but the damn head rank is way longer and not compatible in our machine.

 

[randya]

In my understanding, head ranks are designed for a particular ink set properties and the printer hardware/firmware capabilities.

Fundamentally, in a piezo printhead there are a nozzles and piezo channels.
When you apply a current to a piezo crystal it distorts to squeeze out a drop.

In a Variable Droplet situation you have basically a small drop and a medium drop.
Combine those together and you get a large drop.

It is the hardware/firmware of the printer that uses the head rank to control the formation of these droplets.

Changes in ink: such as surface tension or viscosity will affect how these droplets form AND how they eject from the nozzle opening affecting size and shape and accordingly WHERE they land (alignment).

In addition chemical compatibility could be an issue if the head was designed for aqueous inks and used with solvent inks. Lifespan of the head would be reduced, sometimes greatly.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

This is interesting. You always see people advertise the DX4 for example to fix all mimaki and roland machines. The "off brand" places do anyways that I have seen.

 

[SE SignSupply]

I have personally put a Mutoh DX4 in a Mimaki JV-3 without issue.

 

[Graphics2u]

This is interesting. You always see people advertise the DX4 for example to fix all mimaki and roland machines. The "off brand" places do anyways that I have seen.

Yes they do advertise that way, which led to my asking about this in the OP a few months ago. There are many on-line companies that have been mentioned many times on this forum for parts suppliers that sell these heads for between 700.00 - 900.00 while the manufacturers 1400.00 - 1600.00. So you can see why the question arises.

The problem I encountered was that when a print requiring a high saturation of Magenta or Cyan was printed I would start to lose nozzles causing banding issues. Many prints were just fine. Through trial and error (mostly errors) I went through every component that could be causing this from the heads back down the line to Mainboard and from dampers to replacing all the o-rings in every ink line. The problem still persisted after nearly 6,000.00 of unneeded parts and tech labor.

The conclusion was it must be the heads even though they were relatively new. There was 2 possible reasons they (my tech & Mutoh, neither of whom I blame for this) felt it was the heads.

1) Most of the heads you can buy at on-line suppliers were made to be used with water-based ink and there is the possibility that the seals have developed an air leak because of the solvent ink.

2) Since these heads are tested with water-based ink to determine the head ranks it could be that there is enough difference in the inks that the head ranks could be incorrect and causing the nozzles to drop out. Possibly overheating the head with the wrong voltage.

Both of those possibilities did make some sense to me, however after the amount of money I had already invested in the machine on fruitless repairs I decided it was time to stop the bleeding and move on! I really would have liked to put a genuine Mutoh head in the machine Just so that I knew that was definitely the problem or not. But couldn't justify it. So I guess we'll never really know. (Maybe thye'd like to send me one as a sample to test the therory and put this to rest once and for all. That way they'd have conclusive evidence and the rest of us would know there is a difference in the heads.)

What would be nice is for the manufacturers to bring their pricing down to a point where you wouldn't feel like you're getting ripped off when you buy from them. Might work out for everyone, consumer would have confidence that they were getting good parts and would continue to support the manufacturers which would result in the manufacturers selling more parts, eliminating many complaints about equipment problems due to the use of inferior parts. Seems simple.

 

[inkmed]

Epson produce all the DX4 head.
DX4 head include solvent head and water based head.
Solvent head use for Mimaki Roland and Mutoh solvent printers like Mimaki jv3, Roland Sj540 740, Mutoh RHII...
Water baesd head use for water printer like Mimaki jv2 jv4, Roland fj series and Epson printer.
All the DX4 printer head from Roland Mimaki and Mutoh are OEM from Epson, and the price is higher than the Epson DX4 head price.

Head rank is not importan, printer head can work normal without head rank.

Adam
from Inkmed

 

[sigmo]

I'm an Epson printer tech who has specialized in repairing Epson 3000's for several years now. I just joined this forum today as I'm looking to expand my services and I'm interested in learning what printers are using the 3000 heads (DX2?) as well as the newer DX4 & DX5 heads. I know this thread is about the DX4 but I thought I'd ad my experience on the earlier heads. Here's what I know: The 3000 color head was used in the following printers:
ROLAND FJ40, FJ42, FJ50, FJ52
ROLAND CJ400, CJ500, SC500, SJ500, SJ600
MUTOH RJ 4000, RJ 4100 (FALCON OUTDOOR JR. 38")
MUTOH RJ 6000, RJ 6100 (FALCON OUTDOOR 48" & 62")
MUTOH ROCKHOPPER I 38"
MUTOH ROCKHOPPER I 48"
MUTOH ROCKHOPPER I 62"
MIMAKI JV2
KODAK 3042, 3062
AGFA SHERPA 43i, 43DS2
PRISM JET EXTRA
IRIS OPAL
EPSON STYLUS COLOR 800, 850, 1520 & 3000
EPSON STYLUS PRO 5000, 7000, 7500, 9000 & 9500

The part numbers for the heads were different for each Epson printer but the heads are the same. Epson does not sell heads for other printer brands to the general public or resellers knowingly. They have contracts with those companies. The voltage is written on the side of the sc series and is an alphnumeric sticker on the top of the Pro series. In the adjustment software for the 3000 there is a process for converting a 6 letter alphanumeric Pro series voltage into the 7 digit voltage required for the 3000. The reason for installing the Pro series head is to eliminate microbanding issues when a printer is brought in for service. This tells me that even though the heads are the same, Epson has a way of determining that some heads do perform better than others and designate those heads to the higher end models. I have verified this in my opinion through testing of different part numbers and comparing the results. Mimaki, Mutoh and Roland buy their heads from Epson and I know this is fact. They have contracts with these companies and Epson is not giving them any breaks. Thus the high cost when buying direct from those companies. Remember Epson makes all the real money from ink sales. Once they sell a head to another company they can't make any money on it. By the sound of what Mutoh and others are charging for heads Epson is really sticking it to them. One of the reason Epson has made it very difficult to get the "good" pro series heads is because some DTG guys who had contracts to buy the heads from Epson learned they could get the higher quality heads from parts suppliers for much cheaper.

As for head voltage, the Epson trainer who teaches Epson ink jet classes to Epson techs says the voltage sets the oscillation of the piezo element inside each head. The element is unique for each head thus the need for a different voltage for each head. The voltage is not unique to the brand of printer and I know this for a fact.

Is it necessary to enter the voltage? I don't know. The Epson trainer says you must to avoid undesirable effects and won't elaborate. I always do because I can. I've also screwed around with heads that were "not fit for service" to see what changing the voltage would do. I ran printers for months with the wrong voltage to see what would happen. End result - nothing I could tell even under high magnification. I can say F055XXX series heads designated for use on the 9000 Pro prints a higher quality than the head designated for a sc 3000. I always install the 9000 Pro heads for this reason.

I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure the heads given to Roland, Mutoh and Mimaki are not the heads with alphanumeric labels on top, so Epson is keeping the best heads for themselves. Go figure.

I don't know as much about the newer Epson heads and compatibility or voltage issues at this time and hope to gain some more knowledge here from those who do.

I have extensive knowledge on cleaning, maintaining, storing and other techie things about printers and hope to offer up that knowledge here. Feel free to call me if you want to pick my brain.

Can anyone tell me what printers are using the DX4 and DX5 heads?


~Dave Parker
503-875-5719

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I know that my VP-540 uses the DX4 head

 

[sigmo]

In the adjustment software for the 3000 there is a process for converting a 6 letter alphanumeric Pro series voltage into the 7 digit voltage required for the 3000.

That should say "6 letter alphanumeric Pro series voltage into the 5 digit voltage"

My Bad.

~David

 

[henryp]

The printhead would still print even if the correct voltage is not entered but it may not produce optimum print quality.

On Mutoh Valuejet printers, there are 2 voltage values in the printhead parameter (head rank) that determine the size, shape, & position of the satellite dots relative to the main dot. The correct headrank must always be entered when a head is replaced to decrease the granularity of the printed output especially during high speed printing .

 

[Creative Support]

Hello Everyone

I need some advise, we have just received new DX4 Print Heads from a company in China, once we opened them up we noticed there is no sticker with the Head Rank numbers on them. Does anybody know if replacing these on a Mimaki JV3 without Head Rank numbers will work or damage the heads??

We can't afford to buy new ones. Has someone done this before??

If anyone can give us some advise we would be very appreciative.