Excessive dripping from Cyan

[odshawaii]

Hey guys,

The printer seems to be printing fine most of the time (for now anyways). But when I do our weekly nozzle wash, I notice excessive droplets of cyan on the head plate (see pic):

There were a few times I did a test draw and it looked like the cyan was crossing into the magenta lane.

Anyone experienced this and forsee any potential problems (and remedies) down the line?

Thanks!

 

[TomZ]

Any head strikes? It looks like the faceplate is coming off the head in the corner. If it is you will need a new head.

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

Any head strikes? It looks like the faceplate is coming off the head in the corner. If it is you will need a new head.

+1 - Had the same thing happen to me. Didn't realize I'd had a head strike and sure enough the face plate was dislodged. Before you order a new head though, check to see if you have any lint that may be hanging on the head that may be causing static to pull ink from the head. I struggled one day to figure out why I had ink dropping along the print laterally when the head appeared to be clean and it turned out to be a small piece of lint that was hard to see but ended up causing the problem. Good Luck.

 

[Solventinkjet]

It could also be a failing damper. I would start there. Are you using a bulk system? Third party inks? Sometimes it can just be a bad cartridge or a messed up bulk system.

 

[odshawaii]

Any head strikes? It looks like the faceplate is coming off the head in the corner. If it is you will need a new head.

I've had head-strikes in the past (mid to late last year) but none as of recently.

 

[odshawaii]

It could also be a failing damper. I would start there. Are you using a bulk system? Third party inks? Sometimes it can just be a bad cartridge or a messed up bulk system.

I was thinking it could be a damper issue so hopefully it's that. I'll replace that soon.

NO 3rd party inks, all OEM ink carts.

 

[APCInk]

Old dampers are the most likely cause of this as Solvent Inkjet said. If you pull the head cover off and can inspect the dampers I would guess there will be a blister on the left side of the 2nd damper that is causing the compression valve to open while printing and ink to flow through the head and drip. I would also inspect the other dampers for the same blisters as the others probably have them as well.

 

[odshawaii]

Old dampers are the most likely cause of this as Solvent Inkjet said. If you pull the head cover off and can inspect the dampers I would guess there will be a blister on the left side of the 2nd damper that is causing the compression valve to open while printing and ink to flow through the head and drip. I would also inspect the other dampers for the same blisters as the others probably have them as well.

I will try to replace that damper when the printer is offline. I'm hoping it is just that.

Will update once I do so, thanks for all the suggestions!

 

[odshawaii]

Just replaced the cyan damper and now it's not firing at all!

I visually checked to see if there was air in the ink line, none. Primed the damper with ink before attaching to the ink line and head nozzle.

Must have done a dozen ink fills with zero success. I checked the head nozzle / nipple and it doesn't look like its cracked.

My Mimaki tech won't be able to make it here till next Monday so feeling a bit frustrated right now, smh.

 

[odshawaii]

Update: I swapped places with the 1st magenta ink line / damper with the cyan ink line / damper. Did the test draw and the cyan prints fine in the 1st lane, but now the magenta won't print in the 2nd lane. Obviously there's an issue with the 2nd lane.

Any suggestions what to do next? Thinking I gently flush some cleaning solution thru the 2nd lane nozzle?

 

[odshawaii]

Update: I swapped places with the 1st magenta ink line / damper with the cyan ink line / damper. Did the test draw and the cyan prints fine in the 1st lane, but now the magenta won't print in the 2nd lane. Obviously there's an issue with the 2nd lane.

Any suggestions what to do next? Thinking I gently flush some cleaning solution thru the 2nd lane nozzle?

Final update:
I gently flushed the 2nd nozzle with cleaning solution, reinstalled the cyan damper and was successful.

HOWEVER, after putting back the magenta in the 1st lane, it refused to fire up on the next few test draws, wtf! I did a couple ink fills, no success

I primed and filled a new damper for the magenta, reconnected, still no luck. Finally, I had my co-worker press the magenta valve on the back of the machine while I extracted ink (with a syringe) from the new damper. While I noticed that I wasn't able to completely fill up the round circular area in the damper I thought I would have the same result.

Well what do you know, did a follow-up test draw and it actually fired-up! :Big Laugh

Did a few test prints and it seems to be running fine as of now. What puzzles me though is that the round part of the damper is not completely filled with ink, yet it's printing at 100%!

I don't know what I did wrong or right today, but I'm just stoked I got it running on all cylinders!

 

[odshawaii]

Forgot to add, whoever has issues installing new dampers, read this thread. It helped me to a certain degree:

http://www.signs101.com/forums/show...mper-installation-(-compression-damper-)-help!