F#(%!NG Head Strike - Might Have Lost a Head... Help

[MrSalumi]

Roland SolJet II SJ-540

I'll try to make this brief. I was running a banner job today and was experiencing some static issues so I set the head position down to "low". I walked away from the printer for 5 minutes and heard the beep of death. I ran over to the machine to find the printer carriage jammed up against the material and all sorts of F#(%ED up.

I cleared the material and ran the heads over to check everything out. Physically everything looked ok (no obvious signs of leaking or damage).

Tried a test print and got massive streaking like something was leaking badly.

Then, ran the heads over to do another manual cleaning and inspection (which again looked good)

Fired off another test print and it actually printed really well! The Magenta head looked a tiny bit week since the Yellow on the same bank seemed to overpower any magenta print. But all in all it looked ok.

I decided to run a "powerful" head clean on the magenta bank and after I did.... I queued up the next banner and BOOM!!! No magenta.

In the test print it looks like there is a vacuum problem or something. I drew ink from the damper with a syringe and there is no blockage. But I get no clear magenta print in any test print or actual print.

I've since run the heads over for another look and it looks like the magenta head is leaking badly from the surface of the head.

ANY Ideas? I am so bummed!

 

[SKD937]

I've jammed up our XC 540 pretty bad a few times but I've never had any troubles like this. I've only had to recalibrate the printer and it was back to normal. Do you use media clips? Banner material for us can be a pain.....hope you get it fixed!!

 

[HulkSmash]

try doing an ink fill.

If all else fails just buy a new head...

 

[rotunda]

First off I would check for gaps in your ink lines above the dampers. do you have a syringe kit? if so, you can connect the syringe adapter to your vac line for the head in question and pull the ink through the head and cap station manually. If ink comes through, run a couple of medium cleaning cycles and see if ink flow continues. If it comes back then your head should be ok, and you may get away with just new dampers

You can also try grounding your printer; we had a ton of problems with ours until we grounded it.

 

[MrSalumi]

WAHOOO!!!!

I worked on this thing all damned night tracing the vacuum leak and found that the magenta head adapter had a tiny crack in the nipple that the damper sets on. $14 part later and we are in business!

Thanks for the help all! Rotunda, next time I'll pull it from the bottom to confirm that there is a leak. That's good advice!