"Gelled" Vutek Series 2 UV ink

[jhanson]

Hi all,

We recently had a few heads get clogged up as a result of a botched shutdown, thanks to the incompatibility of the QS Series 2 ink with Vutek's own head conditioner.

Question is, I've been using 100% acetone to try and recover the heads (the Vutek head conditioner is about 50% acetone and 50% polypropylene glycol / ethylene glycol, which is the component that causes the ink to gel ). Are there any better solvents I should be looking at to help dissolve the gelled ink? We have xylene readily available and could get MEK at the hardware store if needed.

 

[artbot]

some plastics used in print heads can not stand up to xylene. such as epson head manifolds will turn to chewing gum in 30 seconds when sunk in xylene.

do not use 100% acetone. it will cause rapid evaporation (condensation occurs which is the coagulation factor). the slowest retarder you can use is buytl carbitol (it's the di-ethyl cousin to eg.) you're best bet is to slow the acetone down. and or use nmp instead. nmp is the solvent found in hp latex inks that "bites" the media. it is a preferred solvent for cleaning out spray guns because it "lifts" particles as opposed to just melting them.

nmp will melt the solvent resistant cleaning swabs. so do some testing before getting this stuff near your heads. test on some ink dry and wet and observe if you see any coagulation. one test is to mix a solvent with the ink in a glass container. let the mix settle for several hours to a day. does the ink stay suspended or settle. if the ink settles, do not use that solvent.

 

[lubo1972]

Same problem to us. Printer is Yaselan FB1600UV with Triangle P2V inks. Magenta ink curred when contacted with flush. Head is dead. Nothing helps, we try methanol, accetone, cyclo hexanone. Ink is hard like cement inside head. THis is only to magenta, other colors are ok.
Bad triangle :-(

Sorry for bad English