GS6000 - Ink on platen & first pass of vinyl

[mudmedia]

Maybe someone on here can help me. Epson wants $3,000 plus labor in parts because they are not sure what is wrong with it. Cleaned manually every monday with electronic cleaning daily. Nozzle check is perfect no missing nozzles. Just replaced wiper & soak pad. Capping stations replaced about 6 months ago when a tech replaced one of the heads.

As photos are attached you can see that on the first pass of printing it will drop runs of ink on the edges. It also leaves a run of ink on the left side of the platen (when looking directly at the printer). Any clue to what can cause this? With our previous printers it has been it needs to be cleaned but it does it even after cleanings. Any suggestions? It does not necessarly affect print quality but it is annoying and I do not think correct and who knows it could possibly be affecting our prints.

Thanks in advance!

 

[mpn]

Long shot, but have you switched to running with the flushing to the sheet as it prints? Don't know the actual term for it.

 

[mudmedia]

I have no but will give that a shot. It is just really weird its the first pass or two.

 

[mpn]

Yes it is weird, but with the stuff that can be read about their ink sets lately and what I've gone through here, it does not surprise me.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Make sure ink is flowing through the cap top properly. If ink is staying the cap top too long it sticks to the head n falls off in the first few passes. If everything in the maintenance are is working properly, I would start with some new dampers. If the tech changed your head and tried to put the dampers on dry which causes the seals to roll up, there could be an air leak between the dampers and manifold which would cause ink to fall out of the head as well.

 

[mudmedia]

Hey VanderJ,

Thank you for your response. The cap tops appear to be flushing ink. There is no puddling of ink in the cap tops at all. When it comes to replacing dampers arent they a pain on this machine? Is it something to where we can do ourselves to see if it solves the issue before we call a tech?

 

[handbrake]

I have a GS6000 and similar thing happens to me but it only does it when I do a head clean. What happens is that the flushing pad can't absorb ink fast enough so the ink builds up until it sticks to the head, thus smearing ink all over the place.
So, when I do a head clean, I wait for a bit before doing any printing, ink absorbs into the pad and all is good.

See if that has anything to do with your issue. Do you clean the heads before printing?

Cheers

Dan

 

[lgroth]

Sometimes it's as simple as a piece of fuzz stuck to a head. After running scrim banners I'll sometimes get a little piece of fuzz from the scrim on a head and when the heads are capped it soaks up ink, when you start printing it drips off. I keep a good powerful flashlight handy to inspect the heads when this happens, sometimes it's hard to find, but usually ends up being the problem.

 

[mudmedia]

I have a GS6000 and similar thing happens to me but it only does it when I do a head clean. What happens is that the flushing pad can't absorb ink fast enough so the ink builds up until it sticks to the head, thus smearing ink all over the place.
So, when I do a head clean, I wait for a bit before doing any printing, ink absorbs into the pad and all is good.

See if that has anything to do with your issue. Do you clean the heads before printing?

Cheers

Dan

Thank you for the answer! I will try this I do a manual cleaning every week and then the printer cycles cleaning every 6 hours. Do I need to do a manual clean more often? I have also been noticing when I come in and print the first print nozzles are missing and then when I restart the printer nozzle pattern is perfect again. It drops ink on the vinyl even when I do not do a cleaning.

I will try to wait a bit and see if that helps but your answer makes sense.

Thanks