Happy New Year, Back to Work, and now two Problematic Mimakis...

[jfiscus]

We took some time off for the holidays, and now that we're back (and slammed with new orders) our Mimaki printers are acting up.
Two different printers, two different problems:

Printer "A": Mimaki JV3-160SP
The printer is randomly defaulting back to Local mode during the middle of jobs. If you hit Remote again, the printing resumes.
We caught it once right after it did it, but the 2nd time it sat for a bit and ruined the print. Anyone ever seen this before?

Printer "B": Mimaki JV3-
The Cyan ink test print will show up EITHER the top half or bottom half of the nozzle check pattern fine, or other random parts of the check pattern will show up, but never the entire Cyan pattern area.
It changes when you do different cleanings, soak, etc, but we cannot get the entire Cyan area to show up good to proceed with printing.
I am assuming it is the seal on the cap, or the damper? Is that correct, or could it be something else?

 

[genericname]

1. I'd open it up and check all connections/clean the boards. Sound like a short, maybe? Like the circuit for the "remote" switch is being closed and pulling it into local mode.

2. Any that you mentioned, plus manifolds. You could have a small fissure in them, causing you to lose pressure.

 

[player]

That sucks big time...

Did anyone have access to them during the shutdown? Weird they would go bad like that...

 

[MikePro]

local mode issue: most definitely an issue with connections, maybe the button has even become worn and being hair-triggered by the vibration of the machine during operation?

cyan issue: most likely a capping station issue. try disassembling/cleaning/reassembling the cyan captop. loose-fitting the rubber cap before re-parking the carriage may also help make a tighter seal.

 

[jfiscus]

Printer 1 was just fixed by shutting it ALL the way down (the switch on the rear), another employee had tried rebooted it off using the front switch, but apparently that wasn't enough...
It kept getting worse and worse before we figured it out, eventually only printing one pass before switching to local.

Printer 2 is still down, I'll try messing with the captop seal.
There is visible air bubbles in the line...

 

[MikePro]

There is visible air bubbles in the line...

that'll do it. air in the ink likes screw-up the siphon effect of the ink supply.
try just running a fillupink or two, until all the bubbles are drawn into the damper (air in the damper is fine) If that doesn't work, pulling ink through with a syringe would be the next-step but try to avoid unless necessary.

 

[GettysburgSigns]

I've just run through a slew of similar issues... and many of the issues just compounded each of the other problems!

• Make sure all of your inklines Coming FROM the Ink Cartridge are NOT Cracked. Mine had tiny tiny tiny splits at the Dampers (the ink bags near the print heads) from the Pressure of the Brass Nuts and Compression Rings/Grommets. I just snipped off about 3/8ths of an inch of inkline from each.
• My Black Inklines - AT the Ink Cartridge, had somehow begun to Leak, and one was loose enough to just slip out with minimal pulling. That caused a lack of vacuum, blocked heads, and it's Probably why I had over-tightened the Dampers - causing the splits.