HELP!! Lost all my black ink overnight.

[theKING]

mimaki JV3 130 SPII

Added a black ink cartridge yesterday around 5 pm... let machine pull ink... One BLK was new other was on 8

Shut off printer and called it a day.

This morning turn on printer to run some jobs and the black ink shows near end on both cartridges... where did the ink go?

Over flow bottle shows half full but it hasnt been changed in a while so I am not sure how much was in it prior to yesterday.


Any help would be appreciated on what to look at.... Dont want to purchase another black ink set on it just to lose it...

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Is it possible that it is reading an old ink cartridge. You don't have a bunch of ink all over the place do you. I would think if the printer was shut down it's not going to dump the ink through the lines.

 

[theKING]

do not see ink all over... pulled the ink cartridges out - they are about empty... can tell by weight. No ink on floor... must be in the bottle. ????

Of course I have jobs due today... ugh.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Yea that is a strange one. I don't know if your ink cartridges are pressurized like the latex machine but almost seems like they have were and just depressurized overnight into the waste cont. That or the cart itself had an issue keeping a vaccum in the bag and let air in and it somehow gravity fed all last night.

 

[theKING]

IF I put two new BLK ink cartridges in it is it likely I will lose all that ink also? Never had this happen.. I just found out from an employee that the printer was ON all night.. problem associated with that?

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

This makes me think a little differently. So what happened when you turned it off yesterday, for it to stay on. If it was on all night it might have some sort of a cleaning process where it puts ink through to keep the heads from drying up. I would talk to the mfg. about what it does while it is ON and not printing. I know several printers have a cleaning that goes every 30 mins or so. Maybe it was because of this. The only other thing I could think of would be you didn't load it properly but it wouldn't push ink through it would only leak out of the cart. Not sure maybe someone else can give you some better things to look at.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Looks like there is a cleaning menu or such that you can change the cleaning cycles. Maybe your cleaning cycles are set too close together. Also read a couple things about how they were wasting a lot of ink and then they updated to the new firmware with better results. Do a google search for jv3 wasting too much ink.

 

[theKING]

looks like the printer just wasnt shut down... I loaded ink and walked away... had to leave- father being taken to ICU.. Employee left it on.. admitted he didnt think to check it for powering off before he left. Ya know... when you dont pay the electric bill you dont worry about whats on..

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Hope all works out well. You could change your cleaning cycles also to help avoid this problem and save more ink. Just make sure your heads stay good. Also, hope everything at the hospital went well.

 

[Gino]

So, how's your father doing ??

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

Are you sure your new cart was full? I have a jv3 160sp and left it on overnight a few times and it never drained my carts, it does clean itself every 45 minutes but the amount of ink it uses is very little. Check to see if you have any hair's from banner material hanging off your heads that can cause it to wick your carts.

 

[theKING]

Father is not doing well.. but is stable.

found a small fiber on the outside of the capping station... perhaps it caused it. ?

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

If the fiber wicked all of your ink out of the cart then there would be a ton of ink at the end of the fiber.

 

[theKING]

Did not notice the ink on the fiber but the ink must have ended up in the bottle somehow as there is no ink elsewhere. Took a couple of panels off and looked inside and everything looks clean.. With nearly 2 cartridges gone I would think I would notice it if it leaked elsewhere.. should cleaning the heads and capping station resolve the issue? Head appears to be seating correctly with right amount of pressure and level... do not know of any head strikes that could have altered alignment

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

How often are you cleaning cycles set. I think it is safe to say the ink is in the bottle, but how did it get there. If the printer was on my assumption would be cleaning cycles but an entire cart. in a night is a lot of wasted ink even for the cleaning cycles. Where did the fiber lead to? Did it look like if the ink followed the fiber it would go into the bottle?

 

[theKING]

How often are you cleaning cycles set. I think it is safe to say the ink is in the bottle, but how did it get there. If the printer was on my assumption would be cleaning cycles but an entire cart. in a night is a lot of wasted ink even for the cleaning cycles. Where did the fiber lead to? Did it look like if the ink followed the fiber it would go into the bottle?

the fiber appeared to be outside of the black seal... touching it but not on the metal grid inside of it... just against the outside edge. Perhaps when i moved the carriage out the fiber was moved. Nervous about plugging in two new ink cartridges and losing the ink again... suggestions?

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Put them in and pay attention for the next couple hours to see if your loosing ink/.