Help!! Mimaki White ink line clogged

[billram570]

I need help!

Ive got a Mimaki JV33 that ive been running for a little over two years. When I (Reverse print) print the color first and white last the white doesnt print at all. The weird thing is if I print a plain white box It prints, but with some banding and its a little transluscent. So I did a bunch of nozzle washes and soaks for 99 minutes even. I also did a bunch of HD Cleanings. I changed the the 2 white dampers. Actually, before i changed the dampers, after I took the cover off of the ink carriage, i noticed that the 2nd white ink line was clear. Im not sure if there is a clog is in the ink line or what? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this.

Also, after I changed the dampers , I did a few HD Cleanings to try and prime the dampers. Now when I do a "Test Print" Im not getting anything out of the white dampers. Should I buy a syringe and try and prime the dampers that way? Also, would a syringle help clear the ink line if its clogged? If anyone can help me i would really appreciate it.

My dealer seems to only like doing installs and I cant seem to get them out to help me. I've been down now for 5 days. So if anyone can help me I would be forever grateful.

 

[artbot]

just had a bad clog that i had to clear up. mine was a uv curable varnish (running in the white lines. seems it cured up a bit in the translucent ink lines because of my "in hull" led's). i couldn't get anything to come out of the tube using a lot of vacuum and positive pressure. finally cleared up by sending a wire down the lines about two feet passed the head carriage. i guess i'm going to need to put black/opaque ink tubes in soon. no biggy.


...

yes, you will definitely need some syringes. not all syringes are created equal. ones that i've got from supplier like solventinkonline are very hardy and can develop trememdous vacuum/pressure. others from tractor supply for veterinary use were horrible.

the white ink is nasty. i use it a lot. but when done, i flush the lines (or occasionally flush). if possible don't run it directly in the machine. my direct factory lines are running cleaning solution. and i run white and clear and soon silver outside the machine.

to clean those tubes, you'll need a good syringe, some MEK (add a little reducer/retarder butyl cellosolve or something similar). get a clear cartridge fill it will the MEK. (the MEK is much more aggressive than cleaning solution. it won't hurt anything from your ink tube to the clear cartridge. but don't put it in your head carriage/print heads etc.) pull off the line to the damper pull and push the fluid back and forth inside the line and hard as you can both with the syringe loaded with solvent pushing, and pulling from the cleaning cartridge side. be carefull when pushing. the syringe tube could burst off the syringe and you might blaze MEK all over your slider board if not careful. also, get a small wire and feed it down the tube as far as you can from the head carriage side. many of the clogs can occur as the lines head up and over to the head carriage. if all else fails, you'll have to replace the ink tubes. it's a bit of a task. but not rocket science. just basic knuckle busting an cussing. two hours and you'll be done. also, if you are running white always keep an extra head adapter around. the white ink can easily clog the much finer filter in the head adapter. (check out the pic of the dampers, that is the crud that your printer is full of right now).

keep in mind that white ink has solid titanium oxide particles. if these things settle, there is no solvent that will clean them off. they are inert.

attached are some pics of my white ink work around. it's primitive. and will be upgraded with better valves when business calms down a bit. but for now, it works well. and the machine is happy.

 

[billram570]

Thanks Artbot,

I took a guitar string and ran it through and I think it unclogged the ink tube. It felt pretty thick in there when i was pushing it through. Im waiting on my syringe to get here in the morning and im going to try and suck the fluid back into the dampers. Hopefully this will do the trick. I run white ink everyday so hopefully this does it.

BTW I like your setup. Would like to know more about your uv varnish. So can you do a pretty good spot varnish with it? I do packaging prototypes and get a call for spot varnish probably no less than three times a week. How much would you charge to come rig my machine up here in Dallas? We actually keep pretty busy here, im going to purchase 2 more JV33s before the summer is out and it would be cool to rig one up to do spot varnish.

 

[artbot]

well, i'm an artist, so my varnish might not do the trick for what you are doing. i print it over some pieces that are matte and then blast it with a uv hand wand. it has a slight ink melting characteristic to it. so artistically cool, but maybe not for press. the clear is nothing but polyurethane (uv) and cleaning solution, the solution evaporates away leaving the uv. simple. i'd like to mess with some mimaki ujv clear, but i've got so many things going on. i'm sticking with anything that isn't broke.

to reroute the ink outside the printer is really easy. really. the main concern is getting the outside cartridge shelf at the right height. each 1/2" up or down adds or subtracts from the siphon effect.

the first time i set my printer up with the white, i didn't do a very good job of flushing the line. the line was ruined by white ink plaque. flakes coming off everywhere. so don't let that line go dry, or it will be ruined. like i mentioned, a solvent can't help the line get clean at that point. now i clean the line out until it is milky/translucent/clearish, leaving no build sign of white residue.

as far as conversions, i am slammed with business. it's a suicide mission every day. but i love the pace. i'd be happy to trade emails about the set up. it's surprisingly easy to do. also, i'm adding an automatic cleaning system with 3-way valves. that will allow solution with a 1/4".

attached is another white ink mod. a "recycling" system. i'm not sure though if the dx5 has contaminated white ink from adjacent colors. ....

 

[Case]

I'm sure your dealer would be glad to come out, but you have to pay the price........ There is a price on service, it is not free....

Case

 

[billram570]

Im not stupid. I have no problems paying the dealer. Ive ran over a half a million dollars on my mimaki the last couple of years. So thats not an issue. The dealer has been trying to troubleshoot my machine over the phone for the past week without solution because they have their tech guys busy on installs. Im just frustrated with the dealer because weve been down since last Tuesday and for one reason or another their tech guys are too busy to fix a machine. I guess the dealer is a little more interested in selling new machines then servicing their existing machines. So to answer your comments. Money is not the issue!!