How could this happen?

[midnightmadman]

Falcon Outdoor was running great for a long time. The other day I noticed my pump hose was messed up and caught near the gears. I've had to fix this same problem before... no big deal. So everything goes back together as planned and I'm getting horrible banding from the heads not all firing in almost every color. I do a couple syringe pulls from the wast lines and it doesnt help.
I do some power cleanings, and that doesnt help either. I do a head soak for a couple days.. still doesnt help! I pull ink from the dampers and everything seems fine.. pull in again from waste station... still wont help.... head soak again and repeat all above and still nothing.
Could something have went wrong when I fixed the pumps? I just dont see how that could have effected my heads? It seems like they dried up or are clogged but then the head soak should have helped? I actually revived these heads about 2 years ago from sitting unused in a storage unit for about 2 months and they were printing great! So this shouldn't be that big of a challenge.. but its turning into one.

 

[sghobbies]

Have you checked the lines on the pump? I have had ink clot in those lines and had similar issues.

 

[midnightmadman]

Well they seemed perfect when i took it apart. It seems like a head problem. I can pull ink fine out of the waste station. Its just that the heads for some reason seem to have all dried up. Maybe my capping station is bad and it wasn't seated good? But then why would I not be able to get the heads to clear back up after a soaking?

 

[HIGHTEC]

Replace dampers

First replace your dampers, on the color that giving you problems. If that does not work, check the seal around the capping stations, make sure there is no tears or marks that would allow air. It need to be a tight seal to make sure the pumps are working properly. Also when you are doing a normal cleaning, look at the lines in the waste tank, are you getting dripping out of the lines. Most of the time it the dampers, they usally have to be replaced every year, I see most of my clients keeping them for several years. If there is a restriction flow in the dampers, it will play out inside your heads..... Hope this helps....

 

[Stealth Ryder]

It's all about ink flow... If the flow is weakened at any point you will have issues...

 

[midnightmadman]

Thanks guys. The heads seem to have cleared a bit from more ink pulls, except the black.
The question I have is it is the dampers, why would all of the colors weaken at once?
Is there another way to make sure its the dampers before spending $ on them? When I pull from the black line at the bottom on the damper I get plenty of ink too.