Discussion Question How long a DX7 printhead is supposed to last?

I have a Mimaki CJV150, always kept it clean and using original ink and parts. Bought this machine brand new and after about 15 months I started getting trouble with magenta right line. And now, after 20 months I started losing the left magenta line and completely lost the right magenta. There was no head strike nor phisical damage. Tech said problem was the head and I'll need a new one soon.

I'm a small online shop and don't print as much as a sign shop. Do you think low usage could be the cause of this issue? If so, then why is this affecting magenta instead of black? I mean, magenta is the second most used color, after yellow and doesn't it make sense that, if the problem was low usage, then the black nozzles should be the first ones to drop off?

It's frustrating

 

Tech will only get back to work on 6th, I'm still waiting to replace captop but I'm feeling hopeless, I doubt it would solve the problem because I missed right magenta about 8 days ago... maybe it's irreversible My machine won't sit idle, I'd print at least a little every day or every 2 days. Pump seems to be working fine, I've removed the front cover to watch it working and I could see the liquid running through the hoses. I got your point, then, I think it's a good idea to ask the tech to switch positions and place black on the edges (if this is possible)...
I took a look at dampers, everything looks fine, except there's a little air bubble in magenta round bag on the right side of right line, but then I saw a smaller bubble on yellow in another damper (outer left) and since yellow is fine, maybe that bubble is normal. Anyways, I didn't touch anything to avoid making things worse. I have only 4 dampers with 2 colors in each.
Thanks for you time

 

Hi, thanks, yes, original Mimaki inks. Maintenance ok, cleaning ok, power on... I'm doing everything user manual recommends.

By the way guys, I just checked head usage and it ranges from 35 to 71 million shots, being black the lines with less shots. Solventinkjet , you mean, 6 billion fire each line or the head (lines) altogether?

 

Thanks Solventinkjet What about switching magenta / black lines? It could be a workaround to spare me from buying another printhead, right? In case changing cap doesn't make it...

 

Solventinkjet so you mean even with magenta ink running through the black nozzles, the machine will still print, but with the messed up colors, right? If so, there's another way: I could edit the artworks in Photoshop and set up the magenta channel of the image to black and vice versa, so I'll input an image with messed colors and get the results I want.
Please see the attachment example and tell me if this could work. Seems too easy to be true, I must be missing something.
Thanks a lot

 

Solventinkjet yes, I'll surely post here everything I try. I'm preparing for all possible if/then situations to try while tech is here next week.

To make sure I grasp it: if that nozzles issue is due to poor sealing, if pump and everything else is ok, than nozzles can be recovered for sure after cap replacement and a couple of cleanings? Or since some time has passed, ink has dried up inside and those nozzles will never come back? Because maybe I should sue this company for not changing the cap back then.

About the magenta being in the edges and therefore, be the first one to clog, I thought exactly the same and asked this to the tech in november when he came here, and he said if there was a problem with sealing, other nozzles would get clogged aleatory, not only in the edges and then he ran some cap test in service menu and said sealing was ok and didn't change the cap.

 

I'm still working with mine, you can adjust ink limit amount in Raster Link to compensate the missing lines. I still didn't get the tech in here, this one I know won't make things the way I want, so I'm managing to bring a tech from another city... will cost me a lot

 

Hello guys! I finally found the time to update you on my issue.
First week this month I brought in another Mimaki tech, with 7 years of experience. He changed the captop, did some tests and is 99% sure my problem is really the printhead.

Nozzles are not clogged, because he pressed the damper before printing a test and a lot of magenta dripped on the media when the carriage moved, but nozzles wouldn't fire at all. He disconected and cleaned the contacts in the electric cable of the head, but nothing changed. Also, he noticed magenta ink is mixing in the edges of cyan line and that's why he didn't even inverted the dampers: according to him, this mixing means that probably the internal chamber of the head is breaking and simply removing the dampers could break it all at once and I could not print anymore. He said he's never seen this type of print head fail in such a short time, since those printheads would last about 5 years, especially with this mild solvent ink that I use.

And a few days ago, I also lost that cyan line that was mixed with magenta and now black is beginning to mix with yellow, which makes me think and yellow will disappear soon. Back in december, I thought this mixing was due to a bad captop, but apparently it's something worse.

What do you think Solventinkjet ?

Those who want to know how I managed to keep working with those missing lines, read this post here.