How long a DX7 printhead is supposed to last?

[Lady Who]

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

 

[Solventinkjet]

DX7 heads with solvent inks usually last 3 to 5 years depending on use. The official life is 6 billion fires. If you don't use it a lot that can make it clog faster but usually a cleaning will bring it back. Have you changed the cap top yet? It should be changed once a year. Also, machines that sit without being used a lot sometimes will clog the pump. I usually flush the pump with cleaning solution when i replace the cap top just to make sure. My guess is if the cap top hasn't been changed then it's just not sealing properly so cleanings are essentially doing nothing. Also, it happens to magenta and not black because magenta is on the edge of the cap top where it will be affected by a poor seal first.

 

[CSOCSO]

Yep Its better if the printer is running every week. other than that. Do you use oem inks? have you tinkered with your printer lately?
Do you clean it regularly? Do you keep it powered on when you not use it? you should! So it does the automatic cleaning once in a while.

 

[Lady Who]

DX7 heads with solvent inks usually last 3 to 5 years depending on use. The official life is 6 billion fires. If you don't use it a lot that can make it clog faster but usually a cleaning will bring it back. Have you changed the cap top yet? It should be changed once a year. Also, machines that sit without being used a lot sometimes will clog the pump. I usually flush the pump with cleaning solution when i replace the cap top just to make sure. My guess is if the cap top hasn't been changed then it's just not sealing properly so cleanings are essentially doing nothing. Also, it happens to magenta and not black because magenta is on the edge of the cap top where it will be affected by a poor seal first.

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

 

[Lady Who]

Yep Its better if the printer is running every week. other than that. Do you use oem inks? have you tinkered with your printer lately?
Do you clean it regularly? Do you keep it powered on when you not use it? you should! So it does the automatic cleaning once in a while.

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?

 

[Solventinkjet]

you mean, 6 billion fire each line or the head (lines) altogether?

6 billion for each line. Usually magenta and yellow will hit that mark first.

 

[Lady Who]

6 billion for each line. Usually magenta and yellow will hit that mark first.

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]

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...

Unfortunately no. The head on that machine is configured specifically that way. To change the color order you would need to be able to edit the firmware.

 

[Lady Who]

Unfortunately no. The head on that machine is configured specifically that way. To change the color order you would need to be able to edit the firmware.

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]

It's a creative idea for sure but I can't tell you either way. You would definitely need to turn off color correction for it to work but it's not something I have ever tried. If you do try it out, let us know how it goes!

 

[Lady Who]

It's a creative idea for sure but I can't tell you either way. You would definitely need to turn off color correction for it to work but it's not something I have ever tried. If you do try it out, let us know how it goes!

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.

 

[Khoi Decal]

I'm also use Mimaki JV150 DX7, after 10 months, the red color is bad.

 

[Lady Who]

I'm also use Mimaki JV150 DX7, after 10 months, the red color is bad.

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

 

[lubo1972]

Which type of Mimaki ink? We got two DX7 heads dead caused by BS4 magenta ink. First die for 2 or 3 days, second die a week after that.

 

[Lady Who]

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.

 

[micadesign]

you got the same problem as i.... the difference is that my jv300 has two head and now both head are missing nozzles.

seriously, i don't know what to due...

(só sei que isto é uma merda!!!)