How long is your roland DX4 printhead life span?

[dgpartsmall]

Many people use roland printers, many of models use dx4 print heads, talk about what is your print head lifespan?
Generally, when you need to replace it, you want to recover it or buy a new one?

 

[Jack Knight1979]

That varies on many factors. Head strikes, scratches, solvent content of ink, etc. My yellow head is my oldest. Probably four+ years old. All the other heads seem to die in two to three years. I've never had any luck recovering heads in ultrasonics. I have replaced broken manifolds to get a head running again. Rarely can I think of a time when a damper has caused a printhead problem. I have about 15 dampers in stock just in case.

The first sign of a dying head for me is ghosting or overspray. These symptoms get worse and worse, to the point of printing unsellable prints. The other failure is a blown fuse which travels to the head board and pops a resistor. Those failures are a major PITA.

 

[LFC911]

As a general rule, I think 8 billion is the expected life span of a DX4 however, we have seen some heads go into the teens of billion shots.

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

I have a Mimaki JV3 160SP and it uses the DX4 heads I bought it in 06 and the original heads are still perfect, plus I do a lot of printing with it. So knock on wood they are still running strong.

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

Here's a picture of my almost 8 year old print heads test print, I just printed it

 

[synergy_jim]

we just sold our Roland XC540 with zero nozzle dropout. It was 6 years old with moderate to heavy usage. Cleaned once a week.

 

[Jack Knight1979]

I wish I could get that much life our of my heads. My 645 has never gotten more than a couple years per head.

 

[gnatt66]

my vp300i is 5 years old with light to moderate use all original heads. i might need a black one soon and i blame a brief stint with off brand ink a few years ago.. (test print is perfect, but sprays funky) i can profile it out though.

 

[dgpartsmall]

What printer parts are the most frequently replacement?

Wow! Your DX4 print heads work very well.

What about other parts, like dampers , wipers, encoder linear ect.? how long will you replace them?

 

[GTSTech_1]

6 to 8 billion shots is what the manufactures will tell you.......I have a customer that runs multiple Roland Pro 2's with 3 shifts....the printers only are idle for cleanings and loading/unloading materials......they get about 2 years use for each head. But note that the shot counts are in the mid-teens on average.....Highest I have seen is 22 billion. I have noticed that all the ink system components (captops,dampers and heads) have longer life when using OEM vs 3rd party inks.

My .02

GTSTech_1

 

[Mosh]

Where can you see how many ink shots there have been?

 

[SignManiac]

I've replaced two print heads on my Roland SOL JET PRO II XC-540 over the past eight years. Black and Lt. Cyan

 

[LFC911]

Where can you see how many ink shots there have been?

Service and history report

 

[StudioSignsInc]

Our Roland SOL JET PRO III XC-540 is 6 yrs old, with light to moderate usage, and should have maintained it better before. We just replaced the Cyan head earlier this year. Look like the Light Cyan is on its last leg and the Black has some deflection.

 

[kujtim]

Roland vp540 printhead DX4 is printing lihter

Hi all.
i dont know if i am posting in proper room of this forum
I am in big need for suport anyone that can give me any sugestion for my Roland vp540 with DX4 printheads

Sudenly my roland the ink cyan is starting to print lighter. when i do the test print it looks prety well. but when i start printing the cyan isnt 100% also the rasters are disapearing totaly.

Please if anyone faced with this problem b4 i would be glad to hear any response from you.

 

[player]

my vp300i is 5 years old with light to moderate use all original heads. i might need a black one soon and i blame a brief stint with off brand ink a few years ago.. (test print is perfect, but sprays funky) i can profile it out though.

I had the exact same thing... changed the damper- prints 100% perfect.

 

[kujtim]

I had the exact same thing... changed the damper- prints 100% perfect.

do you think changing the dumpers will correct the color density?

 

[kujtim]

printhead printing lighter

Hi there if anyoone have the problem with dx4 solvent printhead wich is printing lighter even if the test print looks fine and the calibration lines are blury there is no fix just you have to buy a new one.
i had the same problem. Please be carefuly on firs start up the machine normaly take a normal cleaning. always b4 you turn on the machine make wet with solvent the wipers because mostly they stop on the middle of the dead wich makes the hughe damage to the printheads.

i know its a sad story but you have to take it in consideration

CYA

 

[player]

do you think changing the dumpers will correct the color density?

It might. Mine did. It can't hurt, and if you buy a new head apparently you need to put in new dampers or the warranty is void from Roland.

Mine would test print perfectly but was printing "dry" with the cyan. New damper fixed it 100%.

 

[El Barto]

I've got a magenta head over there showing 22.4 and still firing as good as it did new; not 1 deflection. Then I've got a cyan head that's completely trashed at 4.4. Go figure. With about 13 years between the two printers this is the first time I've had to buy a replacement head.

What's interesting to me is how much of a discrepancy there is between the shot counts of the different heads. I've also got a head over there with less than 1 billion shots, adjacent to 2 with 14+.