I need a pros opinion on my plans to restore my VP 540

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Hello all,
we recently "inherited" an old VP 540 from a friend of ours who had to close his shop because of cancer :/ ... the machine was not in use for at least half a year and the previous owner said that three of the four heads will have to be replaced....Anyways:

As i am somewhat experienced with fixing laser printers, but have little to no experience with inkjets, meaning our old, dye based epson stylus pro needs little to none of my attention, i set to work:

• renewed all of the consumables (caps, wipers, dampers, etc.)

• flushed the hell out of the four printheads with cleaning solution

• checked the ribbon cables leading to the printheads (shorted something out, got almost a heart attack because i thought i just grilled the mainboard, read something about fuses here, swapped one out and was at least again where i started, etc... )

the thing is: i cant seem to get a better nozzle test pattern than this:

20210319_194359

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• Mar 21, 2021

Nozzle check Roland VP 540

the heads were soaked in cleaning solution for several nights, flushed through. etc ... the first row of the yellow nozzles even prints on one nozzle sometimes which means it is not completely dead... the only thing i can think of now, but haven't tried, is to use an ultrasonic cleaner on them...

of course there are these "printhead doctor" machines for several k€s and companies who promise to get the heads back to almost as new... regarding the price of these heads i am tempted to try this, but haven't been able to find a reputable company here in germany / berlin

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW: does someone with experience here would recommend to further try to salvage the old heads?

My next step would be: buy 2 new printheads, drop the now magenta and yellow ones, get black a new head and put the somewhat dodgy cyan head into the place of the yellow one.

any opinions, tips and comments are greatly appreciated!!

thanks,

Jan Biedermann

 

[rjssigns]

Sometimes there is no recovering a dried out print head. Time to buy new.

 

[Solventinkjet]

In my experience if a head can't be recovered with flushes and soaks, it's not coming back. Usually when you see as many deflections you have in your test print, the head either sat for a very long time, which we know, and/or the nozzles are physically damaged. Once there is physical damage, it's not going to recover.

You could try the ultra sonic but in my experience it's never worked for me.

 

[Mantaworld]

My experience with these print heads is they are very hard to fix to the point where they are usable for good quality work. I have spent time and money both with Ultrasonic Cleaners ( which you have to be very careful with as you can damage the heads further) and sending them to 3rd parties for "Cleaning".....judging from your test pattern you would be better off replacing all 4 heads (approx $2000). If you plan to use the machine you would have perfect quality printing....if you plan to sell the machine then you will get top dollar with all new print heads and the rest of what you have changed....my 2 cents worth!

 

[Jim Hill]

Question have you tried parking the heads and then pulling ink from under the capping station with a tapered syringe?
When you connect the syringe pull very slowly and if there is resistance stop pulling. If this does not work you might need new heads,

Jim

 

[Kopieren + Drucken]

Thanks for all the advise!!!

I cheaped out for now and decided to try the ultrasonic-cleaning-method and thats what i got for now:

20210324_170119

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• Mar 24, 2021

i put the printhead inside a cheap ultrasonic cleaner with cleaning solution filled up to the plate of the printhead and ran it for 10-15 min. also i pushed cleaning solution through while the ultrasonic ran... the M and Y printheads could use a little more,. but i think i can live with the results for now... when printing larger signs the quality should be ample.... We run a copyshop and this printer is just an addition to our portfolio... if theres more demand i can always buy new heads or, if it really works well, a whole new machine...

Jim Hill: Reading this forum I've already learned a lot about leaking caps and the importance of an airtight line all the way from the ink tanks to the pumps... ;>

thanks again for all the advise!

Jan Biedermann