Ink draining out

[Signguy100]

Hey, I have had issues in the past with my ink being sucked out by some sort of air lock or vacuum in the lines. Come home and find a whole cartridge on the floor. It is an ESX 500 or SC 540 I think sometimes called. I just changed the capping station but not confident it will resolve it. Does anyone know if it would be ok to remove the cartridges or back them out when not in use???

Thanks again

When I cleaned the heads I noticed a bubbling or pooling on the bottom of the head in yellow. A couple drops forming so worried now...

 

[artbot]

i've heard you can pull the carts out over night without issue. i haven't done it. i too had the ink drain issue. it's caused by and continuous connection between the bottom of the head and fluid all the way to the bottom of the drain line. theoretically if you don't have swollen sponges in your caps (one cause of the siphon effect) then you can just pull your carriage to the side breaking any fluid tension from head to cap and you're fine.

btw... there's not lock or vacuum in the line. the line has very low positive pressure. like a straw with a drip trying to fall out the end. but the drip just hangs there. all it needs is the slightest encouragement and it falls, thus dragging a new drip from behind it. that is how your printer gets ink to the heads a very very light fluid pressure against the head.

mine drained four carts in 15 minutes. i did a head soak, then turned a valve on the back of the printer to the drain line (custom add on) and the ink just started dripping until empty. took about 30 minutes.

 

[Signguy100]

Thanks for the feedback. It only seems to be on the one side so I might remove those three carts. Printing fine right now but not sure what to expect. Does anyone know what a good used one would be selling for? I'm getting frustrated with mine...

 

[HulkSmash]

There's a small pump on some cartridges that can brake and cause this to happen. Try replacing it and doing a fill on that ink.

 

[Large Format]

This is a very common problem with this generation printer. You need to reset the capping station position in service mode. the cap should be "sister kissing the heads" also remove one layer of felt in the capping station. The cap material has swollen and is making physical contact with the head. Been there done that.

 

[MachServTech]

This is a very common problem with this generation printer. You need to reset the capping station position in service mode. the cap should be "sister kissing the heads" also remove one layer of felt in the capping station. The cap material has swollen and is making physical contact with the head. Been there done that.

+1 and remove any strings or debris from the caps and printhead. I have seen a "wicking effect" drain all of the ink from a line.

 

[bmendes]

If this is the sc-500 model you should check the capping station sponges. These capping stations are normally supplied (New) with sponges for water base inks only.
To put them into a solvent machine you need to replace the sponges with solvent types.

waterbase sponges swell very quickly with solvent ink and once they touch the bottom of the print head they will syphon ink from the cartridges. Also check the pump, if the pump has failed/blocked it will let the ink build-up in the cap and cause the same issue.

Look at the white gear on front of the pump unit, if it is covered in wet ink the pump will probably need to be replaced.

regards
Brett