Ink Gradually Thining

[imca27mod]

Hi everyone. I'm relatively new to large format printing and I need some guidance and help.

My issue is that as the printer prints, the ink gradually gets thinner/lighter as the job progresses. After about 20" or so all the colors do this. Its not just one or two. The dampers appear to be full.

The printer is a Infiniti 6150. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[player]

Is it level?

 

[imca27mod]

It was slightly unlevel. That was fixed and the problem continues.

It seems to empty the head and dampners and then thins almost to the point of completely running out. I can then refill them after the job by pressing the cleaner button. Turning on the air pump forcing ink back though until the heads drip.

Anything else I should look at or check?

Thanks

 

[player]

Sounds like clogged dampers.

 

[player]

Are they old dampers? Are the dampers oem or cheapies?

 

[Samurai_Screwdriver]

I'm not familiar with the infiniti printers at all but when you mention "air-pump" this suggests that the printer uses negative pressure to hold the ink meniscus at the heads. There's probably an adjustment for the negative pressure and it sounds like you may have too much negative pressure applied and it's preventing the inks from firing.

 

[imca27mod]

Thanks for the advice. The two sets of dampers aren't new by any means.

After trying to adjust some settings and printing more and more, the yellow is now printing steady for the whole job. The black is slowly printing longer and longer but not the complete job. The red and blue runs out about the same time. The red completely stops. I don't think the settings I'm able to adjust really effects this issue much.

Could the dampers be clogged with debris or just old thick ink? Leaking air? (All tubes and connections are tight and not leaking ink.)

 

[J Hill Designs]

first step would be replace the dampers in my opinion

 

[imca27mod]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I replaced two dampers on the colors with the most trouble. Cyan and magenta. (That's all I have for now.)

I've printed and adjust a lot.

The issue I still have is the cyan will still slowly run out. You can see the damper has ink and the plastic tube leading to the head has some ink in it. When I pull the ink through with the syringe it runs well for quite a while. But it will always run out over a few feet.

What should I be looking for at this point?

Thanks.

 

[Snydo]

sounds like your pump is losing pressure somewhere. Best of Luck.

 

[gregwallace]

Can you describe the ink system in your printer? Are there subtanks? Ink filters? Pictures would help as well. I couldn't find any useful information on the internet about how this printer is set up. As others have mentioned it does sound like a damper issue. Its hard to say what else it could be without knowing all of the components of the ink delivery system. A clogged filter can cause ink starvation issues without setting off any error codes depending on where it is located.