Inkjet colors bleeding together on 300sp!!

[outacontrol41]

This is not the most reliable piece of equipment on the market out there today as many of you owners find out sooner or later...and today it's yet another issue. The cyan and black are bleeding together during the test prints and no amount of head cleanings makes the problem go away. The machine is cleaned and maintained properly but still these things seem to happen overnight. If anyone has a clue as to what's going on here, please advise. The machine is about 2.5 yrs. old with moderate use. Photo 1 shows what it started as and photo 2 shows how the cyan is completely washed out by the black by attempting a medium head cleaning.
BTW....someone on another sign forum called this the "poor man's printer".
Any truth to this?

 

[cinemasign.grafix]

Captops.

 

[outacontrol41]

Okay, captops. What about them? Clean? Replace?

 

[Kenny]

Okay, captops. What about them? Clean? Replace?

When was the last time you replaced the captops? Wipers?
The cross contamination points to the captops, the misalignment could be partly from dirty wipers.

 

[outacontrol41]

Two months ago on the captops...and wipers are like new as I clean them regularly. I'll do another manual cleaning today and see where that takes me.

 

[Kenny]

If you can get into service mode, I'd also take a look at the shot count on the heads...replacement is recommended at 6-billion. 2-1/2 yrs, you may be close.

On the captops, there is a sponge at the bottom to help wick the ink down into the drain tube. Sometimes the sponge can swell up and touch the head, and you will get cross-containation and/or ink-drain. The sponge has a top & bottom layer...I take the top layer off when I change the captops (personal preference).

 

[GTSTech_1]

As dumb has it may sound.......Remove your cyan cart and check for Ink in cart. The tabs on the cart can get stuck and not tigger the sensor. if you have Ink check your dampers, if low draw some ink into them. If dampers are ok, put some cleaning solution into the cap top, your cap tube could have ink build up.

You still have alot of nozzle deflection in your test print, so the heads could be gone. Have you tried to soak the heads with a wet lint-free cloth?

my $.02

PS- Regarding the SP being "a poor man printer", Versacamms' are targeted to the smaller shops, but still are great machines. If you want production printing , I would go with one of the beefer machines for example Roland Pro-Series, Mimiaki JV-33, or Mutoh VJ-1614 etc.

 

[outacontrol41]

Thanks,,,,I'll try these suggestions.
They're 'bad machines' until I get to know them and learn how to fix them myself instead of calling tech all the time. Once I learn this they're 'great machines'. Currently learning.......

 

[Dave L.]

dampers

 

[outacontrol41]

Problem solved.......for now

Machine is working well again after taking captops out and cleaning them along with the inside of the tubes going to the pump. I also pushed the rubber edges that seals the heads inward. This plus a powerful head wash and I'm printing good as new. I'm learning more and more about this machine the more I work with it.....