Is this a capping issue?

[Forty One]

from the images below, and some info, can someone please advise what is my issue here?

Running JV33 on dual CMYK

so... after printing about 1m (3 + feet) my K is completely dropping out.
Currently I'm doing some hard cleans in between each print and it seems to revive one K channel, and not the other.
But, when I do a test draw, it flips between each channel.
some images below:

This one shows nozzles on the right K channel

second hard clean, nozzles appear on the left channel, no right channel.

Third clean, K left is back, no right.

I do this for every metre of print.

Is this the capping station that needs to be replaced?
I'm also occasionally getting the Cyan chanel dropping hapf a head in the nozzle test. Not every time, but occasionally.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Seems like something isn't flowing, dampers, could be cap, air in line, etc. Look for ink bleeds and check dampers first to see if they have a nice healthy reserve of ink in them. I think the JV33 is a DX5 head, so could be a bad nozzle plate as well, which basically means new head time. Since all the nozzles use the same cap, it can be tricky to tell at times.

 

[Forty One]

it seemed like there was enough ink in the damper, but hard to tell as I'm not sure what a healthy amount should be.
I'v e pulled ink through the dampers, and it seems to have flowed ok. No air that I can see.
I've just ordered replacement dampers for all sets and a new capping station.
I'll have a play around inside and replace parts that can be easily accessed and hopefully come back with some good news.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

I typically see them between 1/3-2/3 full on healthy heads. If you feel daring, use a syringe on the head port with some tubing and PULL some ink back slowly. Best not to push the ink through the head, as it can jam clogged ink into the head. Take the ink you removed and look for traces of solid chunks, etc.

 

[SightLine]

Hopefully OEM dampers..... That has bit me more than once when we had our JV33 with cheap generic ones. One problem with troubleshooting above the head is that its a negative pressure system which makes finding a leak very hard since ink will not leak out, it will just suck tiny amounts of air in. Had more than one generic damper that I found a pinhole leak in the think plastic on the side - talk about fun trying to find that problem. Could also be a leaking o-ring at any one of the joints as well which will also cause a tiny bit of air to leak in. Dampers should be at least half full or more.

 

[netsol]

i have an old friend who brings the same curse, BOTH WAYS (doing work for him always goes sideways, BUT THE REFERRALS are horrid.) he really means well, though...

 

[netsol]

oops, wrong thread...
getting careless

 

[Forty One]

Ok. Help!
I've replaced the entire capping station and all 8 dampers.
I've pulled through ink, multiple ink fill ups, cleaning etc, but I've completely lost all colours.a couple of nozzles are firing in Kay, but nothing I would be impressed with.

Why? How?

Help please!

 

[EddyPot]

I had the exact same issues... changed the capping station, changed the dampers, and pulled the ink through the lines on top of the dampers... nothing worked except when I did a head soak for an entire weekend... I clamped the line so that it couldn't drain into the waste cup and filled the capping station and just let it sit throughout the weekend... When I came back into the office, I said a prayer before unclamping and doing a powerful clean and low and behold It worked!!!
Also, I stopped doing powerful cleans because I look like my printer performed better when I did a medium clean or even a regular clean...
A month later I had the exact same problem and I fixed it by doing medium cleans for an entire day and another head soak like described above and it fixed the problem, don't ask me how or why... It just worked
Also when I called my service tech that second time he answer was " The machine might be to old" because we did everything that was required and could be done, even the print head was new! only a couple of months old... I could not accept that as an answer!
If it continues to come up in the future, I plan to change the pump that sucks the ink into the capping station...

 

[Forty One]

I've removed the replacement capping top and put the old one back in.
I now have all colours except the cyan and kay.

As it stands, new dampers, new capping station, old capping top.
Might try the clamp and soak for 48hrs. methos and get back to you

 

[Forty One]

Here's an update.
I inspected the old cap top and new cap top.
The old one had three hose outlets, but one was sealed.

the new one had this open. I sealed it with a soldering iron.

So now, I have all new dampers, and new cap top.
All the colours are back except the Kay, again, it's dropping out.

I replaced the new Kay dampers with the old existing ones (yellow). But I washed out the dampers with solution and refilled it with black.

Either with or without the new dampers, the issue still remains. Kay is hit and miss and the left cyan channel drops out occasionally

So what next?

 

[Black Star]

Here's an update.
I inspected the old cap top and new cap top.
The old one had three hose outlets, but one was sealed.

View attachment 164130
the new one had this open. I sealed it with a soldering iron.
View attachment 164131

So now, I have all new dampers, and new cap top.
All the colours are back except the Kay, again, it's dropping out.

I replaced the new Kay dampers with the old existing ones (yellow). But I washed out the dampers with solution and refilled it with black.

Either with or without the new dampers, the issue still remains. Kay is hit and miss and the left cyan channel drops out occasionally
View attachment 164132
View attachment 164133

So what next?

I would make sure your print head is lining up correctly with the cap station. When I first replaced my cap station, I started having a similar issue. I had to put a little bumper on the cap station so that the print head would line up correctly when it came back to the home position. You should be able to look at the underside of your print head and make sure the rubber is seal is hitting right where it needs to hit. Mine was slightly off but it was just enough to give me this same issue.

 

[EddyPot]

I would make sure your print head is lining up correctly with the cap station. When I first replaced my cap station, I started having a similar issue. I had to put a little bumper on the cap station so that the print head would line up correctly when it came back to the home position. You should be able to look at the underside of your print head and make sure the rubber is seal is hitting right where it needs to hit. Mine was slightly off but it was just enough to give me this same issue.

You had to put a little bumper on the cap station...? What exactly do you mean...?
Someone suggested that I check that too, but I didn't know what I would have done if I found that its not seated properly...

 

[unmateria]

Those odd things usually happen when a broken pin on the captop (where you pinch the dampers) or a shrinked rubber (what joins captop to printhead). Sometimes they break very little... Use a lantern while trying to bend them a little. If are ok, the dont bend anything. If they move just a little, they are broken.
This usually happen because of bad seated tubbing over the dampers.

 

[Forty One]

Never say never....

Drained the lines, new wiper, cleaned the head plate...
Nothing to do with the cap or alignments, just neede a good as clean

 

[EddyPot]

Please forgive my ignorance but what do you mean when you said drained the lines?
And what exactly is a "head plate"
I would love all this information is case this happens again for me,

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Head plates are also called nozzle plates. It's the shiny part of the underside of the printhead. On Epson DX heads, they are glued into place and can sometimes come loose.

As for draining the lines, disconnect the dampers and remove the cartridges to drain old ink from the lines with a syringe or similar. Can also flush them with cleaner while you're at it.

 

[Black Star]

You had to put a little bumper on the cap station...? What exactly do you mean...?
Someone suggested that I check that too, but I didn't know what I would have done if I found that its not seated properly...

Here is what I had to do. There was no way that the cap station was going to line up with the print head unless I did something like this. There is no digital way of telling the cap station to move one way or another so this was my manual solution. I used some cardstock and then taped it around this area. When the print head docks, the bumper pushes the print head over just enough to where it now lines up.

I saw it wasn't lining up by removing the service panel on the far left and then sliding the head unit over. You can look up at the print head an see where the suction is happening. I think I put solvent around the edge of the cap station, slid the unit over the cap station and then all the way over to the left to take a peak.

 

[Forty One]

Head plates are also called nozzle plates. It's the shiny part of the underside of the printhead. On Epson DX heads, they are glued into place and can sometimes come loose.

Nope.
The actual plate the head is connected to.
I just cleaned the hell out of anything that had dried up ink on it.