Mimaki CJV30-100 Cyan channel drop out

[moerti]

Hello!
First of all - sorry for my bad spelling - I am from Austria/Europe...
So far, I was only reader in your forum, but now I have a problem with my CJV30 and need your help!

Every time when the machine makes a normal cleaning the right channel of cyan runs out of ink. If I put the damper off for a minute and put it back on the head manifold again, cyan will be back for the next few inches of the prints before it will run out again. If I do a "fill ink" cyan will also come back - but as I already mentioned - printing and cleaning will drop cyan...

I alread tried:
- new dampers on this channel (OEM and aftermarket)
- valve above the damper with new oring
- new cap top (aftermarket) - OEM already exists
- new capping station (slider) - aftermarket
- new valves (ink cartridge)

Does anyone have an idea what else I could do?? Check ink flow? Air leak in ink tubes? Electrical Problem? Head (manifold) issue?
No idea - please help me

Regards from Austria
Martin

 

[Solventinkjet]

Do a damper swap and see what happens. Basically, take the damper from the color next to the cyan, swap them and then run a normal cleaning. You may have to run 2 normal cleanings to get the ink all the way through. If the cyan begins to fire perfectly in the new channel, something is wrong with the head and/or possibly the maintenance station. If the cyan continues to drop out, something from the damper back is broken.

 

[OmegaAdv]

Im with 3rd party inks and when the ink of the black is under mioddle sometimes when startprinting with soft clean one channel of black drop, but when the ink is above middle of ink tank it don't do it. I think is from the cassette, somewhere it take air and drop the vacuum of the damper. I change a lot of things and at all I think that......... In your case I think that somewhere it take air in the line.

 

[moerti]

VanderJ: I have just tried to swap the cyan and magenta damper… and after two cleanings magenta was missing - cyan came instead of magenta… that means, something is wrong with the head or the maintenance Station?!
The test print below is with original damper setup and the print above is with swapped dampers.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Yes unfortunately it sounds like internal damage to the head. Usually a maintenance station issue would cause issues in the other colors eventually. The fact that it pulled the cyan through the magenta channel without any issues means the station is most likely working properly. Double check the manifold where the damper connects and make sure it's not cracked or broken. That would cause air to enter the system and make the color drop out. If that is the case you can change the manifold for much cheaper than buying a new head.

 

[moerti]

ok thank you VanderJ… I just change pump and cap top (both oem) but the problem is still existing!
Is it necessary to remove the head for checking the manifold?

I think I will check the manifold tomorrow - it´s already late at night here in Austria

 

[Solventinkjet]

ok thank you VanderJ… I just change pump and cap top (both oem) but the problem is still existing!
Is it necessary to remove the head for checking the manifold?

I think I will check the manifold tomorrow - it´s already late at night here in Austria

You should be able to check it without taking the head out. Good Luck!

 

[moerti]

Hello again!
Please excuse my late feedback - there was a lot of work the last weeks so I can´t spend time for looking after the CJV30...

So last weekend I changed the head manifold - even though there was no visible crack. Did an ink fillup and everything works fine - the missing cyan was here again!
But I was happy too soon: After 2 sqft of printing the left magenta channel drops out and changed to cyan... so the test print shows 3 channels of cyan and only one of magenta?!
After a normal cleaning the test print was fine again - but after printing 3 inches magenta changed to cyan again...

Did I made a mistake while switching the manifold? Seals not correct to the head? Head fried (inside seals)? Or is there another component which can cause this issue?

Regards, Martin