Mimaki Is Banding, Bad Test Cleans

[Imminent Death]

Woohoo! We're back in action!

After I did the last nozzle wash (60 min) all but 3 clogged nozzle squares didn't show. I did a soft cleaning after that and now it's down to 2. For being down most of the day... I'm going to go ahead and get back into print mode.

I guess my problem was just serious cloggage. Here's what I did in a more orderly form:

- Custody Wash, clean wiper, fill liquid, sit 10 minutes.
- A few Strong cleanings
- Cleaned underside of print heads (this can be done by removing the metal plate attached with thumbscrews at the far left, pushing the print head over the void for easy access... something I didn't know about until today) and underside of wiper carriage.
- Did a Nozzle Wash for 40 minutes.
- Did Fill Up Ink with an immediate Soft cleaning.
- Did a Nozzle Was for 60 minutes with an immediate soft cleaning.

The whole process gradually brought my Test Draw back up to snuff. The most drastic improvement was when I did the Fill Up Ink procedure.

To all that helped with this:

:U Rock:

Thank yous!

 

[thewood]

Imminent Death, what's your daily cleaning routine? I have a feeling you're not mainting your printer properly. Shoot me a PM if you're interested in what I suggest cleaning wise.

 

[Case]

Woohoo! We're back in action!

After I did the last nozzle wash (60 min) all but 3 clogged nozzle squares didn't show. I did a soft cleaning after that and now it's down to 2. For being down most of the day... I'm going to go ahead and get back into print mode.

I guess my problem was just serious cloggage. Here's what I did in a more orderly form:

- Custody Wash, clean wiper, fill liquid, sit 10 minutes.
- A few Strong cleanings
- Cleaned underside of print heads (this can be done by removing the metal plate attached with thumbscrews at the far left, pushing the print head over the void for easy access... something I didn't know about until today) and underside of wiper carriage.
- Did a Nozzle Wash for 40 minutes.
- Did Fill Up Ink with an immediate Soft cleaning.
- Did a Nozzle Was for 60 minutes with an immediate soft cleaning.

The whole process gradually brought my Test Draw back up to snuff. The most drastic improvement was when I did the Fill Up Ink procedure.

To all that helped with this:

:U Rock:

Thank yous!

***Also, clean that capping station real good... Any build up on the caps can prevent proper sealing of the heads...Do it during your custody wash, take your foam swab and give the caps a real good cleaning always*** Also, when you clean around the printheads by removing that metal plate, be careful around the printheads, actually cleaning ON the printheads isn't recommended, as you can easily scratch the printheads....


Case

 

[gabagoo]

I would like to hear how you Mimaki users do your daily maintenance. I have 3 routines. Mon - friday I clean the wiper and everything around the wiper and the top of the sponge cover as well as the two bars that move the wiper in and out. I then use foam tips and clean the capping station and then put 4 or 5 drops of solvent in each cap. Mon Wed & Fri I also on top of that, swing the heads after the machine is turned off over to the other side and clean all around each head with a foam tip. Fridays I run a 1 hour nozzle wash too and then run alcohol over the two bars the head runs on and re oil it. Sounds like a lot but really isn't. I have not had any problems with print in just over a year and a half, in fact the technician when he came in to fix my heater was amazed at how clean it was. I told him I was the one who paid for it and for that reason it's going to stay that way lol

 

[speedmedia]

I clean my Mimaki every day it is used by going through the normal routine. I also clean it if it sits idle for more than two days. I am just now showing a bit of nozzle clogging in my yellow test print and plan to do an hour long flush tomorrow to see if that clears it up like it has for others in this thread.

Anyone that has a quicker easier way to do feel free to let me know. We are slammed right now and using up an hour is going to put us that much more behind.


Thanks,
Kurt Dietrich
Speed Media

 

[jmcnicoll]

Every mornging I do a normal cleaning, wipe around the heads, capping station and wiper with mimaki cleaning fluid and do a nozzle was twice a week for about 4-6 minutes each time. Seems to be working good for me.

Did have a Mimaki tech in the shop a while back and he said they recommend that the Nozzeles sit in the cleaning solution for at least 5 minutes every week. He seemed be a believer in short soaking times and that over doing the nozzle washes could damage the heads. Any one else been told not to over due the nozzle washes?

jim

 

[signguy95]

I was told not to over do the nozzle wash.

I usually clean my printer at the end of the day. That way if it don't get used for a day, it's clean and not getting dried ink on it. Also, when I do need to print I just fire it up run a quick test pattern and start printing. Then clean at the end of the day...

I do head cleaning, wiper cleaning, capping station, and disway wash to keep the drains clean. That's It!

Takes all of 5 minutes at the end of each day.


Jay

 

[Case]

I would like to hear how you Mimaki users do your daily maintenance. I have 3 routines. Mon - friday I clean the wiper and everything around the wiper and the top of the sponge cover as well as the two bars that move the wiper in and out. I then use foam tips and clean the capping station and then put 4 or 5 drops of solvent in each cap. Mon Wed & Fri I also on top of that, swing the heads after the machine is turned off over to the other side and clean all around each head with a foam tip. Fridays I run a 1 hour nozzle wash too and then run alcohol over the two bars the head runs on and re oil it. Sounds like a lot but really isn't. I have not had any problems with print in just over a year and a half, in fact the technician when he came in to fix my heater was amazed at how clean it was. I told him I was the one who paid for it and for that reason it's going to stay that way lol

*** I would say gabagoo's maintenance is the best and the one I would recommend. Hands down, what he does is ideal ***

Case

 

[Imminent Death]

thewood sent me his Mimaki cleaning procedures. While I've been doing most of what he had listed, there were still a few things I didn't know about.

Did the new cleaning procedure today and there were no clogged nozzles!

Huzzah!

 

[particleman]

I've heard right from mimaki that doing to many nozzle washes will damage the nozzles. We slide the head over every morning on ours and clean around them, clean the capping station and wiper every morning also. When we have clogging issues, they usually happen after the weekend, we can usually get them to come out after quick soak and cleaning though.

 

[GB2]

Could someone please describe in detail how you slide the head over for cleaning in the access area.

 

[ICEdesign]

Just turn off the machine. Unscrew the finger screws on the very left side of the printer. (where the window comes down) Its the stainless steel "cover" on the left. Theres 2 screws on the bottom and 1 on top. Take it off. Now slide the print head all the way over there. And boom. CLEAN!

 

[ColesCreations]

And- in my opinion, the metal cover on the far left has no use being on the machine at all, take it off, tape the screws to it, and stick paper or something into the switch.
Then you can put the cover into a box for the day you sell the printer.
Makes for far easier cleaning. We got sponge swabs from advantage sign, they're great, but a bit on the big side, we also use lint free paper soaked in cleaning fluid on the heads. In 6 months, have never done a soak or disway, just used the wet paper under the head and strong cleaning the one time we had clogged nozzles.

 

[GB2]

When you turn your machine off, aren't the heads in the capping station? How do you manage to slide the head over like that? How about just sliding the head over when the machine is on, you are in the maintenance mode and you've selected the carriage out command. Then just slide the head over from there.

 

[ColesCreations]

When the machine is off, just pull the head over to the left, clean, and push it back onto the capping station. Make sure it's capped completely, by looking under the head and see the caps moving up!

You can of course slide the head over while in "carriage out" mode, but I mostly just turn the machine off before cleaning, I believe I may be saving a bit ink, as it does not do a pumping cycle when pushing it back onto the caps.

 

[SignsNow]

thewood sent me his Mimaki cleaning procedures. While I've been doing most of what he had listed, there were still a few things I didn't know about.

Did the new cleaning procedure today and there were no clogged nozzles!

Huzzah!

Could someone send me that daily routine clean my way? i'm having simaliar problems, and maybe we are missing something when it comes to the daily cleaning? I have an entire vehicle wrap to print this week and (needed o be printed last week) but because the print quality keeps coming out so crappy, and advantage has told me to do the same thing over and over again (which was the whole 9 yards, you know the nozzle wash etc.) and it still looks like crap. i'm really lost now what is truely wrong with the printer.

the test print dones't show more than maybe 2-3 little blocks missing. But it hasnt changed after I guess like 6 nozzle washes etc. the quality of the print job just looks horrible. theres streaks, spots, banding. and frankley since nothing has seemed to improve after all the washes I did that Advantage has instructed, I have no idea what to do now.
I have checked and double checked all important setting in Onyx. I believe it is the pritner. My boss believes it's Onyx. Advantage is repeating themselves and nothing is getting better.

Could it be that I just need new heads???? Or something like that?

 

[eforer]

2 or three nozzles out can make for some pretty heinous banding in 8 pass mode and below. Banding can be a symptom of a bad profile, media compensation problem or an improperly adjusted machine (ie prn adjust routine). Generally, running a little more heat will help with banding.

Also, the no long nozzle wash thing is BS. It won't hurt the heads. Alot of Mimaki users will do 99 min nozzle washes every day overnight as part of their cleaning routine. In fact, alot of places will fill up the caps with solvent, park the head and kill the main breaker power and just let the heads sit in solvent over the weekend. Just use the appropriate cleaning fluid for your ink set and not something too harsh like acetone. Too many strong cleans when done with abnormal frequency can be hard on heads, but the worst thing you can do is let them get dry. You'll spend a long day (or days) soaking, and cleaning to get the nozzles back.

Also, those little metal things that were mentioned are called cap screens, and they should be bare metal clean everyday after your cleaning routine. There should also be no ink left in the corners of the caps themselves. You need to make sure they get a good seal so the pumps can do their job.
​

 

[supergecko28]

I'v heard that in extreme circumstances you can use one of those ink line priming syringes filled with some cleaning solution to push cleaning solution threw the head. I'v never tried it, I'd be carefull about it because I'd think too much pressure could probably hurt your head if you pushed too hard. I'm also not completly sure the waste ink disposal lines would drain the cleaning solution without a test clean or something, since the pump isnt active. best to try small amounts at a time i'd guess.

 

[eforer]

I've done that to clean out massive clogging, we had an issue where the heads were stuck uncapped for a whole day and needed massive cleaning/flushing to get some of the nozzles back. You can tap into the lines after the caps (easy to do if you have spliced the tubes already) and just gently draw with the syringe. You can fill up the damper a little with cleaning fluid, or just try to pull ink through. Just don't yank on it too hard.

The thing I want to try next is ultrasonically cleaning the heads. Next new set I get, I'm going to try to ultrasonic clean the old one's and see how they fare.

 

[jdigital]

Just a helpful hint: If you are not getting good test draws and you spend more than an hour or so doing custody washes, nozzle washes and a bunch of ink fil lups but still get bad test draws, try this.
1) make sure heads are capped
2) open the panel behind the machine where your pumps are
3) attach the hose coming down from the cap to your head to a syringe
4) pull ink through slowly until you fill the syringe
5) replace hose from capping station to pump

An advantage tech told us to do this if we can't get our heads to fire. The pumps do not prime hard enough to fill the head.