Mimaki JV3 160s no ink coming out

[Famous Ramos]

I bought to printers from a company selling out last month. One is JV3 160s. I'm a small sign shop and don't have too much money to spend. I got everthing running. I hit test draw, test print and moves like its printing, but no ink is coming out of the heads. I don't know what to test for, Printheads, maintenance station, capping station. Please guide me to the right direction.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[artbot]

welcome to $$$ hell! no, really, you very well likely have three completely clogged heads if the printer wasn't shut down properly. when you bought the printer, was there any mention of the printer being "custody washed" or shut down properly? if no mention, were the ink lines clear of ink except for some latent staining of cmyk, and were the dampers empty? worst case scenario is that you will have to buy three new heads (three for about $2400ish in USA, $1500 from china). also if the printer wasn't shut down properly than you might have some bad clogs in your waste lines.

 

[promgr]

head cleaning

If you cannot get the heads to come back and your ink lines are not dry the best thing to do is to send them to printheadcleaners.com they really know how to clean jv3 heads I sent them three heads that I could not get clean and they sent them back clean and ready to use. They stand behind their work and do a great job on all the heads I have sent them. Plus it is a lot cheaper then buying new heads. Look them up and give them a call you won’t be disappointed.

 

[signswi]

Open up the carriage and take a pictures of the lines and dampers so we can see if there's air or ink in them.

 

[Famous Ramos]

Thank you all for your help guiding me. Jessie, I live in the Chicagoland area. Can you email me to guide me through the process? Thanks,
Chris,
aeproducts@comcast.net

 

[MikePro]

before you take everything apart, at least run a nozzle wash overnight by function_maintenance_station_nozzle wash and then power down the printer and pull the power plug after the carriage rests on the station.
there's like 10 other things you can check before resorting to hardware replacement.

 

[CL Graphics]

what jesse said. If there is no ink in the damper you have a supply problem. If there is ink in the damper you have a head problem. either way your best bet is to have a tech come out and see if they can get it going again.

 

[signswi]

before you take everything apart, at least run a nozzle wash overnight by function_maintenance_station_nozzle wash and then power down the printer and pull the power plug after the carriage rests on the station.
there's like 10 other things you can check before resorting to hardware replacement.

You can also just set a 99minute custody wash for a similar effect, and that'd be the next step (potentially) after we verify whether or not he has ink flow.

Famous: to take the cover off your carriage simply remove the two phillips screws in the center of the black plastic housing on the front...do NOT touch the two big plastic slotted screw looking things. When you remove those two small phillips screws the black plastic housing is free to be removed, and from there you can see the ink lines and the dampers.

 

[Famous Ramos]

Will not come out of wash mode

I setup a wash and tells me to remove cartridges, I have a direct bulk
system, why would this matter? Anyway, I did this and tells me to set filler tool. I don't know what that is. How do I reset the machine disregard this whole process. I rebooted several times and wont let me inside the function process. I did take out that cover and looks like the lines are not full all the way. There is space or air in the lines. Call me if you can. I would like to get this out of wash mode.
Thanks,
Famous Ramos

 

[MikePro]

nonono... Nozzle Wash, you did a Head Wash which flushes out the whole system and requires that you have cleaning cartridges to pump cleaning fluid through the system

 

[MikePro]

function>maintenance>station>Nozzle Wash
is my go-to for head cleaning. you can set the timer to a max of 99min but i've also run it and turned off the printer (switch off in back to negate sleep-mode cleaning cycles) for an entire weekend to let it soak REAL GOOD.

Custody Wash does the same thing, but when the timer runs out the carriage slides out for access, and if you're not around... the heads are sitting in open air, drying out, because you forgot about it.

Nozzle wash stays parked after process is completed, so I just stick to using it fulltime so I'm able to walk away and forget about it.

Head Wash, however, has you pull your ink supply and then it empties out the lines, shakes itself vigorously to knock loose any ink in the dampers, and then asks you to insert the cleaning cartridges and it fills/empties/shakes out cleaning solution through your lines/heads
(might not hurt to have these around, you need 8 but can get away with 4 if you know how to do this process 2heads at a time instead of all 4)
(*note Triangle inks have 440ml cleaning cartridges for the same price as Mimaki's 220ml's... there's no difference, just get 4 of the bigger ones and you'll save $200+)
Also noted... Head Wash is useless if you've got clogged heads/lines. You'll just end up burning out your pump if you try to do this with your current issues.