Need Help Mimaki UCJV300-160 - White ink spill

[White Haus]

Came in this morning to find a nice puddle of white ink under the printer. We noticed a few small drips on Friday but it's obviously gotten worse over the weekend.
I popped the back cover off to find some more large puddles and white ink all over the place.

Any ideas what this part is and if it's a simple fix/replacement? I can't tell where the leak is coming from, none of the lines seem compromised at first glance.

Not sure where to even start diagnosing this, haven't had to pull covers off this thing before, and we've had it for 3.5 years.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

There is probably a hose inside that assembly that gets "squeezed" as the gears turn and that's what pumps the ink. I had this happen on my Fuji LED1600, which is 90% Mimaki parts. That tube wore out from being squeezed too much. White is the most common to go first it seems as it gets pumped the most since it needs circulation more often.

 

[Solventinkjet]

This is one of the more common failures on this machine in my experience. The circulation pumps tend to have leaks like this over time. You could try opening them up, cleaning them out and replacing the broken ink line, or just replace the pumps. Not sure if Mimaki has come up with an upgrade yet.

 

[Dasdesignguy]

It's one of the small blue rubber O-rings that is either pinched, deformed, missing or not sitting correctly when that plumbing joint was screwed together. Like Solventinkjet said common issue with this model but in my opinion it is an install issue. When I would install these I used to leave the back cover off so I could keep an eye on ut through out the day because it would usually happen quickly but not always. Was it recently installed?

 

[White Haus]

It's one of the small blue rubber O-rings that is either pinched, deformed, missing or not sitting correctly when that plumbing joint was screwed together. Like Solventinkjet said common issue with this model but in my opinion it is an install issue. When I would install these I used to leave the back cover off so I could keep an eye on ut through out the day because it would usually happen quickly but not always. Was it recently installed?

The printer was installed 3.5 years ago, so definitely not recently. I've already received and approved a quote from our dealer to replace both pump assemblies - they recommended changing both while they're at it to avoid the second one going in the near future. Pretty common apparently as SolventInkjet mentioned.

Thanks guys!

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

If you feel daring, $5 in tubing and some silicone grease will fix you right up to rebuild the circulation pumps.