• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Need Help Missing one side whole side of cyan print head suddenly.

Jharris81

New Member
So I have a Roland xc-540 and it doesn't get used a ton but does gets used and I do keep up on maintenance. I hadn't been used in a few weeks and went to run a print and the test print showed the whole left side of the cyan print head was missing. There wasn't any ink what so ever on that side. I ran a test print again with no progress. Ran a few cleanings, normal and powerful a few different times with still no progress. At that point a dug in further and opened it up to check the dampers. Both dampers were full and I was able to pull off the cap top tube and pull ink through with a syringe. One thing I did notice was the two cyan feed tubes that go to the dampers, one looked full (or I just could see through it) and the other had about a half inch of ink above the damper. I don't know if they are suppose to be full or not. I have about half full ink cartridges and I made sure they were seated in there properly.
 

damonCA21

Active Member
Both of the ink tubes should be full all the way from the damper back to the cartridge. That is probably your problem. It is most likely air is getting into the line so check all connections. The o-rings may also need replacing. Until you get a good ink supply to both sides of the head then it isn't possible to diagnose any further
 

netsol

Premium Subscriber
A couple things to try
CAREFULLY replace the oring under the nut on that damper
solventinkjet always suggests cutting 1/4 inch of hose when changing the oring for best seal
the manifold on top of the head is very fragile I would suspect that it has developed a hairline crack.
you could remove the head and change the manifold from an old head if you have one or buy from eBay or Amazon.
 

Jharris81

New Member
I am going to grab a larger syringe because all I have on had is a 10 ml and try and get the air out of that line. Once I do that I will see where that leads me, hopefully the head comes back and then I can investigate into why there wasn't ink in there. In the mean time I can get some parts on order for some back ups. I have had some of the heads replaced over the past years but can't remember which ones. I have always had a tech come take care of that and haven't really watched him do it so not sure if the manifold was replaced as well. Is there any good ways to check for air leaks. I have read some few things about just listening for bubbling or hissing but I would imagine if it is a small or slow leak that that would be hard to hear.

also how often do you guys go through print heads?
 

damonCA21

Active Member
You are very unlikely to hear a leak, the better way to check is look for bubbles in the ink line, or a complete lack of ink. When you pull with a syringe, take the damper off and pull through that, not through the head itself which can damage them.
 

Jharris81

New Member
You are very unlikely to hear a leak, the better way to check is look for bubbles in the ink line, or a complete lack of ink. When you pull with a syringe, take the damper off and pull through that, not through the head itself which can damage them.
Thank you, I will try this today and see what I come up with. I am always to nervous to work on this printer because I feel like everything is so delicate and I don't want to make anything worse then what it is.
 

netsol

Premium Subscriber
I am going to grab a larger syringe because all I have on had is a 10 ml and try and get the air out of that line. Once I do that I will see where that leads me, hopefully the head comes back and then I can investigate into why there wasn't ink in there. In the mean time I can get some parts on order for some back ups. I have had some of the heads replaced over the past years but can't remember which ones. I have always had a tech come take care of that and haven't really watched him do it so not sure if the manifold was replaced as well. Is there any good ways to check for air leaks. I have read some few things about just listening for bubbling or hissing but I would imagine if it is a small or slow leak that that would be hard to hear.

also how often do you guys go through print heads?
i get tired of the syringe thing. (i get impatient)

have you ever tried one of these?

 

Jharris81

New Member
So I got a syringe and was able to pull ink through the line and damper. Was able to pull through the cap top and I also (not sure if it was a good idea) but I lightly pushed some solvent through the print head from the manifold on both sides of the head. I also swapped dampers and after all this I still have no ink on the one side. I’m guessing at this point I’m in he market for a new print head. Looks like it is one that has been swapped already.
 
Top