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Mutoh Falcon II problems/questions

HPS

New Member
Hello, I've got couple of basic/general quesitons, and I hope someone will be kind enough to help me out. Here they're:

1. When should I change heads, i.e is there any rule, which will say "after xxxxx Mdots" head should be changed. This question comes from very annoying behaviour of my machine - every year I need to swap almost 10-13 heads, they're dying like flies. Is this normal? In the maintanance manual I can see the Mdots counter, but I can nowhere find info about how to "read" and understand those (when change, when the number is good, and when it's bad)

2. When I'm leaving machine for weekend, or sometimes longer period of time, how can I prevent the heads from dry-out? Can I put them into box with liquid alcohol (is 90% alcohol good even for head cleanings, or can I damage them?)

and last quesiton, releated to another machine, but I think it's not worth to make another topic :

Mimaki Tx2-1600, when printing blue color, for example on UE flag, if I will do it via 4pass, after 30-40cm of printing, there is less blue in flag, almost like 1head would not print at all. But if I print with 8pass (quality medium) or 16 (high) no problem - but it goes significantly longer. Other colors don't make such problems. All heads new (maybe 2-3months before) it's hard for me to say for sure if it's software or mechanical problem. But i'd say mechanical. Also if I stop that flag in half, and make test print, I got all heads and nozzle good, so it's not problem of clogged nozzle etc, have you got any thoughts on that?
 

randya

New Member
1. Change heads when the heads fail to perform correctly to get the desired print results.

Head should last BILLIONS of droplets.
So it depends on how much printing you do.
10-13 heads per year sounds extremely excessive, unless you are literally running 24/7 and not doing proper maintenance or running 3rd party ink not designed for your heads.

2. Alcohol is the worst for soaking long term. It will evaporate quickly and dry out the head if the cap doesnt seal against the head and may damage the cap rubber seal long term by drying it out. If the maintenance station is good, and the caps and heads are clean, it should seal up well for the weekend without solvent.

On the Mimaki, sounds like plugging dampers. At slower speeds the head refills with ink, at higher speeds, not so much.
 
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