Mutoh Falcon Outdoor Banding Problem

[daenterpri]

Ok, I was able to draw ink when I hooked directly up to the capping station. And now it looks like there is more black in the damper. However, it still is not printing black when I do the nozzle check.

I paid careful attention during the last cleaning cycle. It appears that the black seal around the capping station does not cover the entire print head, at least on the left side of the left print head(where the black is). I assume that the black seal on the capping station is supposed to fit snuggly inside the perimeter of the print head?

After looking at it, I don't really see how the seal could be moved anymore to the left to get a better seal. Have you come across this?

I believe that the capping station was the piece that was replaced just before we picked this printer up at the beginning of this last week.

 

[daenterpri]

Here are the last 4 nozzle checks. As you can see, I got black up and running. However, these missing nozzle patterns don't want to go away. And they look pretty similar, they aren't really jumping around.

Any ideas on what I should do next?

 

[Finishline Signs]

I would do a head soak as I described in post 6 for about a hour then run a cleaning cycle. Make sure you are getting ink flow to the waste lines since you weren't earlier. If you are not getting ink you may need to pull the pump and check all your lines for blockage. This should take care of the missing nozzles. It also looks like your heads need to be aligned. Notice the alignment of the magenta and light magenta. If you do a search there is a old post that has the instruction to align the heads on your machine.

 

[daenterpri]

Well, I did a head soak and the nozzle checks look no different.

Ink is coming out of the drain lines when it cleans, but it's not like it's gushing. How much ink should come out during a standard or power clean?

I wish there was a way to actually pull cleaning fluid through the heads... would that be effective?

 

[daenterpri]

I cleaned the hoses a little more. One thing I notice is that the ink is coming out of the drain lines, it blows bubbles. Not sure if that is because of the small quantity that comes out at a time, or if I have air in the system. If you pull out your drain line during a clean, do you notice that it kind of blows an air bubble before a drop of ink comes out? Or do I have air in the system?

 

[daenterpri]

Before all these problems happened, I brushed the heads with a foam painting brush with denatured alcohol. Would the denatured alcohol have toasted my heads or damaged the pumps?

It appears that ink is flowing through the waste lines, so I don't know that the pumps are damaged.

It's such a bummer as everything on this machine is practically new... and then I had to go screw it up.

 

[Finishline Signs]

I have never noticed the air bubbles in coming out the waste lines. I always just watch for inf to flow throught the lines. You can do a head soak and then maunally pull ink throught the heads with a syringe. This has helped me in the past clear out stuff the the pump wouldn't pull out. It is possable that you messed the head up when you brushed it but that would not effect the pump.

Maybe one of the other very knowlegeable people on this forum has some ideas before you have to try replacing the head.

 

[elsignshop]

what RIP are you using and whats the name of the color Profiles that your using?

 

[daenterpri]

How much pulling out of the heads do you usually do? Also, is it normal with a good seal that as you are pulling ink, it wants to pull the opposite direction?

 

[daenterpri]

what RIP are you using and whats the name of the color Profiles that your using?

I'm using Flexi PhotoPRINT 10. The color profile is Mutoh DSUltra GlossVinyl 720 FO4862.icc

I just drew some more ink from the capping station with the heads on top, now black has completely disappeared again! It's still in the damper, but it is not printing black!

 

[daenterpri]

Ok, this is weird. I printed a test decal. To be honest, it looks better than it did before I did my "harmful cleaning". However, the nozzle test above still shows a few nozzles missing, and black missing. However, the print below it is obviously using black! How can this be?

 

[elsignshop]

lets try this and maybe i can help you out, go to your software make 4 rectangles about 1"x30". make a black, yellow, blue, and red one. before you send it to print do a cleaning cycle then send to print. lets see what that does. this will give me an idea on what is happening. take a pic and post the results.

 

[daenterpri]

Thanks! Ok, here are the results. As you can see, I'm getting slight bands through each of these prints. The yellow seems pretty clean. And the black is not near as dark as I thought it would be... so maybe I'm still not getting true black?

 

[elsignshop]

ok looks good on the colors except black, my thought is that the black head is clogged or the damper is clogged or maybe even the o-ring on the damper. try changing the damper and see if that helps.

 

[daenterpri]

ok looks good on the colors except black, my thought is that the black head is clogged or the damper is clogged or maybe even the o-ring on the damper. try changing the damper and see if that helps.

Ok. Is CMYKParts.com the best place for things like that? Any other recommendations as far as the black head being clogged? I tried doing a head soak again, but that didn't seem to help. Any other way I can clean the head?

What would happen if I connected the syringe full of cleaning fluid to the capping station on the black side and just swished the fluid back and forth, in and out of the capping station and possibly into the head?

 

[Finishline Signs]

I would by from solventinkjet.com. They seem to have the best prices.

 

[daenterpri]

Ok, I haven't ordered the damper yet. However, I did remove the damper today and tried gently sucking the ink from the opposite end, it seemed to work well. Could there be another reason why black is not showing up?

The same thing happened with Cyan today, but it needed a new ink cartridge. The black is already using a new ink cartridge though, so that isn't the issue.

On another note, the nozzles in the rest of my colors are almost gone! I'll tell ya what though, I'm not very impressed with the performance of these pumps. Seems like the head soaks with coffee filter media have been the most effective. That and drawing ink manually.

Thanks for the help!

 

[bayshorecreations]

I had the same fight with my Falcon when I had it, had to do head soaks all the time. Was never able to get the heads to seat properly into the capping station and I think that was the problem. You might want to look at that as a possibility. I ended up giving up and buying a new Roland.

 

[sfr table hockey]

Not sure if this could be a cause or not. I don't have the Mutoh buy I think the old Roland CJ and SC 500 have the same print heads and capping station from your photos.

When you replace a cart you need to make sure that an air bubble has not been able to enter the line due to changing out the cart. I have had this happen and the results were: the damper would be half full like normal, and then after printing lots of that color the damper would empty and not refill as it should. There must be a negative pressure that an air bubble creates and would not let the damper fill and thus the head would gradually drop off to nothing. By drawing ink through that line with a syringe (through the damper if you can) and you might need to remove the printer cover to see the line fill, watch for a bubble in the line. It does not take too much to refill the line so 5 or 6 ml should be enough to make sure the line is free of air bubbles.

Also note that dampers tend to be about half full. This is normal.

And those clear lines that run from under the captops over to a small rectangle box on the right side of the capping station, should never be plugged. Some times ink runs down them and if it dries you don't see it but they plug those lines and if they do get plugged it can cause heads to drop out and not charge propper.

 

[decaljunkie]

Ok, I haven't ordered the damper yet. However, I did remove the damper today and tried gently sucking the ink from the opposite end, it seemed to work well. Could there be another reason why black is not showing up?

The same thing happened with Cyan today, but it needed a new ink cartridge. The black is already using a new ink cartridge though, so that isn't the issue.

On another note, the nozzles in the rest of my colors are almost gone! I'll tell ya what though, I'm not very impressed with the performance of these pumps. Seems like the head soaks with coffee filter media have been the most effective. That and drawing ink manually.

Thanks for the help!

I have a mutoh falcon ll and had simular printing problem i did head soaks and put the heaters higher and found that the higher the heaters the better the print came out. try a higher tempature on the heaters.