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Nozzle dropout all of a sudden?!?!?!

ChiknNutz

New Member
Why would I all of a sudden get nozzle dropout? Printed fine earlier today, now all of a sudden getting a lot of magenta nozzles missing. I recently replaced both capping stations (just a month or so ago), last week replaced all dampers and had it printing top-notch. Manual and auto cleans do not remedy the problem. I've never replaced either head in the 3+ yrs I've had the printer...could I be in need of a new magenta/yellow head? This is VERY frustrating, so looking for some guidance. Thanks a lot.
 

Dave L.

New Member
I don't think you printheads need replacement after three years, unless you've been doing some serious output. When you replace the captops it is recommended that a flushing adjustment also be performed,. this ensures that the heads seat properly on the capping station. I know its dumb, but you have plenty of ink in the magenta? The machine doesn't always let you know when it has run out. I'm guessing you have an SP?
 

mbarden

New Member
Chris,
Can you post week a pic of your test print? I had to replace my black/cyan head last week because of a scratch. I imagine I got the scratch fromahead strike.
Mike B
Big River Sign Co
 

high impact

New Member
Sounds like an air pocket or a plugged vent on the bulk system bottle? I can't imagine your head plugged that quickly...

You are more knowledgeable than I am and I recognize these suggestions are basic so I am assuming you already checked them. I just figured I'd throw 'em out there for a feeble attempt at helping. LOL
 

SignosaurusRex

Active Member
The least you cold have done was start out on fire and then douche yourself!:Big Laugh
Welcome back.......I think....hope......maybe..........:rolleyes:
 

ChiknNutz

New Member
I welcome all ideas on this, but I've replaced the captops several times before (usually about every 6 mos) with no ill effects or anything of concern...in fact quite the opposite. As far as the dampers, this is my first go at it so I could have botched that part of the job.

I very well could have some air in the lines and I have heard of this before....but how do you go about purging the air from the lines? I pulled a light suction thru the lines to help "prime" the heads by parking the capping stations and connecting the syringe to the waste tubes. I assume there must be more to it than this if I might still have air in there, so I ask for any guidance there.

Like I said before, I had this thing printing great right after the R/R...but the Cyan & Black lines were kind of a bitch to get ink flowing again (cyan especially), but not the Yellow or Magenta. We printed a few jobs with no problems after the replacement on Thursday, again on Friday and this morning. Then this afternoon we experience significant dropout on the Magenta only and no amount of manual or auto cleans cleared it up. Just seems weird to show up now. We do perform pretty routine bi-weekly maintenance on the printer to try and keep it in good shape.

Again, thanks for the responses.
 

ddarlak

Go Bills!
check the lines to see if there is a bubble.

check to see if there is a pin hole in the damper

check to see if the mag. damper looks as full or at the same level as the others.

check the connection from the line to the damper. i have had a bad o ring that has caused this problem. i have also had the brass nut cross threaded, this causes loss of pressure also...

to get the line stable take off the damper, put the syringe in the damper and suck out enough ink to remove the bubble or to equalize the pressure in the damper.
 

cdiesel

New Member
Can you post a pic of the test print? I'd pop the top and take a look at the ink lines. Did you clamp off the line when you switched the damper and forget to unclamp it?
On another note, Triangle has told us to clean our machines daily. We had some problems with cyan clogging. Switched to daily cleanings and all has been well.
 

ChiknNutz

New Member
I don't think you printheads need replacement after three years, unless you've been doing some serious output. When you replace the captops it is recommended that a flushing adjustment also be performed,. this ensures that the heads seat properly on the capping station. I know its dumb, but you have plenty of ink in the magenta? The machine doesn't always let you know when it has run out. I'm guessing you have an SP?

Well after closer inspection, looks like it is in fact due to the capping stations not completely sealing around the heads. So we talked with a tech and they told us how to enter service mode and then make this adjustment. However, upon trying to complete the process, it keeps saying 'REMOVE SHEET" but there is no sheet or material loaded at all, so cannot complete the process. So it could be that I've got a bad sheet sensor or something. Of course we've tried blowing off the sensor to no avail. Anyone know how to test the sensor...electrically...or how to replace one? I know my best bet is to get the tech here, but we are really $truggling lately and need to do as much as we can in-house if at all possible.
 

GTSTech_1

New Member
Have you tried to lift the pinchroller handle?
If your paper sensor were bad, it would trigger a error code.
If your in Service Mode, you can check all the sensors.

Couple of things to try.
 

ChiknNutz

New Member
yes, all modes of handle up/down, cover up/down, etc. etc. etc. Okay, if the sensor isn't bad, how do I go about testing it? I've never found my way into the service mode before...never had the need. Cool that I can check the sensors in there though! Does anyone know where I can get an actual Service Manual?
 

ChiknNutz

New Member
Looks like the "code" we were given isn't actually the service mode afterall....it merely is to perform the capping station adjustment. I didn't even know it existed. I thought it was in the service mode, but is not, so I don't know how to test the sensors. But if you say that a bad sensor would pop a code, then this isn't it for some reason. I just don't understand why it keeps saying to REMOVE SHEET when nothign is there to remove that I am aware of.
 

cdiesel

New Member
Are you checking both the front and rear sensors? I know sometimes we put a piece of tape on the sensors for different reasons.. maybe you left a piece on one?
 

ChiknNutz

New Member
I never put tape on the sensors...never had the need to, so that's out. I got a copy of the Service Manual and hope that something in there sheds some light on the issue.
 

ChiknNutz

New Member
So now I cannot get into Service Mode for some reason. Are there different codes based on the firmware? We are using firmware 6.3 and the service code we are trying to use is: left arrow, down arrow, right arrow, power on...which isn't working for some reason. Any help on this?
 

cdiesel

New Member
I dunno about there being different codes.. our XC and XJ (both Pro III's) have an eight key sequence. Cant remember it right now, but I'm sure it's posted here somewhere.
 

ballgame

New Member
So now I cannot get into Service Mode for some reason. Are there different codes based on the firmware? We are using firmware 6.3 and the service code we are trying to use is: left arrow, down arrow, right arrow, power on...which isn't working for some reason. Any help on this?


On older printers there are different codes depending on firmware but there is only one code for your printer. No, that is not the right code
 
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