Odd issue with JFX200-2513

[hulign]

Hey gang,

I have been lurking for a while but have tried to learn rather than annoy.

Our JFX200 has a weird issue that I would love some advice on.

When we print red toward the end of the pass we get this odd gradient where it seems to revert to black. It does it no matter the scan length. We have had this machine for a while now and it finally seems to be coming into it's own and making us a few bucks.

I would love to call in someone to fix it but Judging from the install and 1 under warranty once over our Ricoh guys don't know this machine. I understand service comes with a bill but I hate paying to have a guy come in and train by phone.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Frank

 

[Solventinkjet]

That happens a lot in this industry. Ricoh is the head manufacturer and they make their own machines which I bet the tech knows in and out but the Mimaki uses their heads so they just throw them into it as if they know the machine already.

It looks like you are getting cross contamination. Are you seeing any black in the magenta, yellow or cyan test print? How long have you been running the machine for? It may be time for some maintenance parts to be replaced such as the cap tops and wiper.

 

[hulign]

That happens a lot in this industry. Ricoh is the head manufacturer and they make their own machines which I bet the tech knows in and out but the Mimaki uses their heads so they just throw them into it as if they know the machine already.

It looks like you are getting cross contamination. Are you seeing any black in the magenta, yellow or cyan test print? How long have you been running the machine for? It may be time for some maintenance parts to be replaced such as the cap tops and wiper.

Yeah that is kind of what I figured. We have a copier from them as well. Love the machine but the service leaves a bit to be desired. No black in any other colors, no other colors showing up where they don't belong. I wondered about this as well, but it seems odd that it only does it at the end of the scan.

The machine is 3 years old. Other than keeping it spotless, wiping the rails and light lubing, regular cleaning and head/print checks it has had nothing done to it.

They really do a horrible job telling you about maintenance on these machines. But then again the ricoh tech seem to know nothing. We bought the machine with CMYKWW, we just don't get much call for white. I enquired about changing it to CMYK only (supposed to print faster?)... the quoted $1000 in parts and 2 techs for 4hrs. That sound reasonable?

I have a service manual for the machine (we usually buy them first thing). We have done work on a couple of other machines. Nothing too crazy about doing the caps and such is there?

Appreciate any and all info!

Frank

 

[Solventinkjet]

Yeah that is kind of what I figured. We have a copier from them as well. Love the machine but the service leaves a bit to be desired. No black in any other colors, no other colors showing up where they don't belong. I wondered about this as well, but it seems odd that it only does it at the end of the scan.

The machine is 3 years old. Other than keeping it spotless, wiping the rails and light lubing, regular cleaning and head/print checks it has had nothing done to it.

They really do a horrible job telling you about maintenance on these machines. But then again the ricoh tech seem to know nothing. We bought the machine with CMYKWW, we just don't get much call for white. I enquired about changing it to CMYK only (supposed to print faster?)... the quoted $1000 in parts and 2 techs for 4hrs. That sound reasonable?

I have a service manual for the machine (we usually buy them first thing). We have done work on a couple of other machines. Nothing too crazy about doing the caps and such is there?

Appreciate any and all info!

Frank

I have personally done the procedure to switch from CMYKWW to CMYKx2, which is faster by the way. While I would have loved to have another tech with me to help, they are pretty spot on on the time. It took me 10 hours to complete the procedure but that included changing both heads as well which added about 2 hours on to it. So they are pretty spot on on that quote. $1000 for parts though doesn't sound right to me. If you do the procedure properly according to Mimaki's manual, you need to change out the primary filters, sub tanks and bottle holders. The primary filters alone are over $1000, sub tanks are like $250 each as well as the bottle holders. I skipped the bottle holder part and it worked fine. They are Ricoh though so they may have better pricing on parts since they make them in the first place.

3 Years is over due for some maintenance parts such as the primary filters and cap tops. Doing the procedure might be the best way to fix the issue.

As far as right now, usually when I see random ink issues like this, make sure the cap tops and wiper are clean, run the negative and positive pressure adjustments, do an air purge on all channels and then see how it goes. Also, just to rule it out, clean the encoder strip.

The machine can be intimidating at first but it's fairly straight forward once you get in there. Replacing heads is the most technical part in my opinion.

 

[Bingleardicus]

That happens a lot in this industry. Ricoh is the head manufacturer and they make their own machines which I bet the tech knows in and out but the Mimaki uses their heads so they just throw them into it as if they know the machine already.

It looks like you are getting cross contamination. Are you seeing any black in the magenta, yellow or cyan test print? How long have you been running the machine for? It may be time for some maintenance parts to be replaced such as the cap tops and wiper.

Agreed, In my experience a majority of the time contamination like this is a result of the capping station either worn or warped to the point the head isnt capped properly. This should be easy for any certified dealer tech to mitigate. could be as easy as a cap station adjustment.

 

[hulign]

I have personally done the procedure to switch from CMYKWW to CMYKx2, which is faster by the way. While I would have loved to have another tech with me to help, they are pretty spot on on the time. It took me 10 hours to complete the procedure but that included changing both heads as well which added about 2 hours on to it. So they are pretty spot on on that quote. $1000 for parts though doesn't sound right to me. If you do the procedure properly according to Mimaki's manual, you need to change out the primary filters, sub tanks and bottle holders. The primary filters alone are over $1000, sub tanks are like $250 each as well as the bottle holders. I skipped the bottle holder part and it worked fine. They are Ricoh though so they may have better pricing on parts since they make them in the first place.

3 Years is over due for some maintenance parts such as the primary filters and cap tops. Doing the procedure might be the best way to fix the issue.

As far as right now, usually when I see random ink issues like this, make sure the cap tops and wiper are clean, run the negative and positive pressure adjustments, do an air purge on all channels and then see how it goes. Also, just to rule it out, clean the encoder strip.

The machine can be intimidating at first but it's fairly straight forward once you get in there. Replacing heads is the most technical part in my opinion.

Thanks for the info. I will take a good look at the items you mentioned. As for the parts (primary filters and cap tops) are these things you carry? I would prefer to support someone who is helpful.

Thanks again, I will update if I find/fix/break anything.

Frank

 

[hulign]

Agreed, In my experience a majority of the time contamination like this is a result of the capping station either worn or warped to the point the head isnt capped properly. This should be easy for any certified dealer tech to mitigate. could be as easy as a cap station adjustment.

I will have to look around and see who is a certified tech around here. I can't stand to have the Ricoh techs involved. When I asked one of them how they were to work on he mentioned ours is the only machine they have sold. So he obviously hasn't touched one in the field. I don't know if they are trained on them or not.

Thanks,

Frank

 

[hand851]

Can I see a test print

 

[Lady Who]

Excuse me for using this topic, but it's about "contamination"... I have some contamination in test print (black on yellow), but not in the printing. Often this mixing disappear after the 3rd test print. Captop is new but the tech didn't replace dampers because he said this contamination + missing lines means there's internal damage in the head and replacing dampers could break the internal chambers of the head and kill it once and for all.
Is he really right? Ain't worth trying replacing dampers to get those 2 lines back?

 

[Solventinkjet]

Thanks for the info. I will take a good look at the items you mentioned. As for the parts (primary filters and cap tops) are these things you carry? I would prefer to support someone who is helpful.

Thanks again, I will update if I find/fix/break anything.

Frank

We have some of the parts on out site but feel free to call in as we can get you a quote on parts we don't have on the site. Appreciate it!

 

[hulign]

Can I see a test print

This is what we got this morning.

The odd thing is it seems to only really happen on a darker red. We have another sign we have printed lately that doesn't seem to do it.