Print head gone bad?

[StreamlineDesign]

Hey all,

Our printing suddenly became banded, streaky and splotchy on our VP-540.

It's about 3.5 years old and used nearly every day, but not all day long. We have only ever used OEM inks.

We ran a regular cleaning, a strong cleaning and finally did a manual cleaning - but every time we do our test prints, the black is messed up in the same spots as you can see in the attached photos.

Is this indicative of a bad head? Should our next step be to get a Roland tech out to look at it? Is there anything else we should try first?

Thanks!
-Rich

 

[rjssigns]

You are getting deflection and drop-out on the K head. Did you have a major head strike, or many small ones leading up to this? Did you run a report to get a print head count? They don't last forever. I think DX4's are rated around 5 or 6 billion, but I may be wrong. 3rd party inks can cause issues with a single head also.

 

[Kaizer Chiefs]

Hello rjssigns
The indication for deflection is the line on the nozzle check printed bold ? (as if printed twice )
How can we solve the deflection problem ?

Thanks

 

[rjssigns]

Try soaking a swab in cleaning solution and dabbing the bottom of the head. Do not swipe or rub. Then fill cap tops with cleaning solution and park the heads. Let sit for 5 or 10 minutes. Do powerful cleaning. The test pattern should improve.

Go into service mode and run a report. You will find the number of times each head has fired. I have heard of shops running 24/7 that have burned up a head in less than a year.

Another issue is you may have a bad captop. Or in rare cases a saturated mist sponge. If the sponge is soaked ink can bounce back onto the heads surface and cause some deflection. (ask me how I know about that one, oops)

There are things I probably missed. If i think if anything else I will post.

 

[StreamlineDesign]

rjssigns,

We have had a few minor head strikes over the years - nothing recently though.
We've never had the need to do a head count report - until now....

We have only ever used Roland ink.

Here's the results.

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

186 hours of print time that's it?

 

[96XP]

Trying this myself by scrolling the main menu, but only see a 'print system report'.
How do I find the 'print history' on the SP?

 

[rjssigns]

Very low count on heads. If you have done the things I suggested you may want to have a tech look at it. I'm out of ideas right now.

 

[Ken]

My test print looks about the same as yours for about 2 years now, but I am not seeing any loss in print quality. WHEN NOT USING THE MACHINE i TRY TO DO A TEST PRINT EVEY COUPLE OF DAYS.
kEN

 

[kffernandez]

since you mentioned that your test print is pretty much the same for 2 years now... and assuming you've been printing the same types of colors, i'd look into the head alignments. try to run your alignment calibration and see how it goes. also, it might help a bit to show some pics of the banding that you are having problems with.

kelly

 

[philkeenan]

Hi Rich,
what ink set are you using ? Are you using original Roland inks.

Looks like you have a lot of misdirected or missing black nozzle, suggesting that the black nozzle row in the printhead (each printhead has two rows of nozzles) is contaminated. If you in-machine cleaning cannot help recover this printhead, I would have to say you must get a technician to replace this printhead.

 

[StreamlineDesign]

Only ever used Roland Ink.

 

[Vandal Guard USA]

Change cap-tops, replace wipers, then do 1 powerful clean. If that doesn't solve the problem then your only other option is to soak a Roland cleaning swab with Roland cleaning solution and gently press to the print head (do NOT wipe back and forth). Apply for 30 seconds then release, apply again for 30 seconds with the other side of the swab, then release. Do this with about 5 cleaning swabs...then (as mentioned above by a previous poster) saturate the cap top with cleaning solution and let the head sit over the cap-top for at least an hour followed by a normal clean. If this doesn't work you'll need to contact a Roland rep. and possibly change the head as the nozzles are most likely permanently misdirected. (I used to work for a Roland dealer and was a tech and now do sales for Vandal Guard).

 

[B Snyder]

Change cap-tops, replace wipers, then do 1 powerful clean. If that doesn't solve the problem then your only other option is to soak a Roland cleaning swab with Roland cleaning solution and gently press to the print head (do NOT wipe back and forth). Apply for 30 seconds then release, apply again for 30 seconds with the other side of the swab, then release. Do this with about 5 cleaning swabs...then (as mentioned above by a previous poster) saturate the cap top with cleaning solution and let the head sit over the cap-top for at least an hour followed by a normal clean. If this doesn't work you'll need to contact a Roland rep. and possibly change the head as the nozzles are most likely permanently misdirected. (I used to work for a Roland dealer and was a tech and now do sales for Vandal Guard).

I always thought you could clear clogged nozzles but you couldn't straighten misdirected ones. I'll have to try this next time.

 

[StreamlineDesign]

Vandal Guard; We tried all that and it still didn't help.

So, to follow up on this if anyone was interested:

Local rep wanted $1500.00 to replace the head.

After doing some research, we bought a new head from solventinkjet.com
(Great guys!)

Head was delivered Friday afternoon, replaced it myself and saved about $600 in process. Calibration took the longest time to do out of everything, but we're back up and running!

Thanks again to all who replied here!
-Rich