Replacing the Sponges on the capping station...

[ffokazak]

Hey guys,

Just getting into the maintenance of my new sc-500 machine,

I have taken off the cover and started to investigate the inner workings of this machine.

Looking at the capping station, I am just wondering what the schedule is for changing the sponges? One seems more plush than the other. {black head side is less thick I think}

I have run a cleaning with the covers off, and the station seems to be functioning properly.

It fills with waste ink, and is sucked away rather efficiently.

I have looked at parts resources for this printer, and have yet to see just the sponges for sale, so not sure if they are even available....

Thanks in advance!

 

[splizaat]

Someone correct me if this is wrong but You don't just replace the sponge, you need to replace the entire cap....which is the sponge and the surrounding black plastic area..

 

[Jack Knight1979]

I used to replace my caps every six months or so. That's what my rep told me to do. I was green back then. I havent replaced them in years and they are still fine. You can pull out the sponge if they swell to much. Leave the metal clip in inside the cap though. If your caps are a couple years old or more and your head is clogging its time to replace the cap top. Otherwise leave them alone.

 

[sfr table hockey]

The captops on the Old CJ and SC 500 printers are not available to buy just as captops. As far as I have found, you need to buy the whole capping station, well over $100.

If the rubber around the captops is still good then you can just replace the filter (white pads). I buy my filters as a base (fits full size of captop) and the uppers which consists of 2 squares (almost like you would get if the base one was cut into halves. Not sure why they have upper and lower set up this way but that is what is shown in the PDF on how to replace.

I used one captop from the waterbased setup as a test while the other was a new one from the new cappingstation. Changed the filter in the waterbased captop and all has been fine for over two years. They are just starting to slightly swell but not yet enough to touch the heads.

As far as a screen for the captops, this is done on other brand printers with the same capping station but I don't think this can be got through Roland. If they ever come loose they could touch and scratch the heads but if installed propper they would stop the issue of swelling pads and causing a cart to drain in error if they ever touch the head.

As far as I can tell the only purpose of the pads is to absorb the ink and not let it splash as its sucked through the heads. The ink flows through and out to the drain bottle. It may also help cause a more even draw for the 3 colors in the head as if it was open you may have more draw on the left side of the captops. Not sure on that.

Not sure if these part numbers would be the same for all Roland dealers. #71405945 filter cap sol ink upper $5.64 ea and #71405940 filter cap sol lower $5.98

Only thing I would say is I might try 2 lower filters and skip the uppers as you need 2 of them and doubles the cost.