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roland head cleaning

signrios

New Member
my vp540 roland is acting up on me, the black head seems to be clogged missing a few lines, i'm reading a tutorial about soaking the heads with cleaning solution.

i already tried it but no luck, i left them soaking for about an hour,
would it be ok if a leave them soaking overnight?

anybody?:smile:
 

cdiesel

New Member
Have you tried pulling ink through with a syringe? Pull the line off the pump, attach a syringe, and try pulling some ink through. If you get air instead of ink, you're not getting a good seal at the cap top. Probably time for a new one.
 
If your not getting a good seal on your cap tops then your machine may not be cleaning the heads properly when you run a cleaning cycle. Tight seal equals adequate cleaning cycle... If you have an adequate cleaning cycle, and the problem still persist, then you can move on to other remedies... Like possibly replacing your head.

I just had to replace a head. Like you I tried soaking it... I used a cleaning solution that I found a recipe for here on the forums, and soaked it in a ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. I even pressed clean solution through the head with a syringe.. The way I saw it if I couldn't get it unclogged I would need a new head anyway so why not give it a try...

Needless to say, It didn't get any better. I had a roland tech come out and install a new head and now I am printing as good as new. money well spent!
 

DrSteveBrule

New Member
Have you tried pulling ink through with a syringe? Pull the line off the pump, attach a syringe, and try pulling some ink through. If you get air instead of ink, you're not getting a good seal at the cap top. Probably time for a new one.

:goodpost:


We had the same issues and did this and it worked out for a while but then the heads would fail on us again. We kept using the syringe and even replaced all of the cap tops. Finally we realized it was the crappy 3rd party inks we were using.

This method works, just double check your inks. If its still giving you issues try another set. We now stick with the Roland brand. Lesson learned.
 
We had the same issues and did this and it worked out for a while but then the heads would fail on us again. We kept using the syringe and even replaced all of the cap tops. Finally we realized it was the crappy 3rd party inks we were using.

Those weren't by chance the new triangle inks that are supposed to be competing with the eco-sol max inks were they?
 

DrSteveBrule

New Member
They were ElevenTen brand. Our local Roland mechanic (big ups to Rich S at Garston!) told us they went out of business last year. I havent heard of Triangle Inks but i'll make a note to stay away from them.
 

cdiesel

New Member
3rd party inks are CHEAPER... But they're not for everyone.

If you're moving some high volume and maintaining your printers correctly, the savings can be significant. We save about 50-60% by using Triangle Inks. That 50-60% can buy quite a few replacement parts, although we've switched only three heads in a combined almost six years of running strictly Triangle in our two Rolands. Our machines run a lot.

If you're not doing high volume, stick with OEM.
 

GIL GARITANO

New Member
Hi, my name is Gil, I am new to this forum, I am also having an issue with my Roland 300v Versacam printer, I have ran several head cleanings, as well as solvent cleanings of the heads. I run nozzle checks daily, today my black started printing as blue, so I created a 3 inch by 24 inch block of black, I printed this block several times and it printed as a dark blue, the other colors print okay, my problem is the black not printing a true black. Has anyone had this problem?
 

Trimline20

New Member
Hi Gil,

It appears you may have a blocked drain hose or a defective pump. When the heads are parked and the capping stations are in contact with the heads, the hoses to the drain bottle allow a small amount of air into the capping station to 'break' any siphoning action on the heads.

Since two colour heads are integrated into one head assembly and are sharing one capping station, if one of the two has more ink in its cartridge than the other, the ink will attempt to equalize levels between the two cartridges. By allowing a small bit of air into the capping station from the drain bottle, this equalizing action will not occur.

Use a syringe to draw air through the various sections of drain hose and through the pump. If air can't be drawn through any section, this will indicate a blockage.

The original VersaCAMM pumps were the cause of many printing problems. The original pump had two separate chambers, one for each capping station. Roland now have a new style pump that is much more reliable. The new pump has one chamber so the drain hose from both capping stations are 'tee'd' together before the pump and there is only one hose from the pump to the drain bottle.

If you still have the original two chamber pump, it is likely the source of your problem. The pump change is easy and can be completed by you if you're somewhat mechanically inclined.

To clear the ink line of the wrong colour ink contamination, keep printing the 3" X" blocks of Black (C,M,Y = 0%, K=100%) until the Black prints cleanly again. Since this problem only started today, this will also reduce the likelihood of the Cyan actually making its way all the way into the Black cartridge, thereby contaminating the Black cartridge and making it trash.

As preventative maintenance, your heads should be manually cleaned (with swabs and cleaning fluid) at least on a weekly basis. Along with manually cleaning the heads, the wipers and capping station tops should also be swabbed and some cleaning fluid should be poured in each capping station which will help to prevent blockages in the drain lines.

All the best!

Mark
 

DrSteveBrule

New Member
I have heard nothing but good things about the new triangle inks... So much that I'm just waiting to hear the bad. lol

Ahh well I misunderstood you then. Maybe ill give them a shot. We do crank out A LOT (ALL of the transit for Buffalo Roc and Syr) and it would be a signifigant savings.

How new are they? You said have head of no horror stories?

Thanks!
 

GIL GARITANO

New Member
Thanks Mark,
Your information has been very helpful. I just submitted another thread today, showing several photographs of my test results comparing tests made a couple of weeks ago and the test I made yesterday, last year I had a new pump put in so I am pretty sure it is not the pump. I am thinking it could be the black ink line not filling the print head, the fact that the test print prints a good test pattern onl it prints blue.
 
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