Suggestions Roland SP-300V is the capping station adjustable?

[Jim Hill]

When my printer sits over night the next morning the printing looks bad like there is not enough ink.
If I connect my tapered syringe to the hose under each cap top and pull ink through the lines it prints perfectly.

My question about the capping station what are the signs when it is going bad?
My printer is sitting perfectly level when I checked it.

I am also wondering where I can purchase a New capping station or are they no longer being made?

Thanks for your advice. Jim

 

[Jim Hill]

Well it appears not many people know very much about the capping station.

If anyone knows even the part numbers for the capping station that would be a big help.
I have the Manuel for the SP-300 but the copy I received did not include parts numbers for some reason. So I am looking at the photos but in order to try and find the part I would need to know the corrects part numbers.
I have contacted Digiprint looking for parts but they a parts number to even check to see if they have it.

Jim

 

[Joe House]

Jim, you probably won't find a capping station. In over 10 years, I've never replaced one. I would be surprised if one exists. The only time I've had to adjust one was when I dropped a screw below or behind it. We only replace cap tops, cap top springs and occasionally a pump.
There is a cap height adjustment in the service menu that you might check.
Hope this helps,

Good Luck

 

[Jim Hill]

Thanks Joe for your great advice.

Jim

 

[phototec]

When my printer sits over night the next morning the printing looks bad like there is not enough ink.
If I connect my tapered syringe to the hose under each cap top and pull ink through the lines it prints perfectly.

My question about the capping station what are the signs when it is going bad?
My printer is sitting perfectly level when I checked it.

I am also wondering where I can purchase a New capping station or are they no longer being made?

Thanks for your advice. Jim

Jim, have you changed the CAP TOPS before? They are the part that makes contact with the head and keeps them from drying out.

I have the SP540V (big brother to the SP300V) and have had it since 2008 and the CAP TOPS need to be replaced every 6 months to a year max because the rubber seal gets hard and doesn't make a good seal and the head can dry out. I have NEVER heard of anybody replacing the entire capping station, only the CAP TIPS. The pump is the only other thing that could go bad and not be pulling on the heads.

Hope this helps.

 

[Jim Hill]

Jim, have you changed the CAP TOPS before? They are the part that makes contact with the head and keeps them from drying out.

I have the SP540V (big brother to the SP300V) and have had it since 2008 and the CAP TOPS need to be replaced every 6 months to a year max because the rubber seal gets hard and doesn't make a good seal and the head can dry out. I have NEVER heard of anybody replacing the entire capping station, only the CAP TIPS. The pump is the only other thing that could go bad and not be pulling on the heads.

Hope this helps.

Jim, have you changed the CAP TOPS before? They are the part that makes contact with the head and keeps them from drying out.

I have the SP540V (big brother to the SP300V) and have had it since 2008 and the CAP TOPS need to be replaced every 6 months to a year max because the rubber seal gets hard and doesn't make a good seal and the head can dry out. I have NEVER heard of anybody replacing the entire capping station, only the CAP TIPS. The pump is the only other thing that could go bad and not be pulling on the heads.

Hope this helps.

Yes I have changed the cap tops many times over the past nine years that I have owned the printer.

Cross contamination is one of the hardest problems to track down. I started with New Roland OEM cap tops and when that did not correct the problem I started from the manifold and worked my way all the way to the drain bottle. I changed all of the tube hoses, the Y connector and I took the ink pump completely apart and cleaned everything and blew air through it.

I changed the damper, the O ring and I cut off a small section of the tubing before inserting a New O ring. I have double checking the capping station to make sure it was working properly.

I also checked to make sure the printer was sitting perfectly level because that could also be the cause of cross contamination.

I can only guess how much money this would have cost me if I had used a tech to do all this. It's very time consuming and right now test prints look fine for about two or three day's and then I start to see traces of magenta again in the yellow damper.

Cross contamination problems are a real pain because the air leak is so tiny.

Thanks for your advice. Jim

 

[phototec]

WOW, you have done a lot of work on your own. I'm like you and changed out my own blk/cyan printhead last year when it was spaying a mist outside of the text. I have never had or heard of cross contamination and have NO idea what would cause that situation or how to fix it.

You say it is caused by a tiny air leak somewhere? Are you talking about in the ink delivery system?

Have you asked Roland for things to check, surely as engineers of the printer they would be able to tell you area to check when that kind of problem exists?

If I knew the cross-contamination was caused by a small air leak (but again, I have no clue what it is), I would start at the ink cartridge and replace all the ink lines (tubes) all the way to the print head. Did you do that?

 

[Sign Works]

Roland Cap Top part number is 1000004546
Cost is $27.35
I order all my Genuine Roland parts from Midwest
www.midwestsign.com
Parts are actually drop shipped from Roland headquarters in Irvine, CA

 

[Jim Hill]

WOW, you have done a lot of work on your own. I'm like you and changed out my own blk/cyan printhead last year when it was spaying a mist outside of the text. I have never had or heard of cross contamination and have NO idea what would cause that situation or how to fix it.

You say it is caused by a tiny air leak somewhere? Are you talking about in the ink delivery system?

Have you asked Roland for things to check, surely as engineers of the printer they would be able to tell you area to check when that kind of problem exists?

If I knew the cross-contamination was caused by a small air leak (but again, I have no clue what it is), I would start at the ink cartridge and replace all the ink lines (tubes) all the way to the print head. Did you do that?

I cannot ask my Roland Dealer any questions about my SP-300 because once they found out that I had changed both heads on my printer and that I did not buy the New Print Heads from Roland the service manger told me they would no longer help me with any questions or parts!

If Roland finds out you worked on your machine that might be a bad thing for you also.

One day I went to the Roland dealer to purchase a fuse and when they asked me how it blew I made a mistake and told them I had started to change the heads when it blew.
They asked me why I did not buy the new heads from them. They wanted at that time $1,120.00 dollars for each new head.

I purchased my new DX-4 print heads from Digiprint for $532.50 each

Jim

 

[player]

When you manually clean the printheads, check with a mirror to see the ink outline of the captop on the bottom of the printhead. If they all line up inside the outer silver ring, then the caps are lined up.

You could try to replace the captop springs. They must be fairly old by now.

 

[C5 Service&Repair]

Hi Jim,
The SP as you know, uses the same head for magenta and yellow. And Also for black and cyan. The only way these heads can cross contaminate the colors into the other dampers is the wiper. They use a common wiper that smears across both color nozzles. This is relatively common. Your best practice is to to a cleaning of the rubber side of the wiper every other day. You can use the roland solution on a sponge swab and just clean the gunk off the rubber side only. The felt will just absorb the solution and then start to fail. FWIW, only use the roland cap tops. The knock offs with the clear hoses, while look the same, are total junk.

 

[Jim Hill]

Hi Jim,
The SP as you know, uses the same head for magenta and yellow. And Also for black and cyan. The only way these heads can cross contaminate the colors into the other dampers is the wiper. They use a common wiper that smears across both color nozzles. This is relatively common. Your best practice is to to a cleaning of the rubber side of the wiper every other day. You can use the roland solution on a sponge swab and just clean the gunk off the rubber side only. The felt will just absorb the solution and then start to fail. FWIW, only use the roland cap tops. The knock offs with the clear hoses, while look the same, are total junk.

Thank you for the advice on cleaning the wipers every other day. It also made me think because I have been using after market wipers!
The problem with cross contamination is isolated to just the magenta and yellow head. The magenta was being pulled back into the yellow damper.

The problem right now is under control but I changed out everything from the yellow damper back to the drain tank looking for anything that might be blocking and causing the problem.
Thanks Again Jim

 

[player]

Hi Jim,
The SP as you know, uses the same head for magenta and yellow. And Also for black and cyan. The only way these heads can cross contaminate the colors into the other dampers is the wiper. They use a common wiper that smears across both color nozzles. This is relatively common. Your best practice is to to a cleaning of the rubber side of the wiper every other day. You can use the roland solution on a sponge swab and just clean the gunk off the rubber side only. The felt will just absorb the solution and then start to fail. FWIW, only use the roland cap tops. The knock offs with the clear hoses, while look the same, are total junk.

The heads can draw up the colour from the other channel in the same head. Black and cyan can be crossed as well as magenta and yellow. It can suck up quite a bit, so the yellow prints orange for example.

 

[Jim Hill]

The heads can draw up the colour from the other channel in the same head. Black and cyan can be crossed as well as magenta and yellow. It can suck up quite a bit, so the yellow prints orange for example.

The heads can draw up the colour from the other channel in the same head. Black and cyan can be crossed as well as magenta and yellow. It can suck up quite a bit, so the yellow prints orange for example.

I understand what you are saying but how would you fix the problem so that the yellow does not print orange?

Jim

 

[player]

I understand what you are saying but how would you fix the problem so that the yellow does not print orange?

Jim

You can make a file and print a big block of yellow until the orange clears.

You can pinch off the black and cyan captop tubes and do cleanings until it's clear. This saves wasting black and cyan.

Put a syringe barrel on the yellow captop tube and gently draw the ink from the yellow and magenta head until it is clear.

 

[C5 Service&Repair]

The heads can draw up the colour from the other channel in the same head. Black and cyan can be crossed as well as magenta and yellow. It can suck up quite a bit, so the yellow prints orange for example.

If that happens then the captop is not draining properly or the dampers are failing.

 

[phototec]

If that happens then the captop is not draining properly or the dampers are failing.

C5, you sound pretty knowledgeable about printers, I have a general question about the DX4 print head in an SP540V printer.

Last year I was getting a CYAN mist overspray and was told to replace the BLK/CYAN printhead which I did and it fixed the problem and everything has been good and the printer print great.

The factory DX4 printhead lasted 10 years, but now after a little less than a year the replaced DX4 printhead has just started to print a black overspray on the outside of the black text and the crop marks used for auto alignment when making contour cuts. What is causing the misting/overspray, I have NOT had any head stricks or any problems like that?

The test print is showing some deflected nozzles in the black, is the misting and overspray caused by deflected nozzles?

What causes deflected nozzles, and is there a way to fix them?

Thanks for any amnd all help.

 

[Scphotog]

Thank you for the advice on cleaning the wipers every other day. It also made me think because I have been using after market wipers!
The problem with cross contamination is isolated to just the magenta and yellow head. The magenta was being pulled back into the yellow damper.

The problem right now is under control but I changed out everything from the yellow damper back to the drain tank looking for anything that might be blocking and causing the problem.
Thanks Again Jim

I know this is an old thread... I'm dealing with dropouts now and trying to fix the issue. For anyone reading, going through the same thing, note that the wipers have a little plastic piece mounted in front of their stationary position called the wiper scraper, and it wears out and needs replacing. I fought issues with cross contamination for a while until I figured this out. The magenta/yellow side had broken off. The wiper itself was no longer being cleaned and so there was a giant buildup of ink-goo getting reintroduced to the wiper and the heads each time the wipers run across the scraper, which is ALL the time.

 

[balstestrat]

So many issues and bad days could be avoided if people did some maintenance.
Just replace yearly: wipers, scraper, caps, tubes, pads if you like.
Simple and not really that expensive.

 

[Zoogee World]

Hi Jim,

I would suggest replacing the cap tops and every morning before you use the printer, do a normal cleaning. I have 2x SP-300V's and have learned a lot about them, and one thing is, they like their daily normal cleanings to stay at peak efficiency.