Roland VC - print heads became uncapped over the weekend?

[Andy D]

I came in Monday morning and instead of my printer being in hibernation, it said "processing"
and the print heads were uncapped. It looks like the wiping mechanism didn't make a full rotation and wasn't out of the way, the print heads hit it and became stuck to the left of the wiper.
It's a Roland Versa-Cam 540, I'm somewhat new to this printer...
Does it wipe the heads when it does its periodical cleaning over a weekend?
Or is this something that happened Friday & I didn't notice?

Thankfully, I didn't lose any nozzles but want to find out what happened so that I can prevent
it in the future.

Thanks

 

[Andy D]

bump

 

[Solventinkjet]

I don't have a ton of experience with that printer but I know for sure it wipes the heads when it does periodic cleanings. If the wiper didn't get out of the way and the heads hit it, that would cause the machine to either error out and/or just freeze to protect the heads. I would look at the wiper mechanism and clean any ink off and possible grease it to make sure it moves properly.

 

[Andy D]

I don't have a ton of experience with that printer but I know for sure it wipes the heads when it does periodic cleanings. If the wiper didn't get out of the way and the heads hit it, that would cause the machine to either error out and/or just freeze to protect the heads. I would look at the wiper mechanism and clean any ink off and possible grease it to make sure it moves properly.

Thanks Solvent, that seems like a huge design flaw...do you happen to know if there is a way
to turn that off? I don't remember our Mimakis doing that, or am I wrong?

 

[Solventinkjet]

Thanks Solvent, that seems like a huge design flaw...do you happen to know if there is a way
to turn that off? I don't remember our Mimakis doing that, or am I wrong?

The Mimakis do it too but their wiper mechanism is designed in a way that if the head hits the wiper it can slide by without jamming. The only way too turn it off would be to turn auto cleanings off. Not sure if that is possible on that model though.

 

[Joe House]

Which model is it? VersaCamm is a series and there are quite a few models in that series. With different wiper systems. You don't want to turn off your your auto cleanings. This isn't a common situation in my experience. I would make sure that your wiper system is clean and consumable parts are fresh.
If this is a one off experience, it could just be the shop gremlin stopped by (my explanation for the unexplainable) . If it happens more frequently than once a year, and isn't giving any error codes (It seems that you would have gotten a wiper error if the wiper was the cause or a scan motor error if the wiper stopped the carriage) you probably have an electrical issue. How old is the printer? Is the printer plugged into a surge protector or battery backup? Is power to your shop generally reliable?
If you have any more details, I'm happy to guess some more, but the items above would point to where I would go first in order to prevent future issues like this.

Good Luck

 

[Andy D]

Which model is it? Roland Versa-Cam 540
How old is the printer? Probably 4 yrs old
Is the printer plugged into a surge protector or battery backup? yes on surge battery back-up
Is power to your shop generally reliable? yes

I will take a look at the wiper assembly and clean as needed.
It gave me a heart attack when I came in and thought it had been uncapped all weekend, I just knew
the heads would be dried up...& I just had the heads and the capping station replaced 6 months ago...

 

[Joe House]

Versa-Cam can be a SP-540v, SP-540i, VP-540, VP-540i, VS-540, but if it's about 4 years old, I would guess that it's a VS-540i.
If so, when were the wiper(#25), felt(324) and wiper scraper(#26) last replaced? The wiper scraper tends to get neglected when doing the weekly cleaning. Also, I've seen customers put the wiper and/or felt in the incorrect position in the holders (#11). This can cause errors as well.

I hope this helps.

Good Luck

 

[Andy D]

Versa-Cam can be a SP-540v, SP-540i, VP-540, VP-540i, VS-540, but if it's about 4 years old, I would guess that it's a VS-540i.
If so, when were the wiper(#25), felt(324) and wiper scraper(#26) last replaced? The wiper scraper tends to get neglected when doing the weekly cleaning. Also, I've seen customers put the wiper and/or felt in the incorrect position in the holders (#11). This can cause errors as well.

View attachment 141977
I hope this helps.

Good Luck

I changed them about 2 months ago & have cleaned them several times since then.
I have the wiper in what I have circled below, is that correct?
What are the other holder things for?

 

[Andy D]

Also, I am having issues with one of my magenta heads & I have a print order
to get out before I can pull ink through... is there a way to pick which head is used
when printing uni-directional?