stumped, chronic vacuum leak at cap

[signswi]

Our Mimaki tech trained me on aligning heads to back right corner. Vinyl shims are a temp solution but it can be properly fixed.

 

[signswi]

Looked up the capping height selector, when you're in maintenance mode it's under #adjust>capping

 

[Jim Hancock]

The capping adjustments under #adjust need to be done to insure proper operation, however these adjustments, including the height adjustment, do not change the left-right position of the head-cap relationship. My experience has shown the caps tend to end up too far to the left over time, due to the constant rubbing contact of the head carriage wearing the plastic on the capping station upright arm. Making sure the print heads are oriented to the upper left of the metal head carrier plate helps move the heads to left and also makes the centerline spacing from head to head consistent. If this is still not enough, then shimming, although temporary, gets the job done. It is a design flaw inherent in elevator style capping stations that they do not allow any left-right adjustment, as it is the contact of the print head carriage to the capping station upright arm that starts the capping movement, and there is no way to change the contact point relationship, other than shimming. It isn't an issue on a lot of printers, such as those with DX2 & DX3 heads, as there is usually plenty of margin for error due to the size relationship of the head and cap. However, the DX4 head and caps are a lot closer in size, which doesn't allow much room for misalignment, especially when there are multiple heads. If anyone has a better idea for adjusting the left-right position of the heads and caps on JV3's, I'd love to hear it, because vinyl shims are a pain and must be maintained, but they work!

 

[artbot]

really appreciate all the input. lots of great "out of the box" suggestions. i will head back the printer in a couple days and give all these ideas a go. in the meanwhile, i'm stuck proposing projects and the such.

 

[signswi]

If you take the top off the capping station inside there are little metal .5mm shims, you could take one from the "high" side and move it to the "low" side, then in #adjust>capping set the height .5mm higher overall. Could work? Capping stations ship with 1-3 of those shims on each side, if I recall.

 

[artbot]

think i got it.

the suggestion to use the caps with ink was a great suggestion to get an eye on the interface between the head and cap. also used a small mirror to get a view on the upright on the capping assembly that comes in contact with the foot on the carriage.

that solved the black channel. but the cyan kept leaking. no matter how high or low or what shim was used still leaking...

i noticed that the whole assembly seemed to lean a bit lower on the right side (this is noted in the service manual). to compensate for this, i pulled out the springs for the cyan and yellow head and slightly stretched them. giving them a bit more energy against the head compared to the left caps that were more compressed thus giving them an advantage.

checked for a leak, dead silent vacuum. aahhhhh........

i noticed a mention of some shims "inside" the capping station. i didn't see any (of course there's a big one on the bottom). perhaps that's a better fix than spring stretching. but it all looks good.

so finally i can beta test this new manifold. hope it stands up over general use. also got my supplies in for my piggy back mini-cartridge. will update on that fiasco in a while.

thanks again for all the great suggestions. tomorrow i will do the cap, absorb, and flash position.