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This is what you do NOT want to see in the morning

jiarby

jiarby

New Member
UGH...
One day all is well, the next day the thing is banding like crazy. (see photo 1)

So, I park the head on the left, get out the swabs & scare off the dust bunnies... everything looks ok. Until I print a nozzle check. 95% of one black is missing, 50% of the OTHER black, and maybe 10% of the cyan.

OK.. after 5-6 strong cleanings the problem is WORSE! (photo 3 Nozzle Check)

30 minute head soak. Some nozzles come back and I get false hope. After a 2nd nozzle check I now have NO Cyan, No Magenta , and only a few black. Yelllow? Who cares at this point.

Last time something like this happened Chris (from Mutoh) came and replaced the maint. station.

So... whaddya think? Maint Station, or Print head?

The yellow bars are actually 40-30-20-100 "rich black" test prints (Photo 2)

I have not yet broke out the syringe
 

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Ghost Prophet

Ghost Prophet

New Member
You may not be getting a good seal on the capping station if the problem gets worse every cleaning cycle... or possible air leak but doubtful.

Try homing the carriage in your technical menu and make sure you can pull ink through the capping station while pushing the carriage into it to confirm a seal.

---

If you were getting a seal yesterday but not today, you should check your head alignment, clean the outer rim of the heads, wiper, and capping station rubbers. When was the last time you replaced your steel line (T-Line I think?) motor that moves the head carriage?
 
dj_elite

dj_elite

New Member
Looks like a bad seal and then ink contamination. Thats how my black looks. Couldnt do anything to fix it. So I just got a new capping station and a new black printhead!
 
P Wagner

P Wagner

--
I agree with the previous post. Generally, when things get worse after cleanings, it is due to a bad seal on the maintenance assy/ capping station. If it has been more than one year since the maintenance station has been replaced, it's probably time to do so again.
 
p3

p3

New Member
how much ink is in your waste? I know it sounds stupid but I just had similar problem and emptied it (not that there was much in there) and after 2 strong cleanings worked perfect... I thought the same exact thing as everyone on here. But I talked to mutoh and they said from all the pictures and everything that we went over it was all good and I don't even know why i emptied the waste, nor how something so dumb could do it...but worth a try.
 
Ghost Prophet

Ghost Prophet

New Member
p3 said:
how much ink is in your waste? I know it sounds stupid but I just had similar problem and emptied it (not that there was much in there) and after 2 strong cleanings worked perfect... I thought the same exact thing as everyone on here. But I talked to mutoh and they said from all the pictures and everything that we went over it was all good and I don't even know why i emptied the waste, nor how something so dumb could do it...but worth a try.
Click to expand...

What you're describing is called conflict of pressure. The maintenance station pump can't provide enough pressure to push the ink down the lines because if the waste bottle is full, the ink in the bottle will create a counter pressure on the waste lines, hypothetically causing anything shot down to travel back up to the capping station. However the pump should go into a closed state after performing its duties so the problem your describing should be one in a thousand. Cutting your waste line in the bottle so that it is only barely covered by the top of the bottle should also solve that problem. :p
 
jiarby

jiarby

New Member
When was the last time you replaced your steel line (T-Line I think?) motor that moves the head carriage?
Click to expand...

The only part that has ever been replaced is the capping station... more than a year ago.. maybe about 20 months?
 
B

bcpop

New Member
I had them same problem a few months ago. Tech was here 4 days before he figured out the problem. Changed print heads, Maint. Station, everything. Ended up that the "O" rings at the end of the ink lines had shrunk up and squeezed the lines. The print heads where staving for ink. After he fixed that it started printing like a new one. Just my 2 cents.
 
J

jc1cell

New Member
bcpop said:
I had them same problem a few months ago. Tech was here 4 days before he figured out the problem. Changed print heads, Maint. Station, everything. Ended up that the "O" rings at the end of the ink lines had shrunk up and squeezed the lines. The print heads where staving for ink. After he fixed that it started printing like a new one. Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

Curious.

Were you able to pull ink via the dampers?

jc
 
H

henryp

New Member
bcpop said:
I had them same problem a few months ago. Tech was here 4 days before he figured out the problem. Changed print heads, Maint. Station, everything. Ended up that the "O" rings at the end of the ink lines had shrunk up and squeezed the lines. The print heads where staving for ink. After he fixed that it started printing like a new one. Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

I have been working on Mutoh printers for sometime, never seen this happen. O-Rings are made from rubber and the ink lines are made from plastic that is much harder than that rubber so I can't figure how that can happen.
 
Biker Scout

Biker Scout

New Member
#1.... your pump lines are clogged... #2.... bad seal on capping station, which is allowing air to dry out those ink lines to your pump much faster.

Pull the lines, clean them out. Get rid of that "Y" connector, and just plug your clear lines into the black lines. They fit perfectly.
 
jiarby

jiarby

New Member
Well, before dropping a few hundos on a maintenance station I thought I would take a crack at fixing the old one. In one of my past lives I was a printer/pc/lan tech weenie so I have a bunch of experience fixing printers.... just not these giant inkjets.

Turns out the maintenance station was filthy and completely gummed up. I pulled it out of the printer and cleaned it up on my workbench. I discovered one of the pump lines was completely blocked... see photo! That black worm looking thing next to the swab is dried up ink that was in one of the pump lines!

After a good cleaning I now have a perfect nozzle check!
 

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Last edited:
cdiesel

cdiesel

New Member
Jeeze! We drop a few drops of flush down the cap tops daily on our machines to prevent this. Glad she's back up!
 
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