VP-540 leaking inks to drain bottle overnight.

[JET]

You have a siphon problem. Check the dampers and o-rings. They work like a valve that creates a vacume when you stop printing so it does not drip. You may have a leak from when you used the syringe. If you didn't use the syringe on the black and it doesn't leak that could be it.
You may need to replace them. You aren't supposed to remove and replace the cartridges all the time because you will get air in the system or damage the seals. If you get air leaking in you will not be able to create the vacume it needs so it does not drip or siphon.

I don;t think there is a height adjustment other than the lever. But there is a flushing adjustment to align the caps to the heads. Each time it makes a pass the ink is shot out to clear the nozzles. If ist is not adjusted properly it can scratch the heads or not seal properly. It may also make a banging noise.

 

[rockiat]

Hi JET,

Thanks for the info, i did the flush position adjustment and it reduced the banging sound significantly and also kinda stopped the leaking for a day. What i noticed is. As i was writing this the inks started leaking again and i thought by moving the head away from the cap station would stop it but now i'm left with a big ink mess on my carpet and under my print head compartment.

But i noticed that once i put back the inks. The leaking stopped. As for the damper O rings, which one are you referring to? the one on the brass nut on top of the one on the hole where you connect to the heads? The dampers comes off easier now when i pull them out. Is it a sign of wear?

And what is the best way to drain and fill ink into the ink lines? i feel that the syringe is just making matters worse. I saw that there's a pump up and fill ink option in the service manual. Is that the proper and most recommended way of doing it?

 

[Replicator]

rockiat,

I have sent you a PM . . .

 

[JET]

There is an o-ring that comes with a new damper. I think it seals the bottom when you plug it in. A leak either where the ink tube connects or the damper goes into the head could cause a leak. Then air would be able to get in. When you stop printing it needs to keep a vacume or the inks drip. Look at the dampers and see if there is a difference between the ones that leak and the ones that don't leak. Look to see if the soft side is sucked in or pushed out. They have a screen vent but I think it is a one way valve to let air only go out. Not sure though. I know they are important to controlling the ink flow and are easily damaged.
As for the o-ring having the damper real easy to push in and out may be a sign of wear but is hard to say. You should hear a hiss when using a syringe. One sign of a leak is the syringe is real easy to pull and little ink get in the chamber. It should be real hard to pull. Most of the time it is only the rubber cap seals. Never push on the syringe or you could clog the heads.

 

[JET]

I just came accross this online and it may help you. The message below sounds a lot like your problem. I am not sure if the Roland pump is supposed to stop flow of ink when shut off or not. If there is a diagram available of the pump you could look at the pump design. Like I said the key is to have a vacume when the printing stops so the ink stops flowing. Only time it is pressureized is when it squirts out the nozzles. Any place that a leak happens when shut off would change the atmospheric pressure. That means everything would work great until you left it shut off for a while and air seeped in somewhere. The problem is the leak may be so small it is hard to find. So the pump could be the culprit.

Here is where I found the whole message.
http://www.nbm.com/library/sb/printingfinishing/digitalprinting/DigitalPrinterMoneySavingTips.php

I also found more info our on the dampers and how the one way valves work.
I posted this message here
http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58576

Great reads
I learned a lot from these articles.
Hope it helps

 

[rockiat]

Thanks for the tip JET, I finally found the solution to my problems and it's divided into two parts.

1. The caps were wicking ink out of the the heads thus the overnight leaking into the drain bottle.

2. Due to my fear of losing more ink and testing whether the lines would leak ink over nite, i did not realise i've actually already fixed problem no. 1 and the new leaking was caused by leaving the carts pulled out for too long hence the leaking inks.

I've sinced pushed the ink carts back and no more leaks!

Thanks guys for all the tips, and kudos to both Gene and GTS for the warning earlier on the wicking!

All i have now are lines in my print even though my test prints are ok. Have realigned both my bidirectional printing and feed calibration :S and still lines. I think it's time i sort out the color profiles. Have been using PhotoPrint Server 6 but very limited icc profiles.

Know anywhere i can download generic profiles for SAi PhotoPrint Server 6?

 

[bculbertson]

SP-540v drainged all 4 ink carts overnight

Folks,
I came into the shop yesterday (Monday) and found a puddle of ink on the floor under my Roland SP-540v. I’ve had it about a year and picked it up from another printer up the road that took very good care of it. I had just performed a weekly cleaning on it Sunday evening.
In searching this board and others, I’ve found a list of things that might be the problem, but tonight when I was wetting the Captops in the hopes of keeping the Printheads from drying out, I the printer powered off about 4 times in under 5 minutes.

Last week while working a large job, I had the printer just shut down on me in the middle of a job.

My question, before I start tearing the machine apart and replacing all the parts that “could be” the issue, is if the printer is powered off at the main over a 24 hour period, would that cause the system to lose it’s vacuum and cause it to vacate all 4 ink carts?

I’m almost hoping this is the case, because it seems far easier to replace a power supply than to replace all the other things I’ve read about. If that isn’t the case, could someone much smarter than me give me a prioritized list of things to check/clean/repair/replace?
I have no support vendor for this machine given its age and what I paid for it. I am the maintenance guy and have stumbled my way through a couple of repairs on it so far. It has run beautifully for the most part.

Thanks in advance,
Brian