VS-540 woes

[Ed's Sign]

Aloha! My shop has a VS-540 we have been using for quite some time. we have had a few issues this past year so we changed the head and dampers about 3 months ago. everything was working great for a few months, but suddenly last month we have been having some issues with a few ink channels. My cyan channel started getting a lot of deflections which slowly spread to my magenta. I assumed this was from the white ink as we frequently have to replace the cap top because of it. I tried to clean it often, but the cap top did not appear clogged as it normally does.

Last week after the Christmas break i noticed i was losing a large area in the middle of my magenta channel. I tried powerful cleanings and a couple head soaks, but I couldn't get it to come back so i put on a new cap top. Then, on Thursday of last week, I lost my cyan channel completely, even though we had just replaced the ink cartridge. I tried a few more powerful cleanings but could only get a few small sections to come up.

I came in today and now my cyan, most of magenta and yellow are all gone. I tried pulling off the hoses from the cap top and pulling some ink through with a syringe, but i noticed i don't seem to be getting any suction and nothing is coming through the lines. I inspected the cap top and it looks to be in good condition, and it's installed properly. I have the head soaking now. Any ideas what this could be?

 

[woolly]

Join the club also having similar cap tops being a right pain
Do you by chance leave the head in the high position as I do

Only suggestion I have had is to keep the captop rubber moist as much as possible
Same with a roland one and aftermarket
In the UK white is now max 2 and since the upgrade had nothing but trouble with captop testing as you did with a syringe
Sill wondering if the pump may be weak

 

[Ed's Sign]

So I soaked the head for about 2+ hours and my yellow and cyan came back, but they are pretty sloppy. My current theory is that because the cap top is not sealing on the head it's drying out, and because there isn't enough suction the machine cannot properly pull ink through during the cleaning cycles to clear the clog.

Not sure what you mean by leaving the head in the high position, I haven't really messed with the head height.

 

[woolly]

I run head height high so to stop the head rubbing the material if there is slight bunching, only notice slight degrade of print quality in very small fine text . So use normal for that.
Had mine nearly 5 years and quickly learnt to change the cap around every 4 months.
But this latest hassle is driving me nuts but my real problem is with the white drying up

I bought from digiprint a syringe with filter and special sized tube used to prime these heads also handy for clearing blocked nozzles as it's not sold for that I can't recommend you use it but last resort saved the day for me

 

[Ragnabrok]

when you are running these powerful cleans, look at the drain bottle. Ink should be dumping into there at an alarming rate. If it's not, then the cap isn't sealing to the head properly. the cap mount itself is adjustable, so sometimes they get knocked or just wiggle out of position over time.

Also, choke clean if you are missing that many nozzles, usually one can get the head just about back to 100% as long as everything is sealing good.

 

[Ed's Sign]

So I just did a powerful clean and almost nothing came through into the drain bottle, just a few small drops and bubbles. it looks like the cap is sitting properly, i see the spring compress a bit when I move the head onto the cap, but i clearly am not getting a good seal. How would you go about adjusting the cap mount? is there any instructions out there or would I need to call a tech?

I've heard someone else mention a choke cleaning before, but I've never done it. How would i do a choke cleaning?

Thanks for your help, I've talked to several people about this and your the first one that actually listened to what I was saying.

 

[CreativeFactor]

VS-540i

Hey I had to replace my head in the 540i and when re assembling i mixed up the order of the dampers.
Can someone snap a shot of the top of their carriage (with plastic sheeth removed) I need to re set them in the proper order!
LOL - Cyan is Magenta, yellow is black ARGH! please and tanks!
kevin

 

[Ragnabrok]

Here ya go.

Be of note this is the color order on the stems, the dampers rotate from the colors on the top of them.

 

[CreativeFactor]

kool - thanks!

 

[Toks]

Hi, I wonder if you have been able to solve the captop issue. I am currently having the same problem.

 

[MACRO]

Vs machine have some problems with the recirculation system. When you start to miss some nozzles at begin you don't need to start a powerful cleaning but is better to try an ink renewal by the sub menu. In that way you will force a recirculation removing air in the secondary tubes used for recirculation. Anyway you better try a nozzles wash after that. You have to unlock manually your print head, put the head on the left side then close the tubes under the capping. Now you can put some cleaning into the capping and put back your print head on the capping while the capping is completly filled with cleaning and leave the nozzles washing for about 60 minutes.

 

[Hamster]

if with cap top is all OK. Possible sauses it's:
Air in ink system.
Valve or filter grid on damper
filter grid on the head manifold.

 

[Papajo]

Also as a side note to all VS owners, you should not try to save money by buying the cheaper cap tops from digiprint, those tend to fail very quickly (I've seen some fail in less than 6 months). Prefer the more expensive version which are original roland cap tops and can last several years.

 

[stephane]

Also as a side note to all VS owners, you should not try to save money by buying the cheaper cap tops from digiprint, those tend to fail very quickly (I've seen some fail in less than 6 months). Prefer the more expensive version which are original roland cap tops and can last several years.

Hi,

Could you please give us your order number?
We would like to check as our generic cap tops offer excellent performance, they are manufactured in Japan, and we need to check why your experience was disappointing. Please note that we also supply original cappings as you may know.

Best regards,

Stéphane