XC-540 Faulty Printhead warranted ?

[DIGITAL360]

Print test shows cyan wasnt printing fully even after powerful & manual cleaning. i never had a head strike on this printer. I had the printer for only 14 months and have a 3 year warranty on this printer. Tech guy came out and tried everything he can to get that print head to fire up without having to replace the printhead but with no luck. Tech guy said more likely Roland corp. will not warrant the faulty printhead due to its still firing over 90% ink. Now i have to wait and see if Roland Corp. will warrant it after they look at my test print. What do you folks think about this? Faulty Printhead should be covered? I think YES !!! Please post your thoughts & opinions. Soon as i hear from Roland Corp. i will let you folks know what they say. Print test files is attached. check it out.

 

[CS-SignSupply]

The head needs to go back to Roland for testing, as it would with most manufacturers. In my experiences, Roland has been very up front and more than fair when it comes to Warranty.

Your dealer can only do so much, but it sounds like they have handled it "by the book" so far.

Keep us posted.

 

[tomence]

Then what's the warranty for. The printer is not working properly and needs to be fixed and your dealer needed to fix your printer. I guess they told all the nice thing you wanted to hear when you were ready to drop over $30k right.

 

[CS-SignSupply]

Many times the head would be replaced and a credit card kept on file if Roland did not cover the head under warranty. If the manufacturer finds the head to be truly faulty, all done but paperwork. If it is proven otherwise, then who foots the bill for the new head?

 

[tomence]

He had the dealer to come and check the printer out. The printhead is not printing well as you can see in the nozzle check test. So why didn't the dealer fixed if it was nothing.

 

[DIGITAL360]

The dealer did a great job to try to get it to fire up. Now i think Roland Corp. should back up their machine with this faulty printhead. Again i never had a head strike and printing out the printers history info will back me up on that. Roland is fair on their warranty & should replace it for me at no cost. thanks for the posts & will see what Roland Corp. does from here and keep you all posted. Remember now you Roland users can very much be in the same boat as me if come across the same path.These printers dont come cheap. I cant say more then i already stated until Rolands next step & hope they do the right thing. More thoughts & opinions is appreciated THANKS

 

[DIGITAL360]

Dealer wants Rolands response before they fix it.

 

[tomence]

How is your printing affected by this. Can it still print without any banding or other problems.

 

[Jack Knight1979]

Did the tech syringe cleaning fluid though it at the manifold? If Roland doesn't cover it. Give that a try. I've had AWESOME luck with that trick.

 

[DIGITAL360]

I do get slight banding in my prints from this Banding isnt acceptable to some of my customers who pay for the prints.

 

[DIGITAL360]

Tech never tried it. But i personally shouldnt have to be doing that to a new machine that is warranted. But THANKS Jack ill keep that thought in mind if this issue takes the wrong turn. Hope all goes well

 

[DRamm76]

I'm not knocking the Technician here but merely asking questions when I say this but when you say "did everything" what techniques did he try? As technicians in the field, we try a lot of different things and some work better than others. I rarely see this happen on a newer machine. I only ask what he DID try because if he DID try everything but yet didn't try the syringe technique that Jack suggested then he DIDNT try everything and maybe there is something that was overlooked.

I have seen and heard stories of "my tech guy was here for 2 hours" yet if all they did was try the same thing over and over then yeah they are pretty much going to get nowhere fast. If you could explain what was done, maybe there could be more advice that can be offered here. Thanks

 

[DIGITAL360]

Hey DRamm76, technician replaced all 6 captops,flipped over ink over spray sponge, cleaned a long black plastic thing (dont know what that for) that sits well below the wipers,manual cleaning followed by powerful cleaning & aligned the heads. Wipers werent replaced because i told him i have replaced them the night before. Im no technician but think thats all he was able to do for me to get it to fire up but with no luck at all. The syringe technique was never used. Hope that helps for all your thoughts and opinions. More thoughts welcome !

 

[Ragnabrok]

Nicks in the test print like that look like scratches on the print head surface. I've seen them from the skipping across a media guide, or a material edge raised, but that tends to result in a head crash.

With the machine in cleaning mode, you can get a good view of the surface of the head. since it's a charcoal black in colour, any scratches show up silver. try a flashlight and see what you can.

If it's not a scratch, it probably can be cleaned out with the ol' syringe technique.

 

[DIGITAL360]

Its definitely not head strike from media clamps or media. runnning my heads high with long clamps and always watching my media for any signs of buckling before this occured. Clamps always have good spacing from the heads. Just dont know why tech guy never did the syringe method or even tried to to take a peek up under the print head. Im thinking now that couldve solved the problem.

 

[Jack Knight1979]

syringe all the way.

 

[DRamm76]

Yeah I gotta go with Jack on this one..go with the syringe and see if that makes a difference. Maybe it will, maybe it won't but it makes sense to do all you can before going through a head replacement.

 

[artbot]

if you pull the head when doing the syringe clean, you can view the bottom of it while gently pushing the fluid through it. thus allowing for you to monitor any progress. also, you can get a loop and view the actual tiny holes that are causing the bad test print.... to see if something is really lodged in there.