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Has anyone else with a Mimaki printer had a "new" damper failure that resulted in ink leaking from what appears to be delamination of the clear material that covers the side of the damper? The damper did not leak from either the top where the ink line comes into the damper or from the bottom where the damper secures to the head. I have a video that clearly shows the ink running out of the side of the clear plastic. I can post photos or a video if needed. This occurred on a used CJV150-130 printer that I recently purchased for use in my business. I have three Mimaki JV33's and one ten foot JV5 that I have personally done all the maintenance and repairs on for the past 10 to 15 years. I have replaced dozens of printheads and hundreds of dampers. Unfortunately I have gotten to be pretty good around these printers. I have never experienced a damper that leaked such as this one. I had just installed the new head with four new OEM dampers and a new cap. The process went well. I primed the head with ink (Triangle) using a syringe above the ink pump. Had good resistance drawing the ink. Nothing unusual. Test draw was excellent. Changed the head id#'s, did the alignments and sent a 10 or so foot banner. Printer was running well. Sent another 10 or so foot banner. Came back to find the printer had stopped. Got a message something about "stopping job due to insufficient nozzles". I glanced down at the printhead and saw cyan ink oozing out from under and around the head. Knowing what ink can do to circuit boards, I immediately powered off the printer. Unfortunately this event shorted the head, slider and I am almost certain the main board as well. I mention in the post that I purchased the parts from Digiprint. This is not to suggest that I feel they are responsible or have done anything wrong. Actually I have purchased many heads and other printer parts from them. They have been very good. They have a former Mimaki technician on staff to help advise when a customer needs. This is a convenient service.
Mimaki on the other hand is unwilling to accept any responsibility at least at this point. Hopefully they come around. They are indicating that because I am not a licensed Mimaki Technician and am using Non OEM inks in the printer, they cannot help. It seems to me that neither of these points have any relevance to an OEM damper leaking. If there are others out there who have experienced a similar issue, I would be interested in hearing about their experience.
My suggestion to others replacing dampers on CJV or JV 150's or 300's, check in on these dampers for dripping ink after the initial installation of the damper. Obviously it is important to get the ink line into the top of the damper properly as well as making certain that the damper bottom clicks into place fully. Not doing these properly can result in leaking ink. However, having the damper leak from the side is totally unexpected and difficult to identify without taking it off the head. This makes it very difficult to figure out it is leaking until the damage has already been done to the tune of thousands of dollars.
Mimaki on the other hand is unwilling to accept any responsibility at least at this point. Hopefully they come around. They are indicating that because I am not a licensed Mimaki Technician and am using Non OEM inks in the printer, they cannot help. It seems to me that neither of these points have any relevance to an OEM damper leaking. If there are others out there who have experienced a similar issue, I would be interested in hearing about their experience.
My suggestion to others replacing dampers on CJV or JV 150's or 300's, check in on these dampers for dripping ink after the initial installation of the damper. Obviously it is important to get the ink line into the top of the damper properly as well as making certain that the damper bottom clicks into place fully. Not doing these properly can result in leaking ink. However, having the damper leak from the side is totally unexpected and difficult to identify without taking it off the head. This makes it very difficult to figure out it is leaking until the damage has already been done to the tune of thousands of dollars.