46" Mutoh Falcon Outdoor - just bought used, cyan and black problems, and a question

[MrTopgun21]

First off let me say I'm a newbie to the solvent ink world, but I've been reading a lot on this forum and learning. My previous printer was a Epson 9880 aqueous printer. I recently bought a Mutoh Falcon Outdoor printer from a local sign shop, they upgraded to a 60". It appeared to be well taken care of. When I bought it, it had the cleaning solution cartridges installed. The lines had been flushed before storage, etc.
I put new ink in it today and ran some tests after a few head cleanings. And the printer seems to be dropping out black and cyan. Attached are my test prints. I turned the printer off and slid the head over and the capping stations concern me. There's ink splattered around inside near one station and the other looks normal (?).

So I took a picture and was wondering if someone could shed some light on this? It doesn't look normal for ink to be splattered all over on one cap and the other looks dry.

Help?!
Thanks,
Steve

 

[CRD]

If I am not mistaken the machine use Lc and Lm and Black in the left head. So the left part of the maintenance looks all black.
Clean all around the maintenance station and the head caps with clean fluid.
Put a syringe on the left capping part out put and try to suck ink through it.
Also check if all tubes on the pump are free of dried ink.
if the frontpanel is removed you have better sight on the cleanign cycle.
If the cleaning is working as it should it should show three colors due to the sucked ink the same as the right capping part.
In the last cycle of the cleaning the sucked ink is removed by teh pump from the capping left and right.

Give it a try.

Paco

 

[MrTopgun21]

Thanks! I got it working!

Thanks for the tips Paco. I found a service manual online and read on how to dismantle the printer. It was pretty straightforward. I took the panel out so I could properly see the ink caps and maintenance station. Immediately found my problem, the line coming from the left hand cap came loose and was hanging there. The end was ballooned out from years of being stretched on the cap nipple.

I cleaned the ink splatter up, cleaned up the head caps and station then carefully parked the head back and after a few tries was able to pull ink through the problem head/cap. WOO HOO!

I put everything back together, and ran a couple cleanings and was able to produce a normal test print. I have a few nozzles still not printing on the magenta, but I'm hoping with alittle use those will clear up and work again.

 

[Robert M]

Capping station

keep an eye on that capping station. the foam pad is starting to swell up and could cause the ink cartridges to drain out by wicking against the head. The new cap station has a screen to prevent that from happening. The new ones are shown on our site www.solventinkjet.com

 

[CRD]

Good to hear it is working now and letting us know.
Like Robert said, a new capping station is the first to take care off when ink cleaning is not correct anymore.

During cleaning the pads in the cappingstation need to be soaked with inkt and then drained in th el;ast seqeunce.
If that is not happening the cappingstation/pump is not working.
With a disassembled machine it is easy to see.

Keep an eye on those pump tubes as they might get clogged when not used on daily base.
For the missing cyan nozzles a head clean/soak still might cure it.
Let us see the test print if it is that bad.

Paco

 

[MrTopgun21]

keep an eye on that capping station. the foam pad is starting to swell up and could cause the ink cartridges to drain out by wicking against the head. The new cap station has a screen to prevent that from happening. The new ones are shown on our site www.solventinkjet.com

Good to know thanks Robert. So the top of the capping station should look flat and not like puffed up felt? Also I've seen replacement caps, do I need to change the whole station? It seems to be working fine other then the tops of the caps not being right.

 

[MrTopgun21]

Good to hear it is working now and letting us know.
Like Robert said, a new capping station is the first to take care off when ink cleaning is not correct anymore.

During cleaning the pads in the cappingstation need to be soaked with inkt and then drained in th el;ast seqeunce.
If that is not happening the cappingstation/pump is not working.
With a disassembled machine it is easy to see.

Keep an eye on those pump tubes as they might get clogged when not used on daily base.
For the missing cyan nozzles a head clean/soak still might cure it.
Let us see the test print if it is that bad.

Paco

How do I soak or clean the heads beside the cleaning feature on the printer. Is there a way to put cleaning solution throught the head with a syringe? Or is that a NO NO and ruin the head. After some prints, it looks like black is great. Cyan is weak and magenta has a tiny line in it where it's not spraying ink.
Steve

 

[CRD]

There are various ways to perform a head soak / clean.
As the cappingsstaion sponge is already not flat anymore I would take a lint free clotch and soak it in cleaning fluid and place it on the cappingstation.
Or clamp the output lines on the cappingstation and fill the cappingstation with cleaning fluid and perform same as above.

Slide the head over the cappingstation and let it rest for an hour. Perform this a few times and check if more nozzles are returning inbetween soaks.
You can also take a lint free cottonswap and drain it in cleaning fluid and keep it stationary under the head while moving the head gently over the swap.
Changing to a new wiper might also help in maintain nozzle cleaning.

Paco