• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Cleaning fluid question.

Jim Hill

Jim Hill

New Member
What is the name of the cleaning fluid used when cleaning with a swab around the printhead area of a Roland Versacamm?

Is there more then one product used or do most Roland users all use the exact same cleaning product?

Names of dealers with good prices on cleaning supplies would also be a great help.

Thanks Jim
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
it can be called head flush, flushing liquid, flushing solution.... it goes on and on.

it's just butyl carbitol or cellosolve or a blend (they are basically the same thing one slower drying (available at sherwin williams, and in solvent antifreeze). with a cut of acetone (about 30%), and a tiny amount of surfactant (1%).
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
...but still, if you make it yourself, you can make 8x's that (4000ml) for the same $30.

essentially at that maximum discount, inkjet companies are selling a gallon of solvent for $240 that costs them about $10 to make (coming from a 50 gallon drum production).
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
omg. extremeinkjet wants $95 or a 500ml. that would be $10 worth of solvent for $760!

also, i use bissel hard floor machine cleaner for my surfactant (it because of it's non suds-ing properties).
 
Jim Hill

Jim Hill

New Member
Artbot

You wrote the following,

it can be called head flush, flushing liquid, flushing solution.... it goes on and on.

it's just butyl carbitol or cellosolve or a blend (they are basically the same thing one slower drying (available at sherwin williams, and in solvent antifreeze). with a cut of acetone (about 30%), and a tiny amount of surfactant (1%).

My question is are you mixing this stuff together or is there a brand name for this product from Sherman Williams?

What do you use for cleaning swabs?

Thanks Jim
 
MikePro

MikePro

New Member
if you're buying inks for your printer, the same brand name also carries their cleaning solution on the same page in your supplier catalogue.
 
Kentucky Wraps

Kentucky Wraps

Kentucky Wraps
Jim Hill said:
What is the name of the cleaning fluid used when cleaning with a swab around the printhead area of a Roland Versacamm?

Is there more then one product used or do most Roland users all use the exact same cleaning product?

Names of dealers with good prices on cleaning supplies would also be a great help.

Thanks Jim
Click to expand...

You more than likely have a cartridge or 2 of cleaning liquid for flushing out your lines. It comes with the Roland. I just saved myself $80 (gallon) by opening up the cartridge and cutting the tip off. Poured it into the empty little bottle and taped the bag back up for later refill. Same stuff I beleive.
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
if you look up cleaning solutions msds and tds sheets you can find the recipes for these things.

this is what most every solvent ink uses as a base chemical

http://www.jetbest.com/download/MSDS/SP+ ink MSDS.pdf

this is basically minus the ink (equals the cleaning solution)

http://www.jetbest.com/download/MSDS/Cleaning Flush MSDS.pdf
(the two main chemicals household names are butyl cellosolve and butyl carbitol the lack of the acetate is not that imporatant. it is the factor for this material to cut ink. the two butyls can not cut ink at all. the are for reducing and leveling lacquers. add acetone and you've got the acetate factor).

here's a good link after a lot of research and reading boring data papers.

http://chemical-news.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

currently i just bought a gallon of butyl cellosolve and acetone at sherwin williams. the butyl carbitol evaporates even slower. they are both the same chemical. one an ethylene and the other a diethylene. you can for hours look up the synonyms for the more technical names used in the data sheets or take my word for it. i also for days sank pieces of head adapters, tubes, dampers, wipers, etc in all kinds of solvents to see their reactions. and the result is ketones are safe. if it can cut oil like xylol/xylene, benzene, paint thinner, toluene, then it will destroy the head adapter.

recipe:

80% cellosolve and 20% acetone. and currently the batch i use doesn't have any surfactant. the surfactant is to get under the particles better. because it increases wetting of the substrate or ink lines.

you can mix different strength too for different purposes. if you are wanting to clean off sticky dried ink from you wiper doghouse do a 50/50. if you are wanting to cleaning your capping station for an overnight park use 80/20.

as for the swabs. i have a giant box (thousands) of solvent resistant swabs from the guy i bought my printer from. it's a lifetime supply.

someone could make the argument to just buy it from the ink supplier. but when the material become cheap you will not use it sparingly to clean out lines, do custody washes, etc. and your printer will be better for it.
 
W

walters signs

New Member
i just bought some from my roland supplier for 70 with shipping..still alot of money but i dont want to f up the machine with bad cleaning fluid.
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
you bought a bottle of butyl carbitol and acetone. i understand. i'll use my stuff for the next few months and do a final assessment of the properties. i've got a lot of experience working with coatings and chemicals developing my printing systems so it's a bit less mysterious. until then i'll be happy to be the guinea pig.
 
M

madmark7

New Member
artbot said:
...but still, if you make it yourself, you can make 8x's that (4000ml) for the same $30.

essentially at that maximum discount, inkjet companies are selling a gallon of solvent for $240 that costs them about $10 to make (coming from a 50 gallon drum production).
Click to expand...

I completely agree with you . For all this lack of information and support by Roland company (corporation greed ?) Or should I call it trade secrets my machine has gone completely out of order due to bad maintenance which started by me accidentally breaking a nipple in one of the printheads manifolds which lead to bad printing and head clogging . I didn't know I could replace the plastic manifold only ,But the company never tell you this .Instead they suggest to replace the whole printhead . I didn't have enough money to replace the head when that happened so now all the system is clogged including the other head due to lack of use and maintenance. I appreciate people like you doing all this research and trying
to help others unfortunate ones like me who spent thousands for a machine that has given me nothing but problems .
 
M

madmark7

New Member
By the way I've been looking for butyl cellosolve at sherwin williams with no avail .
Can you describe in more detail where I can get it ?
I really need to rehabilitate this machine before it d evaluate more.
Thank you in advance
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
if contacting sherwin williams, you'll need to make sure they have an industrial supply (the material that cabinet makers use, cab and precat lacquer, etc). call before heading out. it's not at all uncommon.
 
H

HIGHTEC

New Member
Head cleaning

I have some if you need it 1000ml for $95. I used it to unclog some heads on a Roland SC540 printer. I pluged the lines then soak the heads in the cleaning soultion. Then did several cleanings. Running Eco Solvent Inks.
Guy was in the bay area, CA. Luckly I did not have to take out the DX4 heads and run them thru my ultrasonic machine.

Hightec Digital
916-990-9803
 
MikePro

MikePro

New Member
advantage sign supply is a merchant member here and carries really good rectangular swabs

+1 to making your own cleaning solution... its saved me a bundle and now I can be extra generous in my cleanings as I know it costs me like $1 in cleaning solution to hose down my entire printer.

I only mix acetone and butylcellusolve, but will soon try out the butyl carbitol in addition since I've heard many others use this in their recipe as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top