Disappearing cyan

[IsItFasst]

From what I have read this sounds like a damper issue. The thing is I just replaced the damper so wondering if it could be something else.

Symptom: Print job starts normal then cyan stops firing. Test print proves this. After a head clean, test print shows normal printing. Start print job again and after about an inch cyan stops firing again. Turned off main power to check damper (which is full). When I turn on the machine it does its initial cleaning and things start working again. Print job completes normal this time.

Similar situation happened the other day. Printer was down for about 5 days last week due to the long ribbon cable jamming up. It took a while to get things back going but was printing fine for the most of this week. Just wondering if anyone has a suggestion before I replace the new damper again.

FYI. This is a SP-300V

 

[sfr table hockey]

There are times when you can get an air bubble in the main line and it (for me anyway) has caused the head not to be able to recharge. Might have just enough resistance in the line to try to draw backwards from the damper and not let the head charge.

If you have removed the cyan cart and reset or replaced it with a new one this can, create a negative draw. Also if the cart is almost done it may create a similar issue and also cause cross contamination while the heads are set on the capping station.

Did the cyan ever get another color draw into it? This you might notice if the head clean did not clear the entire head first on startup. Extreme case you would get contamination into the damper and see a muddy color.

With printer off, what I have done to fix this is attach a syringe to the bottom of the damper and draw a small amount, remove the cart and draw a bit more to create an air bubble. Re set the cart and continue to draw until you see the air bubble flow into the damper. The only reason to create that bubble is to see and know when that line has been refreshed. Otherwise you tend to over draw and waste ink.

Worse case is internal, where the head can have a crack inside and not be able to recharge on its own but with a cleaning cycle it can. But once printing it will drop off and not recharge.

 

[IsItFasst]

Yeah, I had cross contamination last week which is why the damper was replaced. The ink cartridge I thought was empty when it first did it so I just replaced it. Wasn't sure, but if it wasn't completely empty it was close as it barely weighed anything. Just ran a print today and it is back to working normal without being primed. Hopefully it was just small bubble that worked its way out. I'll be back if with an update if it comes back. Thanks!

 

[IsItFasst]

So I didn't have any problems for two weeks. Still had the machine partially apart to make sure it didn't happen again. Decided to put it back together yesterday and of coarse it goes back to have issues today.

The good news is I found the problem. The cyan line had a crack in right at the damper. So it was leaking air if you held it just right. I chopped about half an inch off the line and all is working now.