Do any of these print heads need replacing?

[JGGraphics]

I've uploaded 3 photos of a test print and a close-up of a recent print I did. I run a Roland XC540.

I recently replaced the Magenta print head. My Black is kind of jittery and has uneven lines, as is my Light Cyan. My printer now prints magentas and reds nicely, but blues and greens are kind of blotchy and I get banding lines (see photos). Do I just need to replace my black and light cyan print heads again, or do I just need to do another manual swab cleaning?

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Lots of deflecting, so would go the cleaning route first.

 

[Jungteam]

The nozzle condition doesn't look great.

There's probably a cleaning solution provided by Roland for this.

It's not the same printer, but when we've run into nozzle conditions like this, what we've done is pour alcohol (or in your case, whatever cleaning solution matches the ink you're using) into the cap top, let it sit undisturbed for about 5 to 10 minutes, then do a pump and clean cycle — repeating that process a few times has revived the nozzles for us before.

Since it's a different printer, I'm not sure if this method will work the same way, but it might be worth trying before replacing the heads.

 

[Tekle]

Hi
I have the similar problem, especially if I leave the machine for one or two days with out print , it will be worse.
By the way how can I set up the periodic cleaning on vs540. To do cleaning when it off from the front.

 

[JGGraphics]

Update, I did a manual print head cleaning with the swab, wiped the blades clean, and dripped some cleaning solution through the ink wells, and now the print test looks like this

 

[guillermo]

I've uploaded 3 photos of a test print and a close-up of a recent print I did. I run a Roland XC540.

I recently replaced the Magenta print head. My Black is kind of jittery and has uneven lines, as is my Light Cyan. My printer now prints magentas and reds nicely, but blues and greens are kind of blotchy and I get banding lines (see photos). Do I just need to replace my black and light cyan print heads again, or do I just need to do another manual swab cleaning?

not sure what machine is that, but I had same issues before, the printhead is old, if Roland, those must have more than 8 million shots, (happened to us) but I got away for a few weeks by turning off the machine, lower the cap top, move the printhead carrier to the left, add cleaning solution to the cap top, just fill it up to the top, do not overflow, then slowly return the printhead carrier and raise the cap top with the tool, leave it overnite, next morning, plug the power and do a cleaning and tests until you are satisfied with the quality.

 

[Stacey K]

I print 3" squares, 100%cyan, 100% yellow, 100% magenta, 100% black and a 15% square of each. I do this every Monday or before a big print run to make sure the heads are printing well.

 

[cornholio]

All heads have deflections. Magenta seems to have the least deflections.
If you are ok with fuzzy edges in black text, keep the black head, otherwise replace it.
If you are ok with light banding and print in high pass modes, keep the color heads, otherwise replace them. Before you invest a lot in a 20 year old machine, look at the new XG, XP or VG4 with the i3200 heads.

 

[AshleyWillkie]

The nozzle condition doesn't look great.

There's probably a cleaning solution provided by Roland for this.

It's not the same printer, but when we've run into nozzle conditions like this, what we've done is pour alcohol (or in your case, whatever cleaning solution matches the ink you're using) into the cap top, let it sit undisturbed for about 5 to 10 minutes, then do a pump and clean cycle — repeating that process a few times has revived the nozzles for us before.

Since it's a different printer, I'm not sure if this method will work the same way, but it might be worth trying before replacing the heads.


And yes, when I say alcohol, I mean you should actually use alcohol. Just maybe don’t waste a rather expensive bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti on cleaning printer heads.

Grab whatever vodka you have around instead — that should do the job just fine. Save the Romanée-Conti for after the nozzles are working again.

Thanks for this! What can I say that this method work for every printer that I had in my collection. So if you have problem just alcohol but without sugar pls and not the best drink that you can find.