falcon Outdoor Jr. printing 36"

[thmooch]

Hi all,

I am having an issue with my Falcon Outdoor Jr. when printing 36" wide Adhesive backed vinyl. It is strange to say the least...couple of day ago I ran a 24"x72" Print, among others just fine. This past day I have been trying to run a 36"x48" using the same colors as in the 24"x72" with no success. I get drips of ink at the far end of the print(left side), then loose Black and Magenta. So, I pull the dampers and pull with my syringe to get the ink back in them. Cyan & Yellow are ok(for now). OK, got ink back in the dampers. run a few(4)12"x18" prints(same colors 38" media) just fine. come back to retry the 36" print...same thing. WTF! I have had issues with 36" banners also when running a full 36" bleed.

Here is info I can give. Seem to be getting good suction when pulling from the waste lines to get ink back to the heads. Since Cyan and Yellow are good and not loosing the dampers or colors, I would think the capping station is good. Smaller width prints are printing as they should. Watching Black Head travel back & forth I see the ink drop forming, but only on the wide prints.

I want to start with new dampers and a new wiper(it looks a bit worn).


Thanks as always!

 

[artbot]

the usual reason for ink drips on the far left side these two things. one the printer is not level. just raising the printer a half inch will set the siphoning of the ink to supply too much. the reason that the ink is on the left is that it is gathering around the back edge of the head and gets flicked off by inertia when the carriage changes directions quickly. the other possibility is that there is a thread collecting latent ink and that ink is being flicked off at the far left. one other possibility, do you have refillable carts? if you fill them waaaay to the top this can provide a bit too much weight on the siphon.

but! you say you lost prime on black and magenta AND have drips, which usually don't go together. that would be an air leak which should send ink back to the cartridges and not be leaking. i'd look for a broken head adapter nipple, or an air leak. pull the dampers to full and then leave them hanging for about five minutes. do they stay primed? they shouldn't lose ink.

i know this is an unrelated bunch of possibilities. but you've got some mismatched symptoms... so i figured i'd mention a shot gun of stuff to look for.

 

[thmooch]

art,

the nipples are good as far as I can see, dampers will hold ink for extended period. I guess I can see the leveling somewhat, but I print 28" on 30" material all the time without issue. So...why/how am I loosing vacuum on the 2 dampers without any kind of head strike?

 

[whgjettdesigns]

i havent had any luck with 36 inch material either on the same printer. i think its too wide for some reason. but like you said no problems with 30 or smaller.

 

[artbot]

well, it does sound like some kind of strange issue. i'd play with carriage speed to see if you can get better results. there is one physical dynamic with these printers, just like the pump is peristaltic so are the ink lined in a way... kind of, with the moving back and forth across the platen bends and straightens the ink lines. i've been working on printers before with the hood off with just clear ink partially in the lines while doing mods. as the printer carriage was traveling back and forth, i noticed the fluid in the lines being pushed and pulled inside the lines. i don't remember if it was ...to the right vacuum, to the left pressure. but it was definitely dancing around inside a sealed line to the beat of the head carriage. what i figure is that with your machine the fluid dynamics are just a little off. thus as the machine heads wwaaaayy off the left, the pressure increases inside the line, at that point spitting out a drip of ink, that ink then leaves an ink deficit inside the lines. and this happens again and again drip/deficit/drip/deficit until you are cheating the printer of the flow that it is used to,... an ink starvation issue due to too high a line pressure at the far left.

slowing the carriages speed might have an effect on this. allowing for the pressure to equalize across that distance. when i've had custom fluids that had too high a viscosity in my machines, i've raised the cartridges or on some machines, just raised the left side of the printer to get higher line pressure. you could play with this option as well.

 

[thmooch]

bumping this for some Thursday morning input, please.

 

[Graphics2u]

I had a tech tell me once about a situation similar to yours. What he found was a crack in ink line or a o-ring fitting that was leaking air only when the head all the way to the left and put a little different strain or pressure on the ink lines causing the leak. If you can take the covers off the printer so that you can see the ink lines, then move the carriage all the way to left and see if you can start to see air bubbles develop in the lines your having problems with.

Just a thought.

 

[thmooch]

Looks like I'm going back in...I am gonna order Dampers today, any suggestions for a quality resource?

 

[Graphics2u]

Look closely at the plastic lines for cracks. You might see a slight spot of leaking ink on them.

 

[thmooch]

UPDATE:

Take a look at the pic...broken or pulled out Black & Magenta lines when carriage goes all the way to the left. Causing loss of vacuum/ink. Can I trim these or where is the best place to get replacements? Should I get new O-Rings while I am in there. Would you replace all 4?

 

[artbot]

you can also get a tiny brass tube and make a small union to add just a little line to fix. after cutting the brass tubing clean it up really well.

 

[thmooch]

so I trim about 1/4" off the tubes, filled dampers, pulled waste line, ran a cleaning...wait for it...got my 2 - 3'x4' prints.

I want to go ahead and replace the lines. Does anyone know what size tubing or where to get it?

Thanks for the help.