Flatbed Printer Carriage Soak

[artbot]

I am embarrassed to admit that I got very caught up in designing my new business and left my printer dormant for about 3 months. I walked by it fifty times a day but never once asked "should I decommission this thing?"

Yesterday I needed to crank it up and the heads were, as expected toast. After syringing for a half a day with not much luck, I went to "plan b". I took a tupperware container lid and shaved off a few tabs on the inside. It wasn't flat so I then cut a piece of aluminum to fit inside. Laid a pad of paper towels down and then filled with NMP. It's been soaking on and off for a day and I'm getting the heads back three are perfect. Two still need some time.

This may be something that others know about. But for those that have a printer that wasn't shut down properly, this might be a great tip instead of taking out the heads.

 

[dvdcr]

just for curiosity, what kind of head is it, i mean from what kind of printer and what is NMP?

Thanks!

 

[artbot]

it's an H700 (rastek) same heads as a Oce/Fuji/Mimaki JF

NMP is the "green" solvent that is in HP latex ink. it has two uses industrially

- removing cured powder coat
- cleaning urethane spray foam guns

i've used to save Konkica 512 heads that were toast and these toshiba heads when i first got the printer. one thing, with the rastek, the NMP did melt the tube running from the waste pan to the waste ink bottle. had to replace that tube with polyethylene tubing (black).

NMP acts differently than ketone cleaners. ketones cause dried ink to become a slime of non-dry ink. NMP causes the dried ink to break into a silt. this allows the particles to fall away from the head rather than just become sticky/wet.

I've had NMP in these toshiba heads for long periods of time with no ill effects. I can only assume that whatever the toshiba head (and konica) are made of, the NMP has no effect on.

http://www.sprayfoamnation.net/search?searchwords=NMP&searchsmall_597084172=Search

 

[dvdcr]

Would it be a good idea to use this on a Mimaki JFX-200? (UV pritner)

Also... since it melted the tubing, I guess it would not be a good idea to let it soak on the capping station? Might "melt" the plastic from the capping stations?

Thanks for this info!

 

[artbot]

you can always do a test. once when doing some mods to an old mimaki, i sunk chips of all the different plastic parts in different solvents. turned up that all of them but one was pretty hardy. the manifold on the "solvent resistant" epson head would turn into black chewing gum when exposed to xylol. you never know.

NMP is odd stuff. one wouldn't think of an HP latex printer as "solvent resistant" but it has NMP in it. it just matters what type of plastic is used. the original tubing for the drain tank on my printer was this bright blue polyurethane tube. a bad choice for all occasions. it even looked like the OEM ink was attacking it somewhat. '

this system is best for those with printers that have exposed head platens, using wipers or vacuum to do cleaning. capping stations have the advantage of sealing the head and being able to expose the head to solid solvent over a long time. i'd say if you are about to toss a head because OEM cleaning solution isn't working, spend the $40 and give the NMP a chance before giving up. i don't bother with OEM cleaning solution anymore myself. it's inferior. if you are ever needing to jet the solution into a head, do a test with the ink in a small glass container. mix the NMP with the ink and let it set for a day. if there's any sign of coagulation or settling then you might avoid. oddly OEM solutions underperform NMP when doing this with both UV inks that i've tested.

 

[dvdcr]

Great information, thank you!!