Need Help Head and colour problems. Please help!!

[Nicky]

Hi everybody. We bought a 2nd hand Roland VS640 last week. First 3 days it was printing beautifully, no problems at all. I then started to notice it doing some overspray (looked like the light cyan). It got worse as time went by. Test prints showed some "wavyness" on the light cyan and then it just got worse. Now were back to the way that the first test print looked like. Also, my blue to white gradient fill is printing pink, I do not know if that has to do with the light cyan part of the head or if it is a colour problem from corel 20 to versaworx. When I was printing on a SP540i it came out perfect blue to white. I have added pics
Pic 1 Named - Nozzle 1 & 3, shows how the nozzle test printed the first time and now the last time.
Pic 2 Named - Nozzle 2, shows how the nozzle test printed inbetween the first and last test print.
Pic 3 Named - Blue going pink, shows the shading from blue to white that is going pink.
I am going insane trying to fix this. Please help!

*PS: First time posting here so I hope I am doing this right, apologies if I am not doing something correctly

Below: Pic 1 - Nozzle 1 & 3

Below: Pic 2 - Nozzle 2

Below: Pic 3 - Blue to white

 

[rjssigns]

Waves, odd colors tend to indicate an electrical issue. May have a ribbon cable going out or maybe just needs to be reseated.

If there are a lot of "miles" on it I would look at the ribbon cables. Assuming the heads were never replaced you can go into the service menu and check the "shot" counter.
It will tell you how many times the heads have fired and will give you more information about the health of the rig.

 

[Nicky]

Waves, odd colors tend to indicate an electrical issue. May have a ribbon cable going out or maybe just needs to be reseated.

If there are a lot of "miles" on it I would look at the ribbon cables. Assuming the heads were never replaced you can go into the service menu and check the "shot" counter.
It will tell you how many times the heads have fired and will give you more information about the health of the rig.

Thanks for taking the time to help! I have found out thus far that the head was replaced in 2019 but there is only just over 100 hours logged with the new head. It was standing for a while. Before we bought we checked the test print as well as the Test pattern - Fill and all was fine. It is just weird that everything was fine and after about 3 days, boom, issues. The Test pattern fill is now printing with minimal light cyan, heavy banding and weird overspray on both left and right hand sides. Pics attached. 1st pic is what I got on the first test. 2nd pic is what I got after loosening the light cyan pipe connected to the dampener and taking a syringe and pulling the ink through, also it indicates the overspray to the right. 3rd pic is the overspray to the left.

 

[Zoogee World]

There definitely is something going on with the head, it could be the cable as mentioned above, or it could be the head had a head strike, but more likely it isn't the head if it comes and goes.

 

[Nicky]

There definitely is something going on with the head, it could be the cable as mentioned above, or it could be the head had a head strike, but more likely it isn't the head if it comes and goes.

Thanks for the reply. It could be that the cable got damaged during transport. I will have a look at it, thanks

 

[Nicky]

Could something like this be caused by swopping from Roland inks to 3rd party inks?

 

[Zoogee World]

I don't think so, usually what 3rd party inks do, if they aren't of good quality, is gum up the head, not make it go wavy. If it's not the cable, then there must have been a head strike that made the nozzles go wonky, but I don't suspect the head to be the culprit. Also when were the cap tops last replaced?

 

[Nicky]

I don't think so, usually what 3rd party inks do, if they aren't of good quality, is gum up the head, not make it go wavy. If it's not the cable, then there must have been a head strike that made the nozzles go wonky, but I don't suspect the head to be the culprit. Also when were the cap tops last replaced?

Probably along with the head in 2019, I have done a quick head soak for about 2.5 hours and the cap is soaking the solvent up, I did a drip test as well to see if certain areas aren't taking the solvent in but that was fine. I am busy with another soak and this one will last for about 12 hours. How would I know whether the cap is the problem other than what I have been doing?
(Also no head strikes so far)

 

[Nicky]

After the soak I will check the cables as well.

 

[Zoogee World]

I don't really think the cap top is the issue, as all your other colors look good. I'm still thinking the cable, that would be the cheaper fix. As for a soak, make sure you clamp off the cap top lines, as all the fluid will just run down and out and it's not really soaking at that point.

 

[Nicky]

I don't really think the cap top is the issue, as all your other colors look good. I'm still thinking the cable, that would be the cheaper fix. As for a soak, make sure you clamp off the cap top lines, as all the fluid will just run down and out and it's not really soaking at that point.

Crap.... I knew I forgot something!!! Thanks for reminding me of clamping the cables. Jeeesh, I'm just making a mess now

 

[Zoogee World]

Not cables, the plastic lines, but I assume that's what you mean. But I like to make certain.

 

[Nicky]

Yes, that is what I meant. Haha. Just did it now. Thank you!

 

[Zoogee World]

You're welcome. Also, make sure the printer is completely off and unplugged before you start playing with the cables, otherwise that is a quick way to blow a fuse or board.

 

[Nicky]

Jup. All off. Thanks a lot for all the time and advice. I will post the results, let's see what happens.

 

[bigkahuna_305]

i say cable

 

[Nicky]

i say cable

I hope so. I've had 2 technicians out here telling me to replace the head but it's just not making sense. One told me it's because I switched to 3rd party inks (inks I have used with no problem at all on other rolands machines) and the other couldn't give me an explanation. So I decided to check everything myself first as they only did a few test prints and didn't look at anything else. I would much rather replace a cable than replace a head for 3K.

 

[Nicky]

ok. So completed the head soak. Switched on, it started pumping and whoosh - off flies the rubber nipple of the one tube connected to the pump squirting ink all over underneath the screen area. Put it back and it is still popping off, it's a mess. I am so disillusioned with this machine at the moment. Does that mean that there is air coming in from somewhere or just that the rubber nipple thingy has to be replaced?
(Much more light cyan coming through now by the way) On the photo I attached, it is the rubber cap thingy on the left hand side that pops out

 

[Nicky]

ok. So completed the head soak. Switched on, it started pumping and whoosh - off flies the rubber nipple of the one tube connected to the pump squirting ink all over underneath the screen area. Put it back and it is still popping off, it's a mess. I am so disillusioned with this machine at the moment. Does that mean that there is air coming in from somewhere or just that the rubber nipple thingy has to be replaced?
(Much more light cyan coming through now by the way) On the photo I attached, it is the rubber cap thingy on the left hand side that pops out

Nevermind!! Fixed it

 

[bigkahuna_305]

hope you were able to clean off the ink thats gonna ruin that board