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head strike, what do i do now?

PandaPie

New Member
this morning, i was printing a banner, which suffered 3 head strikes. i did not witness these as i walked away after putting material onto the take up real, and it never stopped and said to turn off the printer or anything.. well now im getting VERY bad tests. of course, new head is probably the way to go. but wanted to check here for any tips, tricks, ya know some good old magic?! please? ha.
so it wont even fully print any of the tests. visually i do not see any damage on the head.
im going to do a head soak, but before i get into that any other suggestions?
 

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Zoogee World

Domed Promotional Product Supplier
What model are you using? YOu could try pulling ink with a syringe from the line after the cap top to see if it helps any. After the pulling, do a regular cleaning and do a new test print and see if you have any more nozzles firing.
 

PandaPie

New Member
What model are you using? YOu could try pulling ink with a syringe from the line after the cap top to see if it helps any. After the pulling, do a regular cleaning and do a new test print and see if you have any more nozzles firing.
sorry forgot to mention. its roland rf640
 

Terry01

New Member
That looks more like just blocked nozzles and not damage from a head strike. As others have stated, suck inks through to all dampers, do a head soak for a day and then run a hard clean a few times.. Do that and then do another test print and post it for us..
 

signheremd

New Member
That looks pretty mild. I would do a cleaning and a new test print. I doubt that you have any damage, but you may need to do a manual cleaning as there may be some ink soaked dust hanging off the head too. Should be an easy fix.
 

PandaPie

New Member
That looks more like just blocked nozzles and not damage from a head strike. As others have stated, suck inks through to all dampers, do a head soak for a day and then run a hard clean a few times.. Do that and then do another test print and post it for us..
do i need to pull through all the dampers first? or can i pull through the captop? never done this..
 

PandaPie

New Member
What model are you using? YOu could try pulling ink with a syringe from the line after the cap top to see if it helps any. After the pulling, do a regular cleaning and do a new test print and see if you have any more nozzles firing.
is that the discard line your referring to?
 

Jim Hancock

Old School Technician
First thing you need to do is move the head to the maintenance area on the left side of the printer and examine the bottom of the head. Please take a very clear picture and post it. I would not do any cleaning until you do this. Depending upon what may be on the bottom of the head, like banner material that has been softened by the ink, the wiper action may push this gunk residue INTO the nozzle openings. Once a pic is posted, we can advise you which direction to go...
 

hybriddesign

owner Hybrid Design
I don't have experience with that exact Roland but as other said you should be able to get this resolved without a new head and this will happen often enough that you'll want to used to fixing it.

There are a ton of other threads on this btw.

As people mentioned you can:
-do a manual clean, swab around and across the head with a SATURATED foam wipe
-do a head soak, time is a tough one to figure out but you should read other posts on this. We often did it overnight. After the head soak your test print will likely look like crap until you do either a few cleanings or a manual ink pull. So as others mentioned, after the soak you need to do a few regular or maybe one strong cleaning.
-do a manual pull through the head.

When people are saying to do a manual ink pull it's the exact same thing as the regular cleanings the roland does, just going a bit longer and you're in control. When you hit clean on the control panel the pump basically pulls a vacuum through the capping station below the head. This pulls a little ink through to help clear any blockages. Some people think it's kind of squirting ink from the top but this isn't true, it's simply pulling a vacuum from the bottom. A lot of people, myself included preferred attaching a large syringe to the lines coming out of the bottom of the capping station (locate the line going into the ink pump, disconnect the pump and connect that line to your syringe instead. Then you can pull gently on the syringe and watch the ink flow through the head into the syringe, hopefully pulling any blockages on the way. You kind of just need to get a feel for this on your own or read other posts. You would typically do a head soak for a few hours, then do a manual ink pull, wipe the head and do a test print and repeat as needed until your test print clears up.

If you're not sure what kind of syringe to get contact solventinkjet.com and buy one through them. They can guide you.
 
Something similar to this happened to me on a roland 5401 recently. My rep had me go into service mode & perform a choke clean as well as a head soak followed by a couple of powerful cleans. I ran the process about 3 times along with a couple of 24x24" print jobs to get the cleaning solution out. I was able to get the printer back up & running within 24 hours. I also checked out a couple of you tube videos to make sure I was doing everything correctly. Hope this helps with your issue.
 
Something similar to this happened to me on a roland 5401 recently. My rep had me go into service mode & perform a choke clean as well as a head soak followed by a couple of powerful cleans. I ran the process about 3 times along with a couple of 24x24" print jobs to get the cleaning solution out. I was able to get the printer back up & running within 24 hours. I also checked out a couple of you tube videos to make sure I was doing everything correctly. Hope this helps with your issue.
540i not 1. oops.
 

DL Signs

Never go against the family
been there, done that... When it just rubs material, as long as it didn't physically damage the heads (usually doesn't unless it hits something hard, you'd be able to inspect and see any actual damage) it jams ink back into the nozzles and blocks them. Clean & soak heads to dissolve the ink, a few heavy cleaning cycles, and you should be able to see some improvement. Keep repeating till it's back.
 
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