HP Latex 360 woes...

[bosdub]

I run (3) L360's and (1) L570. For the most part they have been great machines. The 360's are all starting to age and each one is exhibiting it's own issues. While the issues are different they all revolve around the LM/LC printheads. The issue in this thread is a degradation of the LM during a print. The print length in the attached photos is only 18". PH has only 986 ml through it. Still in warranty. Print starts out fine then slow degrades as it goes. Drop detection run immediately after this print finished. It shows only 2 nozzles out. The gutter strip has lines through it and seems to be faint on the edges of the lm strip.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

 

[dypinc]

How many passes?

I found the single lm/lc printhead pretty much useless under 10pass and that is even iffy depending on how much light ink was being used. You have to slow the printing down one way or another to keep from having ink starvation with the single lc/lm printhead.

 

[MNT_Printhead]

LM/LC head are the first to go for me. I have stared by running a head cleaning every morning on my 360 and 365 and have gotten them last up to 4-5k ml. If yours are going out before the 1000ml warranty you can get HP to overnight you new head (last I has this issue). You might want to double check the altitude setting on your printer - I have come across a handful in Colorado that were having heads wear out at 1500ml until I realized the printers were set up for sea leavel elevations.

 

[balstestrat]

Warranty it. The nozzle check rarely says much because you start to drop those nozzles in the long run. Then when the PH cools down they recover back.

 

[bosdub]

How many passes?

I found the single lm/lc printhead pretty much useless under 10pass and that is even iffy depending on how much light ink was being used. You have to slow the printing down one way or another to keep from having ink starvation with the single lc/lm printhead.

This print is 16 pass

 

[bosdub]

Replace the printhead? Is this an ongoing issue with LMLC or today's particular issue with it?

 

[bosdub]

This ended up being a bad printhead but this particular machine kills lc/lm printheads regularly. Install a new printhead and with in a few prints the head is skipping and has 1000+ nozzles out. Take that same printhead and install it in a different machine, run a few cleans on it, force a prime or two on it and it will come back to perfect. I have run every test I can think of on this machine. APS seems fine. All electronic tests seem fine. Purged the ink line. Can't figure out what it is but it seems as though ink isn't getting to the printhead.

 

[balstestrat]

Have you checked that there is no eiffel tower of ink in the drop detector blocking the sensor?
It wouldn't be the first time...

If it really is the case that it doesn't keep working, I would replace the carriage PCA.
Fixed a similar issue last time.

 

[bosdub]

How long has the cartridge been in? I mean, maybe you have a bad cart of either lm or lc that is killing the heads?

This is a possibility.

 

[bosdub]

Have you checked that there is no eiffel tower of ink in the drop detector blocking the sensor?
It wouldn't be the first time...

If it really is the case that it doesn't keep working, I would replace the carriage PCA.
Fixed a similar issue last time.

I have cleaned the drop detector. If there were an "eiffel tower" I would think all of the ph's would show nozzles out.