JV3-130SPII yellow issues

[FelixCG]

Alright, so I'll start from the beginning.
We have a Mimaki JV3-130SPII and about two weeks ago as I was printing a job, I heard a rather loud clunk and the printer stopped. Upon inspection I noticed that the print head had collided against the docking station.
Nothing seemed initially critically damaged, and the docking station didn't seem out of place, so I restarted the job. I didn't notice at first until I was cutting one of the prints up to ready it for lamination, where I noticed the colors were waayy off.
I did a test draw and everything was fine, except the yellow, it wasn't that it had missing or misplaced lines, the entire half of the yellow was missing!!
So I did the regular cleaning routines and with a little digging through here, figured getting some cleaning cartridges might be a good idea, so we did. They came in the next day and just before I did the head wash, and that time, ALL of the yellow was missing!! So I went ahead with the head wash and afterwards, nothing had changed. Afterwards I noticed that the two cleaning cartridges used in the yellow slots were still very much full, versus the other two used that were very clearly emptied. (this will make sense later)
So I contacted our technician and told him the above story, and he asked me to take pictures of the heads and once I did, we noticed that the yellow (closest to the docking station) had a pretty sizable dent in it! (photo attached) His answer was to replace said head (not cheap). And that was what I did today, I managed to replace the print head with relative ease.
When all was said and done, I decided to make another test draw, and to my great disappointment, nothing had changed.. However, upon opening up the head, I noticed that one of the feeding tubes was completely clear and I was able to see through the other one, although it was still stained with ink, as opposed to the other one (photo attached), whereas all the other colors I couldn't see through at all, presumably as they were filled with ink.
So my new assumption is that the feeding tubes are clogged somewhere in the machine, out of sight and out of reach.
If anyone has any suggestion as to how to trouble shoot this better, or has any answers as to how this could be fixed, anything would be greatly appreciated, as we would not like to make any unnecessary expenses, as we've apparently already made one.
If you have any questions for me or need anymore photos to help with the assessment, that is no issue!

 

[shifil_mimak]

hiii,,,my friend,,
as u said that the moving carriage hit the docking station & thereafter you missed yellow,,, i think that the yellow pump's input tube get disconnected from the bottom side of the capping. (Capping = Where the head goes & rest, a rubber pad with a metal plate with holes inside). If so then there will be no ink suction from the head.

Plse have a close look..you can easily fix it back if it is the problme......thanks.

 

[FelixCG]

I'm not sure that that's the case, as the yellow part of the capping station is on the far side of where it knocked together.
Also, it wouldn't explain why there is no ink going into the feeding tube connected to the slider..

 

[jfiscus]

Problem #1: Keep your printer & docking station clean. I believe that the docking station wasn't properly cleaned and that the head traveled over it and got stuck. That leads to the docking station not retracting properly into its lowered position. Don't worry, that happens to the best of us.

Problem #2: Remove one of the screws in-between the head caps in the docking station. Take them to your trusty local hardware store and get flush-mount screws. They will sit down into the capping station and you will not have to worry about replacing a head again due to screw collisions. Replace all of the screws in the capping station (2 or 3?) this fix costs $5 and has saved us probably $10,000 since we did it.

While you're out buying screws go get a large syringe also.

Now, take your damper off of your head and use the syringe to apply pressure to the ink line and get your ink back down into your damper.

Possibly your printer will now be fine (getting that yellow head aligned is a PITA!) and printing normally again.

However, I would recommend that you possibly also replace the capping station in the near future if you haven't done so in a couple years.
Another option: Taking a capping station apart and thoroughly cleaning it isn't that hard at all actually; just remember how it came apart. You will be surprised by the amount of crud you get out of it.

 

[FelixCG]

Problem #1: Keep your printer & docking station clean. I believe that the docking station wasn't properly cleaned and that the head traveled over it and got stuck. That leads to the docking station not retracting properly into its lowered position. Don't worry, that happens to the best of us.

Problem #2: Remove one of the screws in-between the head caps in the docking station. Take them to your trusty local hardware store and get flush-mount screws. They will sit down into the capping station and you will not have to worry about replacing a head again due to screw collisions. Replace all of the screws in the capping station (2 or 3?) this fix costs $5 and has saved us probably $10,000 since we did it.

While you're out buying screws go get a large syringe also.

Now, take your damper off of your head and use the syringe to apply pressure to the ink line and get your ink back down into your damper.

Possibly your printer will now be fine (getting that yellow head aligned is a PITA!) and printing normally again.

However, I would recommend that you possibly also replace the capping station in the near future if you haven't done so in a couple years.
Another option: Taking a capping station apart and thoroughly cleaning it isn't that hard at all actually; just remember how it came apart. You will be surprised by the amount of crud you get out of it.

I actually clean, at the very least, the heads on a daily basis. Although I will admit, I do miss a few days here and there. The head collision has never happened before and hasn't since. I honestly am not sure what caused it.
The flush screw idea is actually really great, I might do that in the very near future!!
Also, we actually had the capping station replaced a little under a year ago.
BUT!! We actually tried the syringe trick, although I didn't pass it through the dampers, as they looked perfectly fine, I unscrewed the feeding tubes above them and fed the cleaning liquid directly in the tubes. Did a few fill up ink's, and BAM, ink is flowing again!! And all we needed was a 34 cent syringe..
Thanks for all the help!

 

[FelixCG]

Ok, so the ink is flowing flawlessly again.. buuut.... now it's off alignment from the other colors.. of course...
It's just ever so slightly above from the rest, maybe a millimeter or two, or an eighth of an inch for you guys bellow the border. (the art was sideways in the print in the photo).
The head didn't seem to have much room to move when I was replacing it, but that might still be it?
What are some of the options I can trouble shoot to figure this one out?

 

[J Hill Designs]

if thats sideways, you need to do a drop position to get it aligned horizontally

Im not sure if vertical alignment is an electrical alignment, or manual, but it doesnt seem off that much vertically

 

[jfiscus]

Not ALL of these links are still good, but I think that you are still able to download the manuals you will need to carry out the head alignment procedures.
I pay a tech to align our heads here when they are replaced, I just don't have that kind of patience.
http://www.signs101.com/forums/show...collection-of-PDFs-amp-Tutorials-in-one-place

 

[MikePro]

+1 your vertical alignment won't usually be off much after replacement, as the head doesn't have much room to move here.

I'll dig around for my manuals, with notes, as its been a few years since I've had to use them BUT you definitely have to start with a physical/mechanical alignment to make sure your printhead isn't installed slightly CW/CCW out of true-square.... as there is no electronic alignment for this.
for this, I just did a nozzle test print, and you'll see the vertical lines in the grid should be parallel with the other printheads. if they're not, then you'll have to loosen the two screws and tweak accordingly & repeat until its perfect.
you shouldn't have to power-down your machine to do this, I didn't.

once squared, then all the alignment procedures should be a piece of cake, abeit tedious.

 

[FelixCG]

Where do you go to make these adjustments?
I can't seem to find it for the life of me, even with all the great references you guys gave me..
Or can you only manually adjust with the JV3-130SP2?
I'm assuming all the guides I'm finding are for the 160, and not the 130, although I haven't seen the 160, I don't know if the menus are different or what..
Sorry for being a noob, this is my first job working with a plotter and I wasn't offered any training for it, so I'm still getting the hang of this machine.
Also speaking with our technician via e-mail too

 

[MikePro]

160 is the same as the 130, essentially.
if you cannot find manuals for the 130, the 160 will do just fine.

 

[FelixCG]

Alright, update;
After going through and through the menu on the printer and our computer softwares and not being able to find anything to adjust the head alignment, I just went in and did it manually by loosening the head and readjusting it.
I did some test prints by printing a small black square, after a few tries, the yellow was getting less and less offset, until the last one I just did that looked spot on!
Doing a full test print as we speak! But It looks like I've got it working now!

 

[FelixCG]

And we are back on track!!
Thanks everyone for your help! This website is way too good

 

[MikePro]

that banding tho'. definitely result of misalignment.
but hey, that's pretty damn close considering you only did mechanical alignments.

 

[MikePro]

quoting from an old thread, there's better explanation with linked .pdf's I'm sure, but I don't have the time to dig at the moment (I searched "Jv3 alignment", gave me like 50results)

An experienced tech can usually do this in about 30-45 minutes. Doing this yourself will probably take quite a bit longer but here are the steps I recommend:
Electronic Adjustments: (This assumes that you have at leave ver 4.0 FW or above)

1. Make sure Head is in THIN setting
2. Go to #ADJUST => PRINT ADJUST2
3. Select THIN/HIGH SPEED
4. Go to X-DIRECTION and run the print
5. Pick the Pairs in the pattern that best align and enter these numbers into the LCD. If the values entered are beyond +/- 12 then you probably mounted a Head on it's plate incorrectly and you should really remount it and start over if you want optimal printing.
4. Go to Y-BASE and run the print. Because yours is a 6-color machine the pattern printed from right to left will be:
- 1-2 (Magenta to Black)
- 1-3 (Cyan to Black)
- 1-4 (Yellow to Black)
- 1-5 (Lt Cyan to Black)
- 1-6 (Lt Magenta to Black)
5. use your scope to examine the pattern and make adjustments. In a reversing scope a positive adjustment will move the colored line to the right, a negative adjustment will move it to the left. You'll have to play around to get a feel for the amount of adjustment to use but typically a value of 1.5 to 2.0 makes a move of about a dot width. Repeat printing and adjusting until perfectly dialed in.
6. Go to VARIABLE 2 => Y-SI FINE (I go straight to FINE as the coarse adjustment is a waste of time) and run the print. The pattern has no labels and prints a bunch of extra stuff you don't really need. locate the same pairs of lines as above.
7. Use your scope to examine and make adjustments to the pairs of lines. Again, a value of 1.5 to 2.0 makes a move of about a dot width. Repeat printing and adjusting until totally dialed in.
8. Repeat for V2 => Y-RE FINE. Exactly the same steps as above. If you never plan on printing in bi-directional then you can skip this step.
9. Make sure the media is laying completely flat and then select and run V2 => Y-BI.
10. This pattern is difficult to read as the outward and return passes are both printed in black. Adjust + or - until you have a single (not double) line. Again, if you never plan to print in Bi-directional you can skip this.
11. If you're only planning on printing in 720x720 dpi then you're done with these fine adjustments.
12. If you want to run in 360x540 or 360x720 mode, print and adjust V1 => Y-SI FINE, Y-RE FINE, Y-BI FINE. Adjustments are exactly the same as above but you'll only need to enter a number half as big to get the same move.
13. If you have a really old RIP (like the browser-based Mimaki RasterLink) then you'll want to do the N2 and N1 adjustments too but generally these modes are no longer used.
14. You can exit the Service Menu and run the regular MAINTENANCE => PRINT ADJUST, again, unless you don't plan on bi-directional use, in which case skip it.

That should get you dialed in and printing but I'd definitely recommend having a competent tech come check over your work. An experience eye will probably be able to dial things in even tighter.

Good luck!

 

[jfiscus]

I would still recommend getting those screws replaced asap!
Great work so far getting it fixed yourself.

 

[FelixCG]

Yeah, the screws were a great idea, one that I'll definitely be looking into once I get all the backed-up orders out of the way!
And Mike, yeah it's something I should look into for sure, although the banding is not that bad at all, that photo is very close up, from the slightest distance they are very hard to notice, but this is also something that I need to wait til I have enough spare time.
Although currently I am having issues with error 46, wiper error.. the whole wiper unit is in pieces right now and soaking in cleaning fluid to break apart all the built up dried ink...
It never ends!!
But thanks, jfiscus! I'm really trying my best here, hah.. figured familiarizing yourself with the product you're using isn't such a shabby idea.
Thanks again for all the great input!