We have an L26500 that we have been using for awhile now and were in the middle of doing a larger print last week and instead of it stopping and saying to replace the ink cartridge it just ran it dry for some reason. I put in a new print head and it was printing fine. We did a 16' print on vinyl and another 10' print on banner material. I did another larger print and the quality was not the best. Would it be possible that we need to pull ink through the line for the head that went bad? I attached a picture of a print I did before replacing the print head. It was supposed to be a solid red box. I also attached a picture of a test print we just did with the new head.
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l26500 print head question
- Thread starter yamaha581
- Start date
P Wagner
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Letting the printer run until the carts are empty can occasionally introduce air into the pressurized ink lines, particularly when the cartridge is physically removed without first depressurizing the ink train. That may be the case here.
I would suggest that you run the Nozzle Test Print (on the printer's control panel > Ink Menu > Image Quality Maintenance > Clean Printheads > Test Print.
Once you have this printed, the next step is to assess the output. On the Latex 260 (L26500) there are a total of six printheads, each with 2112 nozzles (12,672 in total). When reviewing the print, you are looking to identify areas where large numbers of nozzles in close proximity to each other are not firing - this would be an area where a void exists in the pattern. If a relative few nozzles in distributed/ random areas are not firing, that is pretty normal, and something that will never be visible in production prints.
On the other hand, if there are large gaps in the pattern, the next step would be to perform a 'cleaning' from the control panel, but only for the color that is affected. After the cleaning is complete, run another Nozzle Test Print to assess the effectiveness of the cleaning procedure. If necessary, repeat the cleaning if large gaps are still visible in the pattern.
If the gaps are still visible after two cleanings, it may be time to replace the printhead. However, if there is air in the ink train, dry fires are still possible, and these are bad for the head.
I would suggest that you run the Nozzle Test Print (on the printer's control panel > Ink Menu > Image Quality Maintenance > Clean Printheads > Test Print.
Once you have this printed, the next step is to assess the output. On the Latex 260 (L26500) there are a total of six printheads, each with 2112 nozzles (12,672 in total). When reviewing the print, you are looking to identify areas where large numbers of nozzles in close proximity to each other are not firing - this would be an area where a void exists in the pattern. If a relative few nozzles in distributed/ random areas are not firing, that is pretty normal, and something that will never be visible in production prints.
On the other hand, if there are large gaps in the pattern, the next step would be to perform a 'cleaning' from the control panel, but only for the color that is affected. After the cleaning is complete, run another Nozzle Test Print to assess the effectiveness of the cleaning procedure. If necessary, repeat the cleaning if large gaps are still visible in the pattern.
If the gaps are still visible after two cleanings, it may be time to replace the printhead. However, if there is air in the ink train, dry fires are still possible, and these are bad for the head.
