mimaki cjv150 print head and pump problem

[budlinch]

I have a mimaki cjv150-75 printer cutter and have had problems printing. It sat for 1 month while I was way. I have done several hard cleanings and head soakings over night to not avail. I can only get about half the heads to work. I have replaced the dampers and the cap station. The other problem is that the cap station does not fill up with cleaner when I do a dish wash or any other wash. I am wondering if this could have caused all the issues and what I can do now. I believe I need to replace the pump and head. Not sure how to replace the pump. Saw some videos on how to replace the head. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

 

[dudeinthemoon]

Maintenance liquid line clogs very often due to no use, you’ll need to clean or replace the tubing.
The pump most likely not a problem if not older than 2 years, the head could easily dry out in a month turned off. Check if your cap seal is good, try pull the ink manually through the cap with syringe, don’t forget to pen ink valves before doing that. You could try flush the printhead with cleaning solution as a last resort before replacing.
But more likely you’ll need new printhead and dampers

 

[budlinch]

Thanks dudeinthemoon. I am not sure where the tubing is (any diagrams or info would be very welcomd)-I am new to this. Never had a problem with this machine until now and as I have said I neglected it for a month. The machine is 10 years old and I have maintained it well up to this point. Since it is 10, I would assume the pump could be a problem too? I will try to flush the print head as a last resort. If I do need a printhead and pump, my next question is: Is it worth paying for a new print head and pump or should I leave it as a cutter and get a good printer to go with this cutter (It is the cjv150-75)? I am in Canada and just the printhead will rum me around $4 grand.

 

[dudeinthemoon]

It’s up to you leaving it just as cutter of course, but keep in mind that the cutting function on this machine is kinda limpy, not the best part. And 75 cm size is exotic too for wide format, my opinion this machine is old enough for retirement.
But yes, if it’s 10yr old the pump definitely has to be replaced. And I recommend you to use only OEM parts, as I’ve seen a lot of Chinese janky parts which doesn’t work even brand new. Caps and pumps especially.
Maintenance line is easy to find: open the plastic cover below parking station to get access to the bottom of caps, you’ll see two tubes going down to 2 port plastic adapter. There are two tubes after that adapter, one of them goes to ink pump, another one goes farther to the back, that’s the one.
Also, check if you didn’t forget to install the lid at at the bottom of the cap. Cap has three connections, two of them has tubes, and another one has to be closed all the time. This also can easily cause dropouts

 

[budlinch]

Thanks for your take on the machine. I have installed the lid and cap station correctly and there are no leaks. I have always used OEM parts. I think I am going to spend the money on the print head and pump and hope that this will solve all the problems. Would you suggest that I also replace all the lines or tubes?

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Have you tried priming the head manually with a syringe? Can be a bit messy but should force any air out. Move the head over to the left side, grab a wad of towels or a drip tray, remove your dampers and manually feed ink or cleaning solvent through each channel. If you notice cleaner/ink dripping from the side of the head, or squirting out another port (instead of out the nozzles), you have a bad head. Not uncommon for the nozzle plate to delaminate if ink sets up and expands inside the head. As for the lines, nothing wrong with a replacement, but can just flush them until they're clear-ish and give them a good visual inspection. If doing heads, dampers are always a good idea.

The lines I would check are the ones on the capping station and its pump assembly. Since they use peristaltic pumps, the line can flatten out over time and the pump will just spin without actually pushing/pulling fluids. Can replace the pump itself, or just the tubing, the latter working just as well and way cheaper (tubing and silicone grease).

 

[budlinch]

That sounds good SmokeJaguar. I will try that as I have nothing to lose. I have just replaced the dampers, would I have to do so again after all of this? I will check the tubing and replace if they look flat or clogged. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Dampers should be fine as long as there is no dried up ink or other material clogging them. Seals should be nice and fresh too. Heads are pricey, hope the manual flush gets you going.

 

[Guerilla Grafix]

That sounds good SmokeJaguar. I will try that as I have nothing to lose. I have just replaced the dampers, would I have to do so again after all of this? I will check the tubing and replace if they look flat or clogged. Thanks for the advice.

Did you get it up and running?

 

[budlinch]

Sorry for the late reply. I got the cap station to fill up again. I believe there was some gunk in the lines and by taking them apart and putting them back together fixed the problem- weird, but it seemed to force whatever was clogging the line to get through. The worst thing is I had to replace the print head and it cost me a pretty penny

 

[Guerilla Grafix]

Sorry for the late reply. I got the cap station to fill up again. I believe there was some gunk in the lines and by taking them apart and putting them back together fixed the problem- weird, but it seemed to force whatever was clogging the line to get through. The worst thing is I had to replace the print head and it cost me a pretty penny

That's great! I got my cv150-70 delivered a week ago, but it's still in the crate until April 3rd, when the technician can come set it up.

Everyday, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning waiting for his parents to wake up, so l can open my gift.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

I think the longest I have had a printer sit in its crate is about 2-3 hours after hitting the shop floor. Then again, I buy used because I am a cheap nerd who likes tuning printers up. That said, a bad setup can lead to an awful printing experience, so worth the wait. Also having a warranty and fresh equipment is nice. Been a long time since I've worked on a printer that didn't need an entire roll of paper towels to clean up.

 

[Guerilla Grafix]

I think the longest I have had a printer sit in its crate is about 2-3 hours after hitting the shop floor. Then again, I buy used because I am a cheap nerd who likes tuning printers up. That said, a bad setup can lead to an awful printing experience, so worth the wait. Also having a warranty and fresh equipment is nice. Been a long time since I've worked on a printer that didn't need an entire roll of paper towels to clean up.

Lol. I hear you. I'm a cheap nerd too when it comes to buying certain pieces of equipment, but l got a great deal on this printer.

It was supposed to be a showroom model, but they ended up getting different equipment in and gave me $4000 off to get it out of there, so to me that's a used price.

They included delivery, 8 inks, maintenance tank, cleaning solution, 50 yards of adhesive vinyl, a tech to set everything up + a warranty!

I asked if l could just set it up myself. They said yes, but it would void the warranty. Besides my wide format sublimation printer (easy to setup), this is my first wife format printer, so don't wanna F anything up.

How has your return on your printer been? Is it pretty straightforward?

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Got a UCJV300-107 for $3500 and a Summa S120T for another $2100. Paid both off in under 2 months printing stickers for weed companies. Took over a month for the printer to get in from Hawaii thanks to the freight company being mid bankruptcy. Thankfully it was UV ink and no light got in, so heads recovered easily. Solvent is good, but gotta keep things wet as clogs are way harder to remove. Keep things powered so it can do it's cycles and do daily maintenance and it'll treat you well.

 

[Guerilla Grafix]

Got a UCJV300-107 for $3500 and a Summa S120T for another $2100. Paid both off in under 2 months printing stickers for weed companies. Took over a month for the printer to get in from Hawaii thanks to the freight company being mid bankruptcy. Thankfully it was UV ink and no light got in, so heads recovered easily. Solvent is good, but gotta keep things wet as clogs are way harder to remove. Keep things powered so it can do it's cycles and do daily maintenance and it'll treat you well.

Man that's great! I want to get a UV next, since l get a lot of requests for short runs of promo items.

I have a few clients in the Colorado, New Mexico and Caki dispensary market, so will definitely hit them up. I had to outsource all their labels.

Thank you for your time and info!

 

[SightLine]

Likely will not be any issues with it. We have a JV150 (basically the same printer without the cutter is all) that sat in its crate in our bay for 3 years before we finally opened it up and it works perfectly fine and the bay sometimes will have large temperature swings from as low as about 45 up to 105 degrees... We got a great deal on two, were initially going to put both into production but then decided to only set one up, got distracted with jobs and finally after 3 years we set the second one up.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

My printer was shipped in the summer to Oklahoma city where it sat for weeks in hot warehouse while full of ink.