Mimaki JFX200 - Streaks and cyan in the yellow on test print

[S&S]

Any advise would be very welcome. Have an issue with our JFX200. At the right and left of the print we are seeing some cyan streaks.
If I run a print test I also can see some cyan on the yellow nozzles.
We have soaking the heads with a nozzle was that helped but comes back again after one print.

Has anyone experience this before?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Adam Vreeke]

I have run into this before.

The first thing to try is an air purge, and cleaning your cap tops. 90% of the time this will fix the issue, if it doesn't I would replace your cap tops, especially if they are nearing 1 year old+.

 

[S&S]

I have run into this before.

The first thing to try is an air purge, and cleaning your cap tops. 90% of the time this will fix the issue, if it doesn't I would replace your cap tops, especially if they are nearing 1 year old+.

Hi Adam,

Thank you very much for your reply and advise. I followed the instruction manual for the air purge and gave the caps an extra good clean but the issue is still happening. I'm not 100% sure that I have done the air purge correctly as I was expecting to the see the printer discharge some ink into the bottle but this didn't happen on any of the 8 lines. Does that sound correct to you? Thanks again

 

[Adam Vreeke]

Hi Adam,

Thank you very much for your reply and advise. I followed the instruction manual for the air purge and gave the caps an extra good clean but the issue is still happening. I'm not 100% sure that I have done the air purge correctly as I was expecting to the see the printer discharge some ink into the bottle but this didn't happen on any of the 8 lines. Does that sound correct to you? Thanks again

You should be able to see the ink go from the discharge area into the tube and down into the bottle. At least on the first go, as once ink is in there it is hard to see the next color go. If you haven't done an air purge before, you may need to do it again.

 

[S&S]

Hi Adam, I've had the printer around 5 months but it's a second user machine. The air purge doesn't seem to be fixing the issue unfortunately. I believe the company that I purchased the printer from replaced the cap when it was delivered to us. Do you have any other suggestions on things to try before I have to call a technician? Trying to avoid it as it's out of the 3 month warranty period. I checked the negative and positive pressure and that all seems fine. Thanks again for your help.

 

[Adam Vreeke]

When you look at the bottom of the carriage is there anything hanging down? Make sure there is no ink buildup anywhere and no dust hanging down, especially by the head. Anything can carry ink on it and leave streaks, dust by the heads can also drag ink away from their intended target while printing.

Another thing to keep in mind to is your head gap, make sure you are between 1mm and 2mm max off the material. Function > Head Height > Head Gap. I keep mine right in the middle at 1.5mm.

 

[S&S]

Hi, Really not sure what caused the issue but it has now resolved itself. Thanks again for your help with this.

All the best,

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Run into channel contamination quite a few times, could be something as simple as a dirty wiper pushing another color of ink into the ink nozzles. Usually clears up pretty quickly if the wipers and nozzle plate are cleaned up. Nozzle wash/wiper cleaning seems to be the magic combination.