Mimaki JV5-160S Printing Head Problems

[_Hg_]

Greetings All,

The company I work for bought one Mimaki JV5-160S printing machine from a third party
the machine we bought have been modified by the third party to have a 8-color system (from originally 6-color) and currently we are also using the ink from the third party

The problem is, it's been almost three years since we bought the machine, during that time it has broken down for so many times, in most cases we solve it by replacing the Print Heads, we have change more than 10 Print Heads during the last 3 years

We (my mechanics and vendors) seem like we can't other solution other then replacing the heads

My question, is this situation normal ? or anyone here have faced similar situation with similar/different machine ?

I hope I can find some insight here

Fyi, my company is not exactly a printing company, we are general manufacturing and try to move our printing In-House rather than doing it outside, we print the artwork on paper then transfer it to fabrics, and we are (including me) new to this machine

Thanks and Regards

 

[smithcolor]

If the printer can work well after printer head change, it will be correct solution.
But you need find what problem of the broken head.
If the print heads always clogged, the problem will be caused by bad ink.
If the print heads always burned, the problem will be caused by boards or cables.

Smith

 

[Solventinkjet]

10 heads in 3 years? You absolutely have bad ink. Do the math to figure out how much you are saving on ink per year and how much you are spending on heads. I guarantee you would save more money by switching back to OEM inks. You may be getting $25 per liter Chinese ink but you just spent about $20,000 in 3 years for heads you shouldn't have needed when you could have still been on your first set of heads with OEM ink.

 

[heyskull]

Hi

My understanding of the JV5 series of machines, is they are high volume fast machines.
Made for large printshop with fast output.
This is not your average shop machine.
Maybe you are just not using it enough or maybe way too much!
I have experience with mimakis JV3 and JV33 also Mutohs VJ1604, the JV33 and VJ1604 use the same heads as your JV5 except with only one head.
I would be changing the heads and cables every 4 years whether it needed it or not.
I have run the VJ1604 for over 3 years on 3rd party inks with no issue and the head test is like new.
I am concerned that the reason for your problems is the machine just is not getting enough use.
These type of printers actually work best when used a lot and have less blockages.

SC

 

[smithcolor]

Hi

My understanding of the JV5 series of machines, is they are high volume fast machines.
Made for large printshop with fast output.
This is not your average shop machine.
Maybe you are just not using it enough or maybe way too much!
I have experience with mimakis JV3 and JV33 also Mutohs VJ1604, the JV33 and VJ1604 use the same heads as your JV5 except with only one head.
I would be changing the heads and cables every 4 years whether it needed it or not.
I have run the VJ1604 for over 3 years on 3rd party inks with no issue and the head test is like new.
I am concerned that the reason for your problems is the machine just is not getting enough use.
These type of printers actually work best when used a lot and have less blockages.

SC

I agree with you

Smith

 

[_Hg_]

Dear All,

thanks for your replies

@Smith
from the 10 times we've change, there are only one case where the print head is burned
the other 9, the print head is clogged, in many case, one or more color doesn't come out
we do think that ink is the source of problem, but my vendor

@Vander
actually, we source the ink from the US, the same company where we buy the machine, it's written there that the ink is manufactured in Switzerland
but the print heads have definitely cost us a lot, since there are not much JV5 machines, we need to source it directly from Mimaki Indonesia, which they only have limited amount stored

@heyskull
that is something we haven't consider, our printing production is anywhere between 10 - 80 yards / day
with the printing speed around 18 sq yards / hour
I'll try to see whether that is the right amount or not

thanks and regards

 

[dispen]

Hi,
We have 2 JV5's and 1 TS5 running. We can assume that JV5 and TS5 are same in our perspective.

We are in textile bussiness which means our ink is sublimation type.

The thing is, we replace each head in 1-1.5 years average. I guess that seems unbelivable to some. The difference of textile comparing to sign busines is that we print way more than sign bussiness per a day. For example, we printed 1500msquare yesterday by 5 printers (we have Rolands as well). Our prices are much lower than sign business of course.

Despite that, I think in sign, average printing is 10msquare/printer per a day or something.

So, I think that either I am really wrong about lifespan of a printhead or the lifespan depends on the business you are in.

Back to the topic,
There are many parameters affecting printhead life span such as:
1) Ink quality. ==> Lower quality ink causes clogging, and cleaning requirement over and over...
2) Spare part quality. ==> Low quality cap/damper causes missing nozzles etc.
3) How professionally the device is used. ==> Head strikes, wrong attemps against issues...
4) How often the printer has had maintenance. ==> Cleaning cap-tops etc is good for self respest at least...
5) Ink limit values. ==> too high ink limit means you are forcing the nozzles harder and harder. So, the printhead is broken sooner than expected.

 

[inkjet frank]

Mimaki JV5 issue

It's not normal to replace 10 print heads over the last 3 years. JV5-160 is just like JV33, its a work horse. We have installed hundreds of JV5s over the years, but never seen customers replaced that many print heads over a short period of time.

What type of dye sublimation ink do you use? if it's a Chinese or Korea brand, it could be the main reason. Do you do regular maintenance on the printer? Every time when you replaced the head, is it just because nozzle dropout, or there is error message on the printer? there could be at least a few things causing the problem. more info needs to be elaborated, in order to find the root cause.

you may contact us to give a full report of the problems you have seen. We give free phone support, and may be able to help you identify the underlying issue.

Greetings All,

The company I work for bought one Mimaki JV5-160S printing machine from a third party
the machine we bought have been modified by the third party to have a 8-color system (from originally 6-color) and currently we are also using the ink from the third party

The problem is, it's been almost three years since we bought the machine, during that time it has broken down for so many times, in most cases we solve it by replacing the Print Heads, we have change more than 10 Print Heads during the last 3 years

We (my mechanics and vendors) seem like we can't other solution other then replacing the heads

My question, is this situation normal ? or anyone here have faced similar situation with similar/different machine ?

I hope I can find some insight here

Fyi, my company is not exactly a printing company, we are general manufacturing and try to move our printing In-House rather than doing it outside, we print the artwork on paper then transfer it to fabrics, and we are (including me) new to this machine

Thanks and Regards