Need help. Chinese xp600 UV Flatbed Printer Problems

[truthfriend7]

Hi guys. I have lurked here for a long time and researched probably almost everything there is online concerning xp600 printheads. I made the mistake of buying a Chinese UV Flatbed not realizing what I was getting myself into. It's has 3 xp600 printheads (CMYK, W & V). I cannot get them to print. Feels like I'm chasing a ghost. I would replace a printhead, try to get it working. It would be good for a while, then another would stop flowing. I'd spend hours cleaning and trying to get it running and finally have to get another. Even had a bad spray board that I replaced. I'm pretty sure the white circulation system isn't working.

Is there any tech in central Florida (I'm near Cocoa Beach) that would be able to come figure this thing out? I'd gladly pay whatever is necessary to know what's going on here. I really feel like there must be an underlying cause to all the issues that I keep having. Right now I have too many issue at the same time. I don't know if I have bad printheads, ink, dampers, tubes with air, data cables, or some combination of the above. Thanks for taking the time to hear me out.

 

[truthfriend7]

I guess I should clarify. I'd like to learn all I can about xp600 heads and how they work and the components that make them work on various machines. If there is some sort of training program or education I could seek out (paid is fine)? I'd really like to learn what I need to revive this machine and I've already invested so many hours that I might as well learn all I can. Thanks guys.

 

[truthfriend7]

Or if someone knows how to change out the system to different more reliable printheads that would be so nice! I'll take anything at this point. :⁠-⁠(

 

[hybriddesign]

Hi, I really doubt you're going to have much luck on replies here. Eventually you might end up with someone who has a similar printer replying but if you need help fast you're really likely stuck working with the manufacturer no matter how difficult that ends up being. Sorry, wish I could help. I've been in the same situation before. The xp600 heads aren't really designed for commercial printing and I think theoretically you may be able to swap them to i3200 heads but who knows and if the manufacturer isn't supporting you you might be stuck.

 

[truthfriend7]

Thank you very much for replying! Are the xp600s just too breakable? Why aren't they considered for commercial work? I wish I had known that before I purchased. Do you know what heads are the most forgiving and robust in dealing with bad ink etc? I find there are so many things that can go wrong (too many variables) and every time I can't print I have to check/replace what feels like a dozen different things.

 

[truthfriend7]

I'm currently messaging the manufacturer and all the electronics and voltages look good. Printheads arrived in the mail last week. Was even printing 2 days ago. Took forever to get the white ink flowing. Replaced the white head today and no white flowing. Then I check the color and it's gone too (worked fine yesterday). No bad fuses. Manufacturer doesn't seem to know either. I'm running out of things to eliminate at this point. I see these printers all over the internet. I'm surprised there isn't more documentation available on the xp600 considering how widely available and affordable it is.

 

[Borism25]

I Will start from head lay on Rubber when head is parked. They deliver head assemblly on high settings and in 99% its not centred right, so you can get good suction and probably your dumpers don't have enough ink. Do you have these problems after cleaning cycle? With Chinese 3.2m solvent on morning start I have always go to settings and put some pressure on dumpers. Just 2 sec is good for all day off working, if not we have some problems in the middle of the printing.

 

[netsol]

in 2021 we bought a "claraprint print head cleaning machine" a knockoff, sort of, of the printhead doctor
it is a metal box, with a reservoir, an aquarium pump & a cheesy chinese ultrasonic cleaner. (you could, of course, by a real printhead doctor for about $2500. you might have to fiddle with the chemistry a bit, (add a syringe full of acetone, for example) but if you already have a bad head, what do you have to lose?

you could talk to the printhead doctor people, they are very helpful

Recovery Fluids

Recovery fluids for Print Head Doctor

digitalsigntech.net

they will even let you talk to vlad, who will most likely discuss chemistry with you.

it may be worth packing a head and sending to them for "recovery"

in the end, though, the best advice i can give you is, frequent cleanings, even though you think you are wasting ink & print a small job USING EVERY COLOR OF INK (format one and save it in your rip) EVERY DAY. i send a job daily even on christmas [and be sure your capping station or maintenance station seals when the head is at rest. ALSO, regardless of what some tell you, keep the machine powered on

this is generic advice, not specific to your flatbed OR the XP600 printhead,

 

[AlsEU]

Do you know what heads are the most forgiving and robust in dealing with bad ink etc?

Dimatix heads are very robust and can survive a lot of issues. Many old printers using these heads (i.e. Inca Spyder and further Inca models) are still in usage and rarely available on the market.

 

[truthfriend7]

Do you guys know of an online article that exhaustively compares and contrasts all the different printheads?

 

[netsol]

as far as i know, i have never been 'face to face" with an xp600 either. (by now you know that won't stop me from having an opinion!)
i would assume it is a printhead "family" with aqueous and solvent versions as well as UV and dye sub, potentially
i also would assume that you would just change the manifold that mounts atop the printhead to change chemistry as well as what printer family it mates to

 

[AlsEU]

Do you guys know of an online article that exhaustively compares and contrasts all the different printheads?

Printhead comparison won't help you much - it's not easy to change the printheads to a different type. You need to change the ink supply system, electronic boards and firmware which drives the heads. Another problem is that the heads themselves have different shapes, mountings and so on. I doubt if it's doable in a printing house, without any technical knowledge about the way heads work.

 

[truthfriend7]

Printhead comparison won't help you much - it's not easy to change the printheads to a different type. You need to change the ink supply system, electronic boards and firmware which drives the heads. Another problem is that the heads themselves have different shapes, mountings and so on. I doubt if it's doable in a printing house, without any technical knowledge about the way heads work.

Actually "technical knowledge about the way heads work" is exactly what I'm looking for. Where do I research that? I may never attempt a head swap but at least knowing how each head works and how it compares to the others would be helpful. For Instagram I just learned that the Ricoh heads work on a closed/pressurized system of some sort, whereas xp600 (aka dx9 or dx11) just uses gravity.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Ricoh heads work on a closed/pressurized system of some sort, whereas xp600 (aka dx9 or dx11) just uses gravity.

That's true for the Ricoh heads but Epson heads like the XP600 don't use a gravity feed system. It's one of those things that sounds like it could be true so it gets repeated a lot. In fact, if you disconnect a damper on an Epson based machine, the ink will defy gravity and recede back to the cartridge.

The way it actually works is the ink cartridges are filled with ink and then all air is sucked out. The printer then creates a negative pressure vacuum using a pump under the head. This pulls all the air out of the ink lines which in turn allows ink to flow out of the cartridge, into the ink lines and eventually the head. Now if we stop here and turn the pump off, the ink will naturally flow back to the cartridge. The reason being that the ink bag is now under negative pressure and without the ability to allow air in and without the pump providing that extra force to keep ink flowing, it expands to reach equilibrium which sucks the ink back into the cartridge. So they need something to keep the ink that is sucked into the system from receding which is where the damper comes in. When the pump pulls the vacuum now, it sucks the air out of the damper which also sucks the air out of the ink lines and allows the ink to start flowing again. Once we let the ink flow all the way to the damper and turn the pump off like we did before, the ink stays in the system and does not recede back to the cartridge. The reason being that when negative pressure is introduced to the damper, a soft plastic membrane, or a spring in some cases, is compressed. While the pump is pumping, it remains compressed due to the pressure the pump is exerting on it. When the pump stops, the membrane/spring can now expand and reach equilibrium. When the ink cartridge tries to expand to equalize, the damper fights that force with the same membrane/spring so basically the ink cartridge and damper are playing tug of war on the ink in the system which keeps the ink in the system and ready for the head to use. While printing, as ink is shot out of the nozzles, the damper compresses again but the ink leaving the head is not nearly as powerful as when the pump is pulling a vacuum. So as the damper compresses, it also is trying to expand to reach equilibrium again which pulls ink from the cartridge into the system and allows for a continuous flow of ink to the head during printing.

Not sure if I described that very well but the point is that it's actually pretty interesting system and there's a lot more than simply gravity going on.

 

[truthfriend7]

Great explanation! I did not realize that. Thank you.

 

[truthfriend7]

And we've been able to do this for decades now! That's crazy to me.

 

[AlsEU]

Another problem is the XP600 is (like many others) a head with a variable drop size (minimum drop is 1.5 pl, maximum is 21 pl). The decision, on how to form the final size of the drop is made in the printer's electronic and depends on the head type (so the boards working with XP600 won't work properly with other variable drop heads, i.e. ToshibaTec). Signals frequency will be different, head resolutions will be different. So such a swap does definitely not plug and play (more plug and pray, but usually, after a swap printer simply won't print anything sensible).
So IMHO you shouldn't waste time searching for a solution, which doesn't exist. Faster (and cheaper) would be buying the new printer, with different heads (and not from China).

 

[Print1]

Im Available and just in GA, send me a DM

 

[Print1]

Evidently you need to start a printer repair company, work for years in the industry talking to reps for the big manufacturers until they start feeding you the insider knowledge of the whys and hows they do the magic stuff like spit out 12,000 individual dots of ink in under a second while moving and feeding, then doing it all again backwards on the return stroke. Sh*t kinda blows my mind when I stop and really think about what these machines are doing.

That’s what I did.. quite literally lol

 

[netsol]

And we've been able to do this for decades now! That's crazy to me.

longer than you think
i believe we got our first novajet wide format in 1992 (no, it couldn't be, that would make me an old f*ck) NT 4 or novell operating system, and only wanted to print from autocad files, at first.
that was maybe the same year we got the first hp tabloid size color printer NOBODY ELSE I KNEW could print 11x17 color in 1992. we were lucky we weren't tried for witchcraft