New at diagnosing issues with my roland versacamm 540i

[lisa marie]

I purchased a versacamm 540i about two years ago (used) recently have been having issues with the blue and black leaving a "halo" i have done a head soak and cleaned everything i knew to clean... its somewhat better... thinking i need to replace printheads... did this test, don't really know how to read it... thought i would upload and see what you all think... to me black and blue look awful!!! should i replace all of the heads or just those two and what else needs replaced when i order parts? ugh wish i knew more about these things!

 

[balstestrat]

Start with captops, tubes, wiper and scraper. If that and proper cleaning doesn't help consider the head only after that.

 

[lisa marie]

Start with captops, tubes, wiper and scraper. If that and proper cleaning doesn't help consider the head only after that.

ok i don't want to sound dumb, so i think i did the captops, they are clean as a whistle, my son cleaned the lines coming from the captops, is there lines elsewhere that are accessable to clean? and i did the wiper (rubber things by captop?) and unsure what the scraper is... any advice is appreciated

 

[lisa marie]

ok i don't want to sound dumb, so i think i did the captops, they are clean as a whistle, my son cleaned the lines coming from the captops, is there lines elsewhere that are accessable to clean? and i did the wiper (rubber things by captop?) and unsure what the scraper is... any advice is appreciated

also, you are suggesting to replace those first, is that something that comes in a kit, im so sorry.. i just don't know much about these machines

 

[balstestrat]

Scraper is behind the wiper, to scrape it. Plastic thing hanging on top of it.

Okay, let's do it this way. Take a picture of the black and cyan captops. Lets see them.

They should be replaced once a year.

 

[balstestrat]

also, you are suggesting to replace those first, is that something that comes in a kit, im so sorry.. i just don't know much about these machines

No, you have to pick them all. Im sure someone will link them.

 

[lisa marie]

Scraper is behind the wiper, to scrape it. Plastic thing hanging on top of it.

Okay, let's do it this way. Take a picture of the black and cyan captops. Lets see them.

They should be replaced once a year.

when i get over to my office i will take pictures and upload, thank you!

 

[Lindsey]

Hi Lisa Marie. Ideally, the test print would have lots of little lines looking neat and orderly, with no missing spaces or blurry fuzzy lines. A good test print would look like this. Your test print has quite a few lines missing in the black and cyan. Sometimes a few good cleanings can improve the results, but if not, it may be time for a new print head. I have a Verscamm SP540v. Not sure if it's the same on the 540i, but my printer has 2 print heads (1 print head controls the black & cyan inks, the other print head controls the magenta & yellow inks). I just replaced my black/cyan print head. Total cost for print head and install by the tech was about $1500 (Canadian). The magenta/yellow part of your print test looks acceptable. A few missing lines isn't a huge deal. When more than 25%-50% of the lines are icky (like the black part of your test) it's going to be difficult to get nice crisp print results.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Here is a little maintenance kit we put together for that machine. If you put in the notes at checkout that you came from signs101, I'll throw in the wiper scraper that we don't normally include. I agree with balstestrat. Before changing the head, replace the maintenance parts first and see if they can clean the head any better. Worst case you start a new head with new maintenance parts!

 

[truckgraphics]

Do the cleaning and (easy replacement parts) maintenance on the machine; do the test print; and then print something that you would regularly print. (We have a VersaCamm VS-540.)

If the print isn't acceptable, you can sometimes improve the output by changing the print profile.

For example, we have been using a print profile for wrapping vinyl for most all of our printing, because that material is most common in our business. Recently we were seeing some banding on paper posters, which we print on occasion. Changing the print profile so it is better tuned for the other type(s) of material cured the problem, even though our print test is showing some wear.

In short, as the machine and heads wear, there is less wiggle room on your print settings, but that doesn't mean you have to rebuild or replace the heads on your printer at the first sign of trouble.

 

[petit]

nothing to do other than change heads, any other action will be a waste of time.

 

[Janet62]

Can someone help me find a video that shows how to replace a Printhead on a Roland VersaCamm sp-540i